Employing Data & Analytics to Better Manage Higher Education
Business Problem
An education client was using enterprise resource planning (ERP) generated application and enrollment reports that did not adequately represent the company’s business processes. Users would manually (and inconsistently) manipulate the report data which resulted in no one source of truth for business performance. This led to inconsistent assessments and decisions based on inaccurate data. Realizing the risk of continuing to operate this way, the Director of IT called upon Forum to collaborate on a data strategy.
““Forum took the time to understand our reporting needs. Their work helped us organize our data infrastructure and reporting capabilities. We are now able to make more informed business decisions with trusted data.””
— Kevin Brown, Director of IT, City University
Action/Solution
Forum developed a data strategy with the Director of IT to standardize, automate, and scale reporting capabilities. We identified critical use cases for reporting to identify the necessary data sources and managed the development of a data warehouse to incorporate multiple systems, including the client’s ERP and CRM solutions. With the data structured, we developed reports in PowerBI, creating a single point of truth for the first time. Since data analytics is reliant on the way users interact with the reports, we created a data dictionary and implemented a change management and communications plan, training users on the new platform.
Results
The new data analytics platform enabled the client to view application and enrollment trends in a more accurate and timely manner, enabling them to make informed strategic decisions regarding the impact of each academic program on overall revenue and adoption in a way previously not available.
Forum Solutions is a management consulting company that helps Seattle’s business and nonprofit leaders to build and implement effective strategies for transformative growth and sustainable results. Forum offers clients the right skills for every job: strategic expertise, lean execution, and agile resourcing – improving businesses at any level – from the executive suite to the individual contributor.