Part of the One Bethel initiative is to align academic programs within schools of similar disciplines, design and implement a unified structure that harmonizes faculty governance, systems and operational processes under a single Bethel University umbrella, and develop strategic communication to external audiences. We are working to transition from three distinct internal systems and processes to a single university-wide standardization to allow an increase in efficiency, unified processes, and flexibility for students to enroll in any course they are academically qualified to take regardless of which school they are from. 

The One Bethel project began in January of 2024. As part of that work, we’ve been evaluating our systems and requirements. Through all the work to align policies, processes, and systems, we’ve kept our minds and hearts open to what technology solution(s) will work best for Bethel University. 

The expansion of Salesforce was influenced by a few main things.

• The data model of Salesforce centers around the student and the student experience. Most systems (including Banner) put the university and the institutional processes at the center of their data model. 

• Creating a streamlined experience for our students as well as our staff and faculty is crucial to our strategic framework, and Salesforce would allow us to do this beyond what Banner could. Our students face challenges everyday; our systems should not be one of them. Integrating our processes and systems will allow us to keep better track of our students, identify roadblocks and create opportunities for us to offer support when and where they need it. Instead of navigating through different systems for different needs, a centralized, dynamic system will transform the student experience.

• Salesforce will allow for automation of administrative tasks which will allow our staff and faculty to focus more on the students in front of them instead of the systems that should be supporting them. Imagine letting the systems send check-in emails and/or text messages so we can focus on people.

• University data should be easy to access, visually appealing, update dynamically, and provide insight into what is going well or what may need additional attention. By moving the entire student experience to Salesforce, reporting and analytics will be more straight-forward and actionable. Not only could we use it to automate timely communication, but also allow us to drill down to understand our students better.

• The privacy and security of our data is absolutely crucial to operational excellence. Salesforce offers role-based security allowing each person to see all the things they need for their jobs while keeping unnecessary data secure in the background.

• Expanding Salesforce means we can roll some of the extra tools we use into our main tool. Reducing the number of extra systems we use reduces the data complexity, the amount of opportunities for data flows to break, and the risk of data exposure from third parties. Reducing redundant tools will also save us hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

• The cost of rebuilding Banner to accommodate our needs would have been much more significant and the long-term licensing was far more expensive - and Banner doesn't offer the same opportunities as Salesforce. As we work to be good stewards of our resources, we believe it includes being wise about the cost of the systems supporting our institution.

We’ve already begun to enhance Salesforce and will continue that work over the next few years. Though some of the work is listed in phases, as different processes are built-out in Salesforce, we will have rolling testing and go-live dates. This will allow us to ease in and get us more acclimated to the changes over a longer period of time. More information around specifics can be found in the project plans.

The update of our systems first began with the One Bethel project team which includes individuals from many different parts of Bethel University, but will expand to encompass people from every part of our organization. Our requirements are documented throughout the phases and the Salesforce solution is built out to meet those requirements by product experts at Salesforce and Servio, an implementation partner. While our IT team will work with our Servio and Salesforce partners, the majority of the work will be done by our partners instead of in-house. This approach allows for the IT team to remain focused our students, staff, and faculty, and enables the partners to build the solution quickly while maintaining a high-quality product.

Short-term, we’re working on documenting processes and process improvement. You or your team may be asked to document the processes that you do everyday so we can build things out. You may also be asked to participate as a stakeholder to help shape the new system to meet everyone’s needs.

Long-term, we will all learn about the changes of our work in Salesforce. This can feel overwhelming to some. We will continue to provide documentation and training through the One Bethel team, Salesforce, and Servio. You are not alone. Bethel has experienced partners internally and externally to help along the way.

Banner will remain part of our SIS ecosystem for the foreseable future. Even when we discontinue changes to certain things in the Banner system, it will continue to run in the background. Additionally, there are portions of our ERP (OPC & Finance) that will remain in Banner.

Without getting too far into the weeds, our current Salesforce instances are built on different data platforms and connected through a third party data connection because of the solutions that were available when they were built. The new platform, Education Cloud, will allow us to all be in a single instance. It’s specifically designed for institutions like Bethel to streamline the entire student experience from before they even know about us until they are alumni, parents, and donors. We have exclusive access to the Salesforce product team, their service team, and an established implementation partner - all of whom have committed to the success of our One Bethel project. 

There are many other universities that have built-out their SIS in Salesforce like University of Colorado. Some of those schools have used different data architecture in Salesforce than the Education Cloud solution, but Salesforce and our implementation partner Servio are very familiar with regulations, compliance, and the needs of higher education institutions.

In short, yes. Salesforce will cover our student information system and almost everything related to the student life cycle. We will still need Moodle, an HR & finance solution, and other software to support the institution. We will continue to review the upcoming needs of the institution and possible solutions strategically and holistically.

We are reviewing the requirements for a document management tool to make the best selection. The chosen tool will integrate with our systems and create efficiencies and automations. 

Yes, integration with tools we use like Parchment, Moodle, and Google are non-negotiable requirements for the One Bethel requirements. We will continue to connect with Argos and Banner for the foreseeable future. My.Bethel will likely begin to look a little different as we make these changes, but we will continue to have centralized places for students, staff, and faculty.

During implementation support will be provided by IT, Servio, and Salesforce with hypercare services during launch and for the first several months after launch. Once we pass hypercare, IT and Salesforce will continue to support the system. If you have any challenges, please submit a ticket by visiting service.bethel.edu; emailing helpdesk@bethel.edu; or calling us at 651-638-6500.