How do you make decisions at your college or university?
Do you toss a coin? Pick out of a hat? Consult the augurs?
Of course not!
As all geeks, nerds, and dweebs know, data makes the world go ‘round.
Every organization uses data to make decisions.
From student enrollment data informing your decisions to offer certain classes, to analytics reports on recent ad campaigns changing your approach to marketing, data tells you where your needs are so you can fill them, and what’s working and what’s not, so you can adapt.
But sometimes, the data isn’t good, and sometimes it isn’t complete. Sometimes it’s not the right data to be looking at for that particular decision. Sometimes it’s very basic data that’s not giving a nuanced picture of the situation. And sometimes, you can’t seem to find any relevant data to help in your decision-making process at all!
And if that’s the case…then the decisions that you’re making won’t be the right ones.
It’s crucial for every decision maker, at every level of your institution, to have access to quality, complete, timely, in-depth data that provides actionable insights.
While that’s usually pretty easy at a departmental level – since each department has access to their own silo of data – it becomes a lot trickier when someone needs data from multiple apps or databases in order to make a decision that will affect the direction of the entire institution.
And it gets even worse when you’re talking about an entire college system needing data from various departments in each of its schools!
So what does it take to become a data-enabled institution – or college system?
Data integration.
And not just any old data integration, but smart data integration that ensures both data quality and seamless, real-time communication between every single app, program, and system your institution uses.
Individual, custom-coded data integrations just ain’t gonna cut it here – the more of those you have to create and maintain and add to over the years, the more tangled your data gets. And every new app added to the mix brings a new layer of complexity. It’s just not sustainable long-term.
What you need is a single, unified, overarching data and analytics strategy that then carries over into the approach you use for data integration.
Your perfect data integration partner? N2N, with our Illuminate app.
Illuminate is an API Management Platform that elegantly integrates every app, system, and database your institution uses, whether they’re on-premise or SaaS. It assures data quality, prevents duplicate records and other errors, and enables a real-time flow of data between all your departments and data feeds. And it makes it simple and quick to add new apps to your IT ecosystem anytime.
It’s easy to implement and customize, surprisingly affordable, and comes with the unmatched customer support we provide here at N2N.
Anyone needing to make an informed, data-driven decision can easily access all the information they need, with Illuminate providing the conduit. So whether you’re a single institution looking to take another step into the future, or an entire state college system coming up with innovative new ways to serve your students, call N2N today. We’ll help you get the data you need to ensure every step you take is a successful one.
You know, we may be tech nerds here at N2N, but what people often don’t know is that we’ve got an artistic side, too.
And since our integration solution, Illuminate, is specifically made for the higher ed market, and that’s the world we come from and spend our days immersed in, it might not surprise you too much to learn that we’re a bunch of history and literature buffs, as well. (Which you can probably tell by taking a look at our blog posts referencing Beowulf and the Odyssey!)
It occurred to us the other day that while on the one hand, what we do is wrestle with data and numbers and code – on the other, it’s a lot like weaving a medieval tapestry. Dubious? Let me explain.
We both provide instant, accessible communication: Those gorgeous hand-crafted tapestries told stories – conveyed information – that was important to a culture. They made that information intelligible to anyone at a glance, instantly accessible to peasants and kings alike.
And that’s a lot like what we do here via our Illuminate platform.
Now, we’re not calling anyone a peasant – but our API Management Platform makes data that’s vital to your institution instantly and easily accessible by any app, program, or system you use. It integrates every piece of your IT puzzle and enables seamless communication and data transfer between them all, quickly and easily, without any coding involved. Well, maybe a bit of SQL for some systems, but that’s it!
We both make a bird’s eye view possible: When you stand back to look at an entire medieval tapestry, you can see an entire story, from start to finish, at one glance. You get the big picture, literally! You can drill down any time to get more granular and look at individual scenes, but there are unique insights to be gained from understanding a story as a whole.
In the same way, the Illuminate platform gives you the ability to see the complete picture that your institution’s data paints. (Sorry for mixing metaphors…) With real-time access to every piece of data from every department, you can glean new insights into overall trends and needs you might not have noticed from a ground level view. And then you can respond accordingly.
We’re both things of beauty: OK, OK, not to brag or anything… I mean, medieval tapestries are beautiful – no argument there, right? They represent a unique art form of their time period that incorporates meaning and beauty and skill all at once.
Well, Illuminate is definitely a product of our times, allowing institutions to draw meaning and insight from the endless streams of data they collect. Our highly skilled N2N customer support team works with institutions every step of the way to implement and customize it as needed. And it’s an elegant solution to the complex and often tangled integration webs that colleges and universities are dealing with – plugging everything in to our platform allows every single app, database, and program to communicate seamlessly.
So, the next time you’re strolling through a museum and see a gorgeous medieval tapestry on display – think of N2N. Even better, give us a call right now, so we can start weaving a thing of beauty for your institution today.
As Provost, it’s your duty (and often a pleasure!) to attend education conferences, learn about the latest and greatest in edtech and higher ed in general, and then bring that newly acquired knowledge back to your university to support the growth and development of your institution.
But has the following scenario ever happened to you?
You head to a conference and learn about all the exciting new trends in education, the new technology that will create a much richer experience for the entire university community, from students to professors to staff to administration.
You meet with the tech companies there, hear all about how they can help you with the exact issues you’ve been struggling with, and speak with others who have already implemented them and are seeing great results.
On the flight home, your head is buzzing with excitement at the future, and once back at work, you immediately hold a meeting to share your information and your excitement with everyone.
