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Ask the Owl

Introduction to Salesforce

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) product that helps you manage your prospects. This cloud-based platform helps with recruitment initiatives by enabling you to track prospects throughout the admissions lifecycle, from the moment they express interest in UT Dallas until they matriculate.

Salesforce: A Short Overview Video

Who is currently using Salesforce at UT Dallas? In JSOM?

Salesforce is a tool purchased by the university and is heavily utilized by the main communications team. JSOM began using Salesforce in February 2016 with the MBA Programs office as a pilot. Since then, Salesforce has helped various other departments with their recruiting efforts, including undergraduate, graduate, and executive education.

How does Salesforce get my prospect data?

Prospect data feeds into Salesforce from many different sources:

  • Request for Information, Ask a Question, Ask an Ambassador, and University interest forms
  • Name purchases (GMASS, GRESS, ACT, SAT)
  • Submitted applications
  • Event registrations (if you are utilizing the Events module)
  • Manual entry of contacts (you enter a new contact)
  • Excel upload (.csv, .xls) of private lists
  • YouVisit (University tours)

If you have a spreadsheet of prospects that you’ve been tracking in an Excel file, contact the CRM Developer to have them uploaded into Salesforce.

What about my current students?

Think of Salesforce like a smartphone. Your base smartphone comes loaded out of the box with several different features, but ultimately you’ll choose to download third-party apps to meet your needs.

The university has currently purchased the recruitment “app” for Salesforce. On the horizon, we anticipate future functionality allowing us to track current student data (such as course enrollment, GPA, etc…) For currently enrolled students, you still need Orion, Student Book, Onbase and the other software you currently use.

Who can see my prospects?

Only you and your team can see your prospects. If a prospect has expressed interest in more than one program (up to 3), all of those programs will be able to see that contact.

How do I make a Salesforce request?

Create a Salesforce Ticket