Georgia Southern University

The Client

Georgia Southern University serves more than 29,000 students across campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, Hinesville, and Wexford (Ireland), as well as online programs. Founded in 1906, Georgia Southern is a public Carnegie Doctoral/R2 institution with a strong focus on applied research, innovation, and regional economic impact.

This initiative was led by the Office of Business Engagement (OBE)—the University's central hub for coordinating relationships with industry and corporate partners across campus. OBE works closely with academic units and the Office of Career & Professional Development (OCPD) to advance a unified strategy spanning:

Sponsored Research & Innovation
Hire Talent
Continuing & Professional Education
Entrepreneurship & Startups
Philanthropy
Real Estate
Athletics Marketing & Licensing

The Challenge

As Georgia Southern expanded its engagement strategy, the Office of Business Engagement identified an opportunity to strengthen how corporate and industry partnerships were tracked, coordinated, and scaled across the institution.

Specifically, the University sought to improve:

Visibility into corporate and industry partner activity across research, education, philanthropy, and talent initiatives
A centralized way to manage complex relationships that span multiple engagement types and campus units
Shared context between OBE and OCPD, while allowing OBE to maintain ownership of the broader partnership strategy
The ability to understand how individual engagements connect to long-term, multi-dimensional partnerships

Engagement data had previously been managed across separate tools and spreadsheets, making it difficult to see the full lifecycle of a corporate relationship, track milestones against benchmarks, or to coordinate outreach across teams.

The Solution

Redpath partnered with Georgia Southern to implement Salesforce Education Cloud as a centralized platform led by the Office of Business Engagement, designed to support the full scope of industry and corporate engagement activity.

A Corporate Engagement Model Built for Higher Education

Salesforce was configured to track:

Corporate and industry partner accounts
Key contacts and relationship roles
Engagements representing non-monetary interactions such as meetings, discussions, and strategic conversations
Opportunities aligned to Georgia Southern's engagement priorities, including sponsored research, professional education, philanthropy, and talent initiatives

Clear distinctions between engagements and opportunities allow OBE to understand both relationship activity and strategic outcomes—while supporting collaboration with CPD where appropriate.

Shared Visibility Without Losing Strategic Ownership

The platform provides OBE with a holistic, 360-degree view of corporate partnerships while enabling OCPD to contribute career-related engagement data. Handshake data is integrated into Salesforce using an API-enabled approach, allowing hiring activity to be viewed as one component of a broader industry relationship rather than a standalone function.

Reporting and Insight for Strategic Decision-Making

Dashboards and reports give OBE leadership real-time insight into:

Partnership activity by engagement type
Progress across strategic initiatives
Areas of growth across research, innovation, education, and philanthropy

This visibility supports informed decision-making and proactive relationship management.

Enablement for Long-Term Adoption

Redpath supported the implementation with documentation, testing, and training, including train-the-trainer sessions, admin enablement, and end-user resources. This ensured Georgia Southern could confidently manage and evolve the system after go-live.

The Results

With Salesforce in place, Georgia Southern now has a centralized, scalable system that supports the Office of Business Engagement's institution-wide strategy.

The University now benefits from:

A shared data model centered on corporate and industry partnerships
Improved coordination across research, education, philanthropy, and talent initiatives
A centralized way to manage complex, multi-faceted relationships
Real-time insight into engagement activity and strategic outcomes
A foundation that can expand to additional units and initiatives over time

By unifying engagement data under OBE leadership, Georgia Southern is better positioned to grow partnerships, deepen collaboration, and demonstrate the full impact of its industry relationships.

Looking Ahead

This implementation establishes a long-term foundation for Georgia Southern's business and industry engagement strategy. As OBE continues to expand partnerships across research, innovation, and workforce development, Salesforce provides the structure and insight needed to support sustainable growth and meaningful collaboration.

Through this work, Georgia Southern demonstrates a forward-thinking approach to collaboration and innovation—leveraging technology to connect teams, strengthen relationships, and drive meaningful outcomes for students, faculty, and industry partners.