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Audencia, a renowned French business school in Nantes, wanted to enhance the marketing efficiency of its product line – continuing education. It already had a Salesforce Einstein license, which powered AI capabilities such as intelligent automation and predictive analytics, and was looking to onboard Agentforce to elevate stakeholder engagement with agentic decision-making and smarter routing of queries.
Having shared a long-trusted association with Persistent Systems France as its Salesforce partner, Audencia turned to us to help it scope the feasibility of onboarding Agentforce. It wanted to ensure strategic alignment with business objectives, while maximizing the value from its Salesforce investments.
With a two-decade-long partnership with Salesforce, Persistent was deeply embedded in its AI landscape. With a team of more than 2,800 experts and an impressive 10,000+ certifications, of which 2,000 are Salesforce AI certifications, Persistent is a Salesforce powerhouse and a leader in per capita certifications among global system integrators. Our Salesforce engineers have delivered customer success across thousands of engagements, consistently achieving a 5/5 CSAT score globally.
To help Audencia visualize and understand the possible value lift from Agentforce, Persistent launched a scoping exercise where we worked with Audencia’s leaders to identify use cases and create a roadmap for a minimal viable product with Agentforce capabilities. In a three-month period, Persistent’s Salesforce experts assessed Audencia’s current Einstein features, understood how unique business goals and objectives could be best achieved with Agentforce, the groundwork needed to maximize RoI, and mapped the value realization in business impact.
Phase 1: Comprehensive Feature Mapping
This first phase consisted of compiling a detailed inventory of all available features. This involved distinguishing between the native capabilities already included in the Einstein Unlimited licences owned by the school and the advanced features requiring the purchase of new Agentforce licences.
The analysis provided an overview of the technical possibilities available. These can be simply activated, without requiring any customization, such as Lead Scoring. Or, like the implementation of the Sales Agent, more customizable and allowing us to go further in the use cases
Phase 2: Collaborative Workshops with Business Leaders
The second phase consisted of a series of interactive working sessions organised directly with Audencia’s sales teams. These collaborative workshops aimed to gather concrete use cases from the field, customise features according to end users’ specific needs, and assess the potential time savings for sales representatives in their daily activities.
During these sessions, we explored and analysed several use cases in depth, including:
- Intelligent prioritisation of leads and opportunities via Einstein Opportunity Scoring and Einstein Lead Scoring
- Account summary to facilitate and prepare for initial contact
- Generation of personalised emails in natural language
- Agentforce virtual assistant for quick customer data queries
Persistent’s Methodological Approach
Our Recommendations
Data quality is a fundamental prerequisite
The feasibility study (POC) enabled Audencia to realise the importance of improving its data quality before implementing advanced AI features. This is essential for achieving sustainable results.
Identifying new opportunities
Building on these initial results, Audencia will continue to explore the use cases enabled by AI. The analysis highlighted opportunities for other segments of Audencia, particularly corporate partnerships. Following the Agentforce Paris 2025 event, Audencia is now exploring the implementation of Data Cloud as an essential foundation for optimising its AI capabilities.
The Persistent Edge
Audencia is very satisfied with the quality of the deliverables provided by Persistent: a comprehensive feasibility study report detailing all the features analysed, with an assessment of each one. The client particularly appreciates having this comprehensive technical documentation, which allows them to consider possible future reactivations independently.
We are very satisfied with Persistent’s working methodology. Having the same project manager who has been with us for some time provides real continuity in our exchanges. We particularly appreciate the quality of follow-up provided by Persistent’s experts, their detailed understanding of our needs, and the relevance of their questions to our business teams. In a collaboration like this, trust is essential.
Persistent continues to support Audencia in its digital transformation, demonstrating that a true technological partnership is built on transparency, expertise and the constant pursuit of customer value.
