Frequently Asked Questions
OneAuburn is a comprehensive effort by the university to ensure the university’s data management approaches support the mission and vision of Auburn University. A key goal of the 2019-2024 Strategic Plan, OneAuburn is the process by which the university can work together to share data and support student and employee success. Working with campus partners, OneAuburn supports the use of institutional data through planning, execution, and continual oversight of relevant policies, practices, and projects.
At its core, institutional data is necessary to support and maintain Auburn’s central mission of teaching, research, and service. To support effective and innovative management, Auburn’s institutional data must be accessible, accurate, and easily integrated across the university’s information system to support our organization’s strategic goals.
Salesforce is a cloud-based tool that allows the university to connect all of its data in one place. With Salesforce, Auburn can more accurately track information about students, faculty, staff, alumni, and other groups. Auburn employees benefit from a consistent, more reliable data source that supports better, more informed decisions that advance the mission and goals of the institution.
Auburn University currently licenses multiple software products that support the institution’s programs and business functions. Over time, these products often become siloed among the unit(s) using them, resulting in data that becomes siloed. This current practice typically leads to uninformed decisions, duplicated work, and the unnecessary spending of resources that result from data that is not accessible from a common source. By sharing information appropriately and securely, the university will benefit from having a more strategic approach to data management and will identify opportunities to reduce duplicate systems.
Examples of these benefits include features such as better tracking and monitoring of employee information, more concise marketing and recruiting campaigns, more accurate monitoring and tracking of student information and engagement data across the student lifecycle, and improved business practices.
Salesforce supports a suite of applications currently licensed by the Office of Information Technology. Programs such as Banner, DegreeWorks, Advise Assist, and Canvas are crucial to advancing the university’s mission and supporting the services and functions of university departments. Salesforce will consolidate data sources from multiple applications to provide a single source view of a constituent, thereby increasing efficiency and enabling more purposeful decision making.
Salesforce CRM is the platform that maintains data and includes all university contacts, the relationship(s) contacts have with Auburn University, and the interactions between Auburn University and these contacts. Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the mass digital communications component of the Salesforce CRM platform. Marketing Cloud includes products to manage content, social media, email communications, and campaign planning.
Outlook will continue to be used for email communications between individuals and work groups at the university for business communication with outside parties. Marketing Cloud will be used for mass communication with all audiences, especially when it is important to track and measure results, such as delivery, open, clickthrough, and conversation rates. Replies to emails sent through Marketing Cloud can be directed to Outlook email addresses.
