The UW colleges system has recently decided to implement Salesforce for Higher Ed, which will connect students, educators, and the academic institution in one place instead of storing information in several data silos. Data silos have been problematic because they are disjointed and use a lot of resources, as well as ending up with staff duplicating or missing data entries. In addition, and probably most importantly, there was no way to consistently provide students and other staff and alumni with personalized communication.
Salesforce for Higher Ed uses social, mobile, and cloud technologies, which allows the campus to connect with its constituents and build relationships for life. The software connects students, gives them access to resources while giving the faculty the tools they need to better serve their students.
Other features of Salesforce for Higher Ed include:
As more institutions make the move to consolidate data and make it easier to access for those who use it, it is easy to see why the UW system would make the switch from silos to the cloud.