USU Introduces ‘OneUSU CRM’ With Salesforce

LOGAN, Utah — Utah State University (USU) is excited to announce the launch of “OneUSU CRM,” a comprehensive, AI-enabled Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and Marketing Automation Platform powered by Salesforce Education Cloud. This initiative aims to modernize the student experience by streamlining services, enhancing engagement, and providing a personalized educational journey for all USU students—from prospective students to alumni.

“Utah State University is completely modernizing how they support their students from the moment they first reach out as prospective students all the way through their journey as a part of the alumni community,” remarked Margo Martinez, VP & GM of Education at Salesforce. “With their new AI-enabled student engagement platform, powered by Salesforce, Utah State will now be able to deepen collaboration amongst faculty and staff, provide better student experiences with more holistic and personalized support, ultimately increasing student retention, and foster stronger, lifelong relationships with students.”

Historically, data has been siloed in independent systems for tracking and communication, leading to fragmented and inefficient processes. This initiative will unify these disparate systems, providing a holistic view of each student and donor. By consolidating data and communications into a single platform, USU can deliver personalized, student-centric experiences, streamline processes, and improve service offerings across the institution.

“Implementing Salesforce as an enterprise solution at USU will modernize how we operate,” highlighted Vice President of Marketing and Communications Bill Plate. “It will empower us to deliver a seamless, cohesive experience for our students and alumni, fostering a level of collaboration across the university that we’ve never achieved before. Specifically, it will break down silos, enhance communication, and allow us to work together in ways that will elevate both our student engagement and institutional impact to entirely new heights.”

The new CRM will connect touchpoints across the entire lifecycle of a student—from recruitment and admissions through to their journey as engaged alumni. This integration will allow stakeholders to better understand and serve their constituents, ultimately increasing enrollment, improving retention, and fostering stronger alumni and donor relationships. The initiative aligns with USU’s mission to harness the power of institutional data, close process gaps, and enhance the overall university experience for everyone involved.

“This project establishes the processes and technology foundation for USU to comprehensively and personally support the entire lifecycle of our students and others. It aims to enhance the learning and university experience by fostering greater student engagement, identifying individual needs, and tailoring the USU experience to align specifically with those needs,” said Niel Nickolaisen, USU’s IT director. “The initiative’s goal and promise are to make comprehensive information about the entire student lifecycle accessible to those best positioned to help students succeed.”

This initiative will equip USU with a robust technological foundation to foster lifelong loyalty and engagement through AI-enhanced, personalized interactions at every stage of the student experience and has been broken down into the following four components:

• Recruitment and Admissions: With a full-lifecycle CRM, USU will streamline recruitment and admissions into a single system, enhancing personalization and support while improving the admissions decision-making process. This scalable platform connects every touchpoint, from prospect to onboarding and beyond, leveraging data to promote future student success.
• Student Success: USU will drive increased retention and ensure equitable support by utilizing one platform for student success. This unified system simplifies collaboration, providing a comprehensive view of each student and delivering timely support.
• Advancement and Alumni Engagement: USU will modernize fundraising with tools that enhance stewardship campaigns, boosting participation and gift size. The Alum 360 component enables personalized engagement, relevant content delivery, and effective cross-channel communication while streamlining operations through AI-powered research and reporting to inform strategy and measure campaign ROI.
• Marketing and Communications: The initiative will consolidate marketing data into a cohesive view, allowing for segmentation, activation, and analysis. AI-powered engagements across all channels and devices will enhance productivity.

USU’s Operational Strategy division will sponsor cross-divisional teams that include stakeholder planning groups from functional business units and a core team led by Rene Eborn. These teams will work together to expand the existing partnership with Salesforce, adopting and implementing the full-lifecycle Salesforce Education Cloud solution.

“After a two-year analysis USU is now poised to modernize and simplify services for our students and community,” said Eborn. “This implementation will be guided by principles of agility, minimizing customizations, and redesigning legacy processes to ensure a seamless transition and optimal performance.”

The initiative will kick off at the end of this November and will be deployed in four phases, each focusing on one of the four components mentioned above, over the course of 18 months. The first phase is anticipated to roll out in the summer of 2025. Key milestones will be communicated regularly.

In light of these developments, Eric Hawley, USU’s CIO, emphasized the transformative potential of the Salesforce initiative: “This initiative offers a unique opportunity to streamline our internal processes and create a unified experience for our community—from application through graduation and active alumni engagement. By enhancing experiences, improving data, and refining communication and marketing focused on the student experience, we aim to boost enrollment and retention, shorten time to graduation, and foster lasting alumni and donor relationships. Leveraging Salesforce’s proven systems and processes will enable us to advance more swiftly in higher education.”

What This Means for You: Students, faculty, and staff will benefit from a more connected and responsive campus environment. Detailed information on how this will impact each group will be provided soon. We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition, with comprehensive training and support available.

We invite you to follow our progress on this significant initiative, where you can receive regular updates on its status and access further information at crm.usu.edu.