How 2U Inc. brought personalized high-end education online using Salesforce.

With more and more students, non-profit universities and colleges looking online for opportunities to earn and deliver degrees, 2U Inc. had a vision of providing an efficient, cloud-based software platform to bridge the gap between students and institutions offering higher learning.

To bring high-end education into the digital space and combat the notion that an online education is somehow inferior 2U needed to find a partner with an adaptable tool and flexible, scalable framework to make its vision of a great online education a reality.

After reviewing available solutions 2U decided that the best course of action would be to work with Salesforce and build its own product with this as its basis.

Sales Cloud was adopted and adapted as the foundation for educational services and admissions with ‘Application’ replacing ‘Opportunities’.

Online application forms feed data into Sales Cloud as individual applicant records, which are then shared with partner universities for admissions decisions. Once an offer is made, the application ‘opportunity’ is closed and converted to a student record. This record is used to take the student through from admissions all the way to their eventual graduation and career placement, keeping everything in one place.

Salesforce enables 2U’s partners to provide meticulous, personalised service to prospective students in the form of:

• A transparent online applications process enabling admissions teams to help students progress applications and reduce stagnation
• 24/7 support centres built around Service Cloud giving a 360-degree understanding of students and their needs including their full history
• Phone and live-chat features as part of Service Cloud
• Chatter, used to connect and support students and resolve their issues faster
• A self-service portal on their university website, offering each student a tailored experience

The result is that students receive the personal touch and have a high-end experience from the beginning.

Seven years later 2U is delivering the world’s best university degree programs online:

• With 13 partners including Yale, Northwestern University, University of Southern California, UC Berkley and Georgetown University
• 1,400 licenses
• Tech services that include live face-to-face classes, dynamic course content and hands-on community-based learning opportunities