Why Salesforce Is the SIS You Didn’t Know You Needed

Let’s be real: most SIS platforms are stuck in the past. 

Built for a world of paper forms and 9-to-5 office hours, traditional SIS systems are clunky, rigid, and allergic to change. They're not built for the way students expect things to work today—and they definitely weren’t built for the way your team needs to operate. 

But plot twist: you might already be sitting on the solution. 

If you’re using Salesforce (or even just thinking about it), you’re halfway there. What you may not realize is that Salesforce can also run your entire Student Information System. Yes, really. 

What does using Salesforce as your SIS actually look like? 

It looks like saying goodbye to 18 open tabs and that spreadsheet your registrar secretly hates. 

It looks like: 

• Students registering for classes without a tech support hotline. 

• Advisors pulling up a real-time degree audit instead of guesstimating. 

• Finance teams automating tuition and payment plans without late-night fire drills. 

Basically, Salesforce becomes your end-to-end student system. Flexible. Powerful. Actually modern. 

Why institutions are making the switch (and not looking back) 

Because “modern” SIS systems are just... not. 

They promise innovation but deliver rigid workflows, endless configurations, and update cycles that move slower than a Monday morning. Need to support concurrent terms? Modular learning? Flexible tuition? Legacy SIS says: lol, no. 

Salesforce says: let’s build it. 

It’s adaptable, API-friendly, and built for change. And yeah—it still talks to your LMS, your financial aid system, your ID card platform, and whatever else your tech stack throws at it. 

What a real SIS should do in 2024 

• Let students self-serve. They can stream 4 shows at once. They can definitely register for a class. 

• Give advisors clean data in real time. Not 48 hours later. Not after begging IT. 

• Handle complex tuition logic and payment plans. Without needing a secret formula. 

• Offer registration that works like shopping cart checkout. Minus the stress. 

• Be flexible enough to evolve. Because your institution changes—and your SIS should, too. 

Why now? 

Because students expect more. Staff deserve better. And your systems should stop being the problem. 

Salesforce isn’t just a CRM. It’s the SIS you didn’t know you needed—but now you can’t unsee it.