Higher Ed Dreamin’: Lessons in Boundary Busting and Data Clean-Up from Salesforce Trailblazers

Attending the recent virtual Higher Ed Dreamin conference gave us, two new Redpath consultants, invaluable insights into the evolving power of Salesforce within higher education. From breaking down barriers to fostering organizational unity, and tackling duplicate data woes, this event was an eye-opener. Below, we share two key sessions that resonated with us and the takeaways we’re excited to bring back to Redpath.

In her keynote, Dr. Marcinkevage, also known as Dr. CRM, shared insights on using CRM to dissolve silos within higher ed institutions. Her session, titled “Cloud Power: Uniting Teams with CRM to Break Down Barriers and Boost Collaboration,” spotlighted common organizational challenges: not just data silos, but “knowledge silos.”

Dr. Marcinkevage emphasized that people and CRM technology play key roles in bridging these gaps. Through collaborative, strengths-based strategic planning, cross-departmental alignment becomes possible, leading to a more cohesive institutional identity.

Our takeaways:

• Identity elasticity: Understanding individual and group identity within organizations aids collaboration.
• Boundary spanners: Those who navigate across departments are crucial to CRM success.
• Top barrier-busting activities: Inclusive planning, cross-functional project groups, and a trust-building mindset can help break down barriers.

The keynote’s clever metaphor about Salesforce as a unicorn summed up a powerful message. Salesforce, when fully equipped with the right integrations and features, can go beyond addressing basic needs to creating proactive solutions.

Brandon Tolbert, the Lead System Administrator at ASU, hosted an engaging session called “Say Goodbye to the Duplicate Dilemma.” For anyone familiar with data management challenges, his session brought hope—and humor.

Tolbert shared ASU’s custom Salesforce Admin tool for managing duplicate records—a major efficiency booster that saves time and brand reputation. This streamlined tool allows for efficient data cleanliness and record merging, all within Salesforce.

Our takeaways:

• Empower users: By providing an easy-to-use tool, ASU allows users to actively manage data cleanliness.
• Automate repetitive tasks: Automated duplicate matching helps reduce manual work and errors.
• Lessons learned: Keep processes as simple as possible to encourage user adoption.

This conference taught us that there isn’t one “correct” way to approach Salesforce solutions. But across every session, we saw a theme emerging: the rise of AI in streamlining CRM processes. From Einstein AI to integrations that “think ahead,” tools like these will be essential for building scalable, responsive solutions. We also felt a strong sense of community among Salesforce admins and users—making this field feel both exciting and welcoming.

In the end, Higher Ed Dreamin showed us how Salesforce can unite people, elevate organizational efficiency, and spark creativity, even amidst CRM challenges. We look forward to the next opportunity to learn from such an inspiring group of Trailblazers and share Redpath’s own CRM insights with this vibrant community.