For nearly a decade, hundreds of CU communicators have relied on the eComm program to effectively engage with students, alumni, donors, faculty, and staff. Using features ranging from single mass email sends to elegant engagement journeys rooted in constituent data and ever-evolving AI features, users sent over 14 million emails to over 80 million constituents in the last year alone. Even with ongoing program growth, however, CU operates in a decentralized CRM environment, and eComm is not the only Salesforce-based home of constituent data. As such, the eComm program is conducting a consolidation to ensure data security, allow for CAN-SPAM compliance and email preference management, and provide opportunities for campus partners to control costs and manage ongoing expenses.
WHAT & WHY
The current eComm Marketing Cloud environment connects to a single Salesforce org that houses CU constituent data. This Salesforce org, however, is not the only one at CU. Many other Salesforce orgs exist at both System and campus levels, including but not limited to CU Ascend and Integrated Online Services (IOS). While each of these Salesforce environments could connect to its own Marketing Cloud, doing so would result in a duplicative spend of roughly $2 million over five years and would also put CAN-SPAM compliance and a 360-degree view of constituent engagement at risk. The Marketing Cloud Consolidation will combine digital engagement efforts for eComm, CU Ascend, and IOS in a single Marketing Cloud environment that connects to multiple Salesforce orgs and that will allow for connections to additional CRM environments in the future.
WHEN
The Marketing Cloud Consolidation is currently in the planning phase (as of summer '25). The team is working to address critical components of the project including a communication plan and change management, technical architecture and migration scoping, and optimization opportunities related to email preferences. We are also working closely with our account team at Salesforce to explore various options that will position CU to grow its digital engagement efforts responsibly and with an eye toward ongoing optimization and cost control. We expect technical work to begin in fall 2025 and continue in targeted phases through completion in summer 2026.
HOW
The consolidation of Marketing Cloud environments will occur in the IOS Marketing Cloud environment, where the ability to connect to multiple Salesforce orgs is already enabled. While this will mean that the entire eComm Marketing Cloud environment will be migrating to a new location, it mitigates serious and highly disruptive risks associated with modifying the architecture of eComm Marketing Cloud to enable a multi-org connection. Once the eComm environment is migrated, we will also work with the CU System Advancement team to enable a connection between the consolidated Marketing Cloud environment and CU Ascend, opening the door to vast improvement and opportunities for Advancement communicators on all four campuses.
IMPACT
This project will create some changes for eComm users, particularly related to content migration, email tracking data, and data extensions. Impacts will be fully scoped and documented during the project's planning phase, along with plans to manage and minimize disruption to eComm users. We will post regular updates as information becomes available based on the decision making and analysis that is currently underway. For further questions about the impact, see the "FAQ" tab.
