Building a connected student journey with unified data in higher education
Pepperdine University, a purpose-driven academic institution committed to delivering meaningful student experiences, recognized a growing challenge as its systems and data expanded across programs.
While each platform played a critical role, the lack of integration made it difficult to access a complete view of the student journey. To move forward, Pepperdine partnered with Cloud for Good to implement Salesforce Data 360 (formerly known as Data Cloud), creating a unified, scalable foundation for recruitment insights and decision-making. Furthermore, Salesforce Data 360 for Higher Education offers a strategic solution to address the need for connected student data.
The Challenge: Data Silos Limiting Recruitment Insights
Pepperdine’s data ecosystem reflected a broader higher-education challenge in which systems operate independently rather than as a unified experience.
“Several of our enterprise systems are not fully integrated, making it difficult to produce any meaningful insights into our prospective students. didn’t talk to each other. We had a strong data foundation, but only in pieces”- Lesbiz Tovar, Sr. Director of Enterprise CRM, Pepperdine University
- Salesforce captured early-stage recruitment engagement
- PeopleSoft served as the system of record
- Slate supported undergraduate admissions
- Additional tools added further complexity
This fragmented environment created significant gaps in visibility and efficiency.
Pepperdine’s reporting capabilities were largely dependent on PeopleSoft, which only captured data from the admit stage onward. As a result, early-stage insights such as application starts, engagement behavior, and conversion trends were not fully accessible.
At the same time, teams were required to navigate across multiple systems to assemble a single view of a prospective student. This manual effort slowed down reporting processes and made it difficult to act on insights quickly.
Additionally, scaling advanced capabilities such as segmentation, predictive analytics, and personalized engagement remained a challenge.
The Solution: Salesforce Data 360 for Higher Education
Cloud for Good partnered with Pepperdine to implement Salesforce Data 360 using a phased, strategic approach aligned with the university’s goals and resource constraints. Notably, the implementation of Salesforce Data 360 for Higher Education has been pivotal for connecting disparate systems.
Rather than attempting a large-scale transformation, the focus was on delivering immediate value while building a scalable foundation for long-term growth.
“We were very specific about what needed to be done… and everything progressed within that boundary.” – Ryan Kim, Chief Application Developer, Enterprise CRM, Pepperdine University
A. Unifying data across key systems
Salesforce Data 360 enabled Pepperdine to integrate and harmonize data from Salesforce, PeopleSoft, Slate, and several other application systems. This created a centralized data model that supports consistent and reliable reporting across the organization.
B. Creating a unified view of the student
With Data 360’s identity resolution capabilities, Pepperdine can now merge fragmented records and build a complete, unified profile for each prospective student. This improves data accuracy and provides a clearer understanding of the student journey. Moreover, Salesforce Data 360 for Higher Education empowers institutions to unify and enrich student information seamlessly.
C. Enabling reporting and future readiness
The implementation introduced a clean and accessible data layer for Business Intelligence teams, reducing reliance on manual data preparation. It also established a foundation for segmentation, advanced analytics, and future AI-driven capabilities.
The Impact: Faster Insights and More Informed Decision-Making
With Salesforce Data 360 in place, Pepperdine is already transforming how data is accessed, analyzed, and used.
A. Smarter BI reporting
The Business Intelligence team can now work with pre-harmonized data, eliminating the need for manual data stitching and consolidation. This accelerates reporting processes and improves data reliability.
“The fact that they can do it from Data360… that alone… this is amazing.” – Lesbiz Tovar
B. Full-funnel visibility into recruitment
For the first time, Pepperdine can analyze the complete applicant journey, from application start through to decision. This enables better tracking of engagement and conversion trends across programs.
C. Reduced operational complexity
By centralizing data, teams spend less time navigating systems and more time focusing on strategy, insights, and student engagement.
The Cloud for Good Difference
This implementation represents more than a short-term improvement. It establishes a long-term data strategy for Pepperdine University. In fact, Salesforce Data 360 for Higher Education is helping higher ed institutions create scalable, unified environments.
With a unified data foundation in place, the university is well-positioned to expand into additional data sources, enhance segmentation strategies, and explore AI-driven engagement and automation.
“I can only say positive things about the experience. Everything was built with our future in mind, not just what we needed today. That made it easier for us to see how we can continue to grow this over time.”- Lesbiz Tovar
Unlocking the Full Potential of Student Data
By implementing Salesforce Data 360, Pepperdine University has taken a critical step toward a more connected, insight-driven approach to recruitment.
With unified student data and improved visibility across the applicant journey, the university is now better equipped to make informed decisions, enhance engagement, and support students at every stage of their journey.
“The implementation of Data 360 is fulfilling the vision of our Enterprise CRM initiative, by giving us the capability to create and form a 360-degree view of our constituents. This is our ultimate goal.” – Jonathan See, Chief Information Officer, Pepperdine University
Ready to unify your student data and transform recruitment insights?
Connect with Cloud for Good to build a scalable, data-driven foundation with Salesforce Data 360 for Higher Education.
The post Pepperdine University Unifies Student Data with Salesforce Data 360 appeared first on Cloud for Good.
