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Ellucian CRM Advance vs. Salesforce Experience Cloud

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Ellucian CRM Advance

    Score5 out of 10
    N/AEllucian CRM Advance is a nonprofit constituent relationship management software solution offered by Ellucian, Inc.N/A

    Salesforce Experience Cloud

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ASalesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement (formerly Salesforce Experience Cloud or Salesforce Community Cloud) is an online forum powered by Salesforce that enables businesses to connect with their employees, customers, partner organizations, and prospects. Designed to help facilitate communication and information sharing, customers can ask questions and request help, administrators can integrate data from third-party apps, and employees can collaborate across projects and…N/A
    Pricing
    Ellucian CRM AdvanceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Ellucian CRM AdvanceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Ellucian CRM AdvanceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Considered Both Products
    Ellucian
    No answer on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Would buy again
    45 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    45 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Ellucian CRM AdvanceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Small Businesses
    Agentforce 360 for Nonprofits
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Egnyte
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    DonorPerfect
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Epicor ECM
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Dashpivot - By Sitemate
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Ellucian CRM AdvanceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (3 ratings)
    8.9
    (71 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (15 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (18 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Ellucian CRM AdvanceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Ellucian
    A potential student calls in and we can enter all the information in CRM right then. Ellucian CRM Advance makes it easy for when we go back a week later to see all the notes on the student rather than asking them all over again. Admissions takes the call and enters all info into CRM Advance and then Academics can just log in and see all the notes Admissions took on the student.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    For well-suited, this product is great for your external clientele groups that you would not necessarily want to have a high user fee rate for. So basically general public or a group that will be authorized to come in and just do a few things here and there, but you don't necessarily want them access to all of your systems and your data points for groups that it would not be a great use for. I'd say probably your high level internal staff, they're going to be using a lot of the backend functionality automations, evaluating data, managing data, and doing custom inputs. That's just not what's intended for.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Ellucian
    • Ties fundraising efforts to alumni.
    • Seamless integration from Ellucian Colleage or Banner.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    • Easy to use, just like Salesforce's other products. Many users can sit down and figure it out in no time, and with a little training become power users.
    • Fast and secure - Salesforce is a leader in the cloud world so you get consistently fast results and security that is top notch in the industry.
    • Accessible from anywhere - if you use cloud CMS already this is a no-brainer, but for those that do in-house CMS still, this is a major difference. Mobile access from anywhere on the planet without a VPN is something you just can't do without the cloud.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Ellucian
    • Some of the data is not in the most intuitive location.
    • The initial learning curve of the system was a bit steep, but after working with the system exclusively, our users got proficient very quickly.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    • Unlike other CMS platforms like Wordpress and Adobe Experience Manager, Salesforce does not provide a fully featured editor with a drag-and-drop design tool.
    • Our content creators and marketing team often struggle with permissions and how to distribute content across different experience cloud sites.
    • Also, there is no side-to-side comparison view for content editors to update the content easily.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Ellucian
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Renewal exercise is already underway. Platform is to ubiquitous to not leverage, especially at a Fortune 50 firm
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Ellucian
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Strengths: - Intuitive for Salesforce Users – If you’re already working within the Salesforce ecosystem, the Salesforce CMS is easy to navigate, with a clean UI, drag-and-drop content management, and reusable assets for quick updates. - Seamless Integration – Since it connects natively with Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and CRM, it allows for efficient multi-channel content distribution without needing extra third-party tools. - AI-Powered Personalization – The ability to deliver dynamic content based on user profiles and engagement data is a huge plus, making content delivery more relevant and impactful. Challenges: - Learning Curve for New Users – If you're not already familiar with Salesforce, the interface can feel overwhelming, requiring training to fully leverage all features. - Limited Customization & Workflow Automation – While it works well for structured content, advanced approval workflows and deep editorial customization are limited compared to enterprise CMS platforms like Adobe Experience Manager. - Media & Design Limitations – Salesforce CMS is not as robust for managing rich media-heavy content, which can be frustrating for teams needing more flexibility in multimedia presentation.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Ellucian
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Again, since we provide and recommend solutions, I can't speak to every client's individual experience, but can offer general reflections as to keep their collaborations private, that they are satisfied with the experience. We hear a lot about how this system helps to encourage collaborations between their own business partners, customers, and internal members, and enables quality integrations with other products that help drive revenue.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Ellucian
    CRM Advance is very efficient and overall a great product. We have been using CRM for many many years with really no complaints. It fits our needs.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    Although support from Salesforce itself can be quite unresponsive sometimes, the community hub is incredibly helpful. The large user base of Salesforce products contribute to troubleshooting and the forums are a powerful tool for finding solutions and possible bugs and response times can be quite fast compared to your regular support channels.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Ellucian
    We actually recently dropped CRM Advance and are now live with Raisers Edge. Raisers Edge was much more user friendly and built around the fundraising experience. Integration was possible through a secure FTP interface with Ellucian Colleague. Other Blackbaud products have since been purchased to further enhance fundraising and gift giving.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    Salesforce Experience Cloud was selected due to its tight integration with our existing Salesforce CRM platform. Customization of the portal was much, much simpler compared to Sharepoint - especially with role-based security parameters that are ultimately inherited based on attributes within the Salesforce CRM platform. Salesforce Experience Cloud was a natural fit for this customer-facing purpose.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Ellucian
    • We are now able to do a more effective review of applicants and see overall trends of characteristics such as source locations. This helps to focus other efforts such as marketing to support those areas and increase others.
    • There is now a full picture of the needs of our students. By being able to view information in a logical progression, trend data can be identified and reacted to.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    • Time savings for our customer success team - no need to continually follow up on tickets as customers have access to see status themselves
    • In the future, it will also allow us to create more impactful knowledge articles that will increase self-service over ticket creation
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots