Transforming Digital Learning and Enrollment on Salesforce
The Client
A national higher education institution sought to expand its non-credit and continuing education offerings through a modern digital commerce experience.
Serving learners across online programs, campus locations, and workforce development initiatives, the institution needed a platform that could seamlessly connect commerce, identity, enrollment, and learning into a single experience while supporting new revenue opportunities beyond traditional degree programs.
The Challenge
The institution's goal extended beyond selling courses online. It needed a Salesforce-native platform capable of connecting commerce, identity, and learning into a single automated experience.
Course purchases, learner authentication, and course enrollment relied on separate systems that were not designed to work together out of the box. Enrollment confirmation, account provisioning, and course access required manual intervention after each purchase, creating operational inefficiencies and an inconsistent learner experience. The institution needed a fully automated enrollment pipeline that eliminated every manual step between purchase and course access.
Requirements that defined the architecture:
- Sell non-credit and continuing education courses online
- Automate learner enrollment workflows
- Unify learner identity across systems
- Connect commerce and learning platforms
- Eliminate manual enrollment processes
- Support future program growth
Red Van Workshop built a Salesforce-native learning commerce platform powered by Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Order Management, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Canvas LMS, and Okta.
The platform unified course discovery, purchase, authentication, enrollment, and learner communications into a single Salesforce ecosystem, creating a seamless learner journey from checkout through course access.
Learning Commerce Platform. Red Van built the institution's non-credit course catalog and checkout experience on Salesforce Commerce Cloud using our proprietary Autobahn framework. Custom product types, pricing structures, and purchase workflows were designed specifically for continuing education and non-credit course sales. Salesforce Order Management manages the complete enrollment lifecycle, including holds, cancellations, and refunds, while Marketing Cloud delivers automated learner communications throughout the journey.
Automated Purchase-to-Learning Experience. A custom Canvas LMS integration automatically provisions learner accounts, enrolls students in purchased courses, and initiates enrollment communications immediately following checkout. What once required manual staff intervention now occurs automatically within minutes of purchase.
Unified Identity with Okta. To create a seamless learner experience, Red Van integrated Salesforce Commerce Cloud with the institution's Okta identity platform. Learners authenticate using their existing institutional credentials, creating a unified identity across commerce, learning, and institutional systems. This allows learners to move seamlessly from authentication to course access using a single institutional identity.
Managed Services and Platform Evolution. Following launch, Red Van continued supporting platform evolution through ongoing managed services and dedicated integration enhancements. Additional work focused on expanding and optimizing the Okta authentication layer while maintaining platform security, performance, and reliability through regular Autobahn updates and enhancements.
Services Provided
- Discovery & Architecture
- Salesforce Commerce Cloud Implementation
- Salesforce Order Management Implementation
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud Implementation
- Canvas LMS Integration
- Okta SSO Integration
- Staff Augmentation & Platform Enhancements
- Ongoing Managed Services & Platform Support
The platform transformed the learner enrollment experience by connecting commerce, identity, and learning into a single automated workflow.
Key outcomes include:
- Automated purchase-to-enrollment workflow
- Unified learner identity across commerce and learning platforms
- Elimination of manual enrollment and account provisioning
- Immediate course access following purchase
- Salesforce-native management of non-credit learning commerce
- Scalable platform supporting future continuing education growth
- Ongoing platform evolution through managed services
Today, the institution operates a connected learning commerce platform that unifies course discovery, purchase, authentication, enrollment, and learner communications within a single Salesforce ecosystem, creating a seamless experience from course discovery through course completion.
What once required manual enrollment, account provisioning, and learner onboarding now occurs automatically within minutes of purchase.