Learn About EDA Readiness Initiative

Developed in collaboration with our education partners and customer community, EDA is a flexible data architecture designed to configure Salesforce for education. As the foundation of Education Cloud, EDA includes industry standard objects built directly on the Salesforce platform that model learner relationships and affiliations to courses, extracurricular activities, and more. We’ve seen institutions leverage EDA to capture a 360-degree view of every learner but it’s the ability to integrate with an ecosystem of partner apps that truly scales the power of EDA for campuses of all sizes.

We’ve heard from our customers about the need to make it easy to find apps that leverage the Education Data Architecture in the AppExchange. The new EDA Readiness Initiative is our response to the education community, providing a single place to quickly see which apps are self-certified to work with EDA. This new initiative includes standards and guidelines for ISV partners and signifies a partner’s commitment to providing solutions that work with EDA at different levels of complexity: EDA Ready and Powered by EDA.

We’re excited to launch this new initiative and to continue to grow our EDA partner ecosystem. Keep reading to learn more about the EDA Readiness Initiative, including where you can find EDA compatible apps on the AppExchange and how partners can get involved!

What does it mean to be “EDA Ready”?

An “EDA Ready” AppExchange application meets the requirements for the EDA Ready designation as self-certified by the ISV partner if:

• Its Data Model is compatible with EDA
• It successfully installs in an org with EDA
• It is API Compatible with EDA
• It is publicly listed on the AppExchange and Lightning Ready (see Lightning Ready self-certification process)

Partners with apps that have successfully gone through the EDA Ready self-certification can use this designation in their app’s marketing materials. Once a partner has gone through their own Compatibility Self Assessment they will log a case to self-certify.

Please refer to this document that details the criteria the ISV needs to meet to be EDA Ready.

What do we mean by “self certified”?

Partners wishing to be part of the EDA Readiness initiative shall complete a self-assessment questionnaire that covers topics such as the ISV partner’s integration/adoption approach for Salesforce.org products, data model compatibility, business process alignment and development life cycle. The self assessment questionnaire shall be provided by ISV to prospective customers on request. The self-assessment needs to be updated with every major update in the ISV application and EDA. ISVs can use a copy of the template provided to self-assess a solution for EDA compatibility. The self-assessment will change periodically, according to EDA’s major release schedule and documentation, partners are encouraged to review their self-assessment periodically as their product and EDA evolve.

What does it mean to be “Powered by EDA”?

A “Powered by EDA” AppExchange app meets the requirements as self-certified by the ISV partner in that the app:

• Is “EDA Ready”
• Builds upon EDA’s data model
• Supports Table Driven Trigger Management (TDTM)

Partners with apps that have successfully gone through the “Powered by EDA” self certification process can use this designation in their app’s marketing materials. The EDA Compatibility Self Assessment with the relative questionnaire and the EDA Ready Self Certification are the stepping stone for this next level in the Self Certification process. The guidelines contained in the EDA Ready Self Certification are a requirement to apply for “Powered by EDA” status. Refer to the EDA Ready self certification guidelines document for details about “EDA Ready.”

Please refer to this document that details the criteria the ISV needs to meet to be Powered by EDA.

Who can join the EDA Readiness Initiative?

The EDA Readiness Initiative is a free, tiered initiative that ISV partners can join to illustrate they are adhering to the guidelines provided by Salesforce.org. To join, partners must:

• Be under contract, having a signed distribution agreement with Salesforce.com
• Have apps that are Lightning Ready and publicly listed on the Salesforce AppExchange
• Have domain expertise and existing customers in our markets.

Where can you find EDA Ready or Powered by EDA apps on the Salesforce AppExchange?

To see which partners have self-certified in each tier, please visit the EDA Readiness Initiative AppExchange page.

If you're a partner interested in joining, please review the self-certification process here to get started.