Catalog, Canvas, and a CRM walk into a bar together...

[geoff_price]

...and want to know how to work together!

Pardon the corny subject line, just trying to get some guidance (and have a little fun at the same time).

Background: We're a brand new Instructure client in higher education, licensing both Canvas and Catalog to get our non-credit, continuing education programs up and running. Work will focus on both business-to-business and business-to-consumer initiatives. At the same time, we're also implementing a CRM to help manage prospect/learner information. 

Question: Wanted to speak to some institutions about how they utilize these products in conjunction with one another. We are not looking for the systems to integrate from a technical standpoint (but that would be nice), but we want to understand the workflows of the three products and ask how data is passed between the systems.

Any and all guidance is appreciated.

[BarryBEATTIE]

@geoff_price 

The thing not to lose sight of is what Catalog can provide. Assume existing courses built within Canvas LMS.

Catalog provides a means of exposing the existence of these courses to allow people to see and enrol.

Keep in mind: enrolling is the second step - creating an identity (for enrolment) is the first step ("registration")

Related to enrolling is fee-for-course payment gateways (or not).

Basic steps, in order.

1. Canvas LMS: build courses, target of enrolments
2. Catalog: create listings promoting the courses, allow enrolments, take fees (related: grouping by subcatalog for the user to see related courses, "programs" of courses to provide course sequencing)
3. CRM: spamming "leads" as potential Learners. Direct to Catalog Course Listings.
   
   
   
   Does that help?

[Tanyanunah]

Your approach makes a lot of sense, especially as a new Instructure client diving into Canvas, Catalog, and a CRM. It's always more fun to learn through real-life experiences, right?

When it comes to understanding workflows and data flow between these systems, you might want to explore startup management software. It can help streamline various processes, even in the context of higher education. Best of luck with your initiatives, and I hope you get some great insights from other institutions!

[KataKeri]

hi @geoff_price Catalog product manager here, nice to meet you.

I'd like to ask some questions if you don't mind, because I'm interested in this topic, and I'd like to collect the use cases for possible CRM integrations. 

What exactly do you mean when you say 'implementing a CRM to help manage prospect/learner information.'?
Would you like to use CRM for suggesting courses based on learner information? What do you mean by 'manage'? What is the end goal? What CRM tools you have in mind? 

Thanks,
Kata 

[geoffprice]

Hi @KataKeri!

My inquiry seeks to bring in new learning information into your CRM, specifically Salesforce. Because the field limitations available in Catalog, we feel limited in what we can bring into Salesforce. I have a number of use cases that I would like to explore. Happy to connect outside of this forum to discuss further. 

[KataKeri]

@geoffprice Sounds good, I'd be happy to hear you out? Can you please contact me through your CSM? 

[ClarkDow]

Typically, Canvas is used for course delivery and management, Catalog for course cataloging and enrollment, and CRM for managing prospect and learner information. Although they may not integrate technically, you can still create workflows to streamline processes. For example, you can use CRM to track prospect interactions and manually enroll them in Canvas courses through Catalog.
Additionally, if you're looking for a comprehensive cloud ERP solution, you might want to consider getting an Acumatica Partner account. Acumatica offers a range of tools for managing various aspects of your business, including education and CRM functionalities.

[hechla]

Maybe it's fortunate but our Catalog usage is still very minimal so we just export the Users (as a CSV) and our enrollment folks import the data into our CRM (we use Slate from Technolutions). 

It would be great if there was an automatic/programatic way to get the Users data (that's why we add the User Defined Fields we add) into Slate. 

Maybe there's a way using APIs but I'm clueless how to access the APIs. I tried once and followed whatever directions I could find but it's just over my head. I'm just not a software engineer.