K-12 & Higher Ed – Systems TransformationK-12 & Higher Ed

Newsela is a leading educational technology company that prioritizes literacy development. It provides teachers with an innovative instructional content platform, enabling them to effortlessly discover articles that are precisely tailored to the reading abilities of their students. In addition, Newsela articles come equipped with thought-provoking questions and writing prompts that align with Common Core standards. By seamlessly incorporating real-life events into the classroom through engaging content and detailed analytics, Newsela is revolutionizing the way students learn and grow.

  • New York City, NY
  • 500+ employees
  • Education software
Services Provided
  • Salesforce Enterprise Development Partner
  • Managed Services

THE CHALLENGE

  • Many products sold requiring a streamlined discount,Newsela sells a diverse range of products to customers in a single transaction and was in need of a more efficient approach to apply discounts to multiple line items simultaneously.
  • Salesforce APEX Code lacking tests, The Salesforce instance used by Newsela was found to have insufficient test cases for its APEX classes, necessitating the use of special methods during deployment to production.
  • Complex selling processes needing a streamlined data entry, Newsela requires data at multiple stages in the sales process and was in need of a more streamlined approach for collecting this data at different points in the sales process, while preserving the existing organizational structure.
  • Inability to see potential products for sale on an account, Newsela required the capability to visualize the products that have been sold to an account, either directly or through its hierarchy, in order to make informed decisions on which products would be the most suitable for each customer.
  • Ability to see the impact of sales campaigns,Newsela sought the capability to assess the effectiveness of sales campaigns by tracking the customers who responded to campaigns and generated sales opportunities.

THE SOLUTION

  • A solution was developed to apply discounts to multiple line items through a Lightning Web Component, which operates based on specific criteria and only applies to selected items.
  • A comprehensive review of the existing APEX classes was conducted, and test classes were generated to enhance the code coverage on the Salesforce instance.
  • A custom web experience was developed for data entry, enabling sales representatives to streamline their data entry process while preserving the current page layout and necessary structures.
  • A comprehensive account-based page was created, displaying all products associated with the account, either directly or through a parent or child account, showcasing the full range of potential sales products available for use.
  • An automated solution was developed to identify which customers were affected by various campaigns and to associate these customers with the corresponding campaign through the creation of a new custom object.

THE OUTCOME

  • By creating a quick multi-line discount editor, Sales Agents at Newsela were able to reduce their quote generation process significantly. With the ability to discount all lines by a percentage, or to create a target quote price to apply a discount to all lines, Newsela has had better success in working with the client to provide what they need.
  • Code coverage in the Newsela environment was improved significantly, allowing better deployment of Salesforce functions from test servers to production, and more reliable production quality efforts.
  • Providing Newsela with a custom lightning web component to measure what elements were required to enter for each stage of the process has improved the Opportunity process for the Sales Agents, improving their data quality as well as reducing the time of entry for each stage.
  • By providing the products which have been sold to the hierarchy of customers, Newsela was able to more easily identify the available products which could be sold to a customer. This customization provided a holistic view of all products which the account is utilizing, even when sold to a parent account.
  • Providing Newsela with the campaign impact of each of their marketing strategies allowed Newsela to identify gaps in their marketing process and improve their targeting strategies. This has provided Newsela with marketability statistics based on how campaigns were sent, and how many provided sales opportunities.