Of course, everyone agrees that the new tech would be a game changer – but there’s one issue.
Your IT department doesn’t have the time or resources to implement the new solution and integrate it with all the other apps, systems, and databases you currently use.
It would be an enormous and expensive undertaking to take your IT team away from the necessary work they’re doing right now, or to outsource the project to outside programmers.
So, your enthusiasm dampened, you make do with the status quo, and forego the benefits that new tech would have brought.
If this scenario is familiar to you, then have we got great news for you!
The next time you attend one of those conferences, you can feel free to get completely caught up in all the excitement, certain in the knowledge that whatever new tech tools you’d like to try out on your campus, it’s all possible – and not only possible, but simple and affordable.
How is this possible?
With N2N’s API Management Platform, the Illuminate app.
The Illuminate platform allows even non-IT personnel to easily, quickly, and affordably integrate apps by snapping together ready-made APIs.
But calling N2N to get you set up with Illuminate at your institution not only helps you integrate new apps – it also streamlines and automates data transfer between all of your existing apps, databases, and systems.
It’s an elegant solution to the integration problem – and it’s worth getting excited about in its own right, too.
Illuminate enables colleges and universities to innovate in ways that wouldn’t be possible without it.
We’ve helped entire state college systems integrate all of their institution and student data in order to build massive platforms for students to find and register for the courses they need to graduate in one seamless experience, no matter where their home campus is and where the courses they need are offered.
And we can help you implement any new apps you’d like to try from the latest conference, or develop any brand new interface you can dream up, quickly and affordably – all without taking your IT team away from their work or outsourcing any custom coding.
So give N2N a call today, try a free demo, and put the excitement back in edtech conferences again!
Bob is in charge of allocating his IT team’s hours strategically, so that everything gets done and everyone is happy.
So every year, Bob adds up all the working hours that each of his team members will be able to provide.
He subtracts all the sick days and vacation time, and comes up with the actual hours left for work.
Then Bob has to differentiate between each employee’s unique skill set.
He may have 20 people who can work a total of 40,000 hours that year – but Sandra’s hours can’t be used interchangeably with Joe’s hours, since they each have different areas of expertise. And since every IT project usually needs a few hours of each person’s expertise to get done, Bob has to be sure to keep that in mind as he allocates those hours.
So Bob comes up with reasonable estimates of the time his team has available, and then starts making decisions about priorities.
He sizes and scopes all the IT projects across campus, deciding how many hours each department gets. Students Affairs gets a percentage of their hours, Business and Finance gets a percentage, and so does every other group or department that has a need.
Then, he takes a look at the hours left for the big projects necessary for the university as a whole. And then he talks to the people on the front lines, the functional techs who may just need a few hours of programmer time during the year.
Bob figures out which projects take priority and how he can fit them all into his available budget of employee hours.
And he does a pretty darn good job of it!
But here’s the thing.
The first year he allocates those hours, all is well.
There’s room for everyone’s projects to get done, and even time for his team to custom code a few of their own integrations so they don’t have to spend any money outsourcing integration, or buying an integration solution.
The next year, however?
Bob has to remember to factor into his time allocation the fact that his team needs to use a small percentage of their time maintaining those custom integrations. Not too bad, though, maybe 5-10% of their hours. Still worth it, right?
But that year, they also build a few more custom integrations. Still saving money! Whoo-hoo!
The next year, Bob’s team has to spend 15% of their time maintaining those custom integrations…and more time building new ones.
The year after that? Bob needs to hire a new employee, just to be able to keep up with projects at the same level that he did so effortlessly just a few years ago!
That build vs. buy mentality has an opportunity cost associated with it that gets progressively more expensive as the years pass.
But Bob is smart. He sees the problem, and decides to take care of it once and for all.
So Bob calls N2N.
He learns that N2N’s API Management Platform, Illuminate, is an affordable way to handle all of the integrations at his university easily and quickly, without any opportunity cost or snowball effect.
In fact, Illuminate actually enables Bob and his team to do more, as it frees up the time they would have used for custom coding and integration maintenance, AND makes it possible to integrate and try out new apps on a whim, and even develop innovative new programs that wouldn’t have been possible without it!
Bob is pretty thrilled to be using Illuminate – and hey, look! Bob just got a raise!
You know, the word ‘free’ has a lot of baggage attached to it.
“Nothing in life is free,” and yet, “the best things in life are free.”
It probably all depends on what exactly you mean by “free.” If we’re talking prices at a store, then yeah, of course, you can’t put a monetary value on love, family, good health, happiness, and so on. But if we’re talking “no cost,” then things get a lot more complicated.
Because that’s where the free puppies vs. free beer debate comes into play.
Free beer is free beer. Someone buys a round, you drink it, and it’s gone. Maybe you get a little headache the next day if you had too much of it. That’s pretty much it.
Free puppies however, as any parent knows, are anything but free. They require a large investment on the back end, both in terms of money for food, vet care, and other needs, and in terms of the time and energy spent caring for them.
And if you paid attention in your economics classes, you’ll know that there’s also an opportunity cost involved with getting those “free” puppies. If you’re taking care of a dog, it’s a simple fact of life that it takes time away from doing something else.
So what does all this have to do with your university?
If you’re custom coding your own integrations, you’ve opted for the free puppies.
Yes, it may be “free” to have your own internal IT team create integrations for the various apps and programs you’re using. But just like choosing free puppies, what you’re actually doing is committing to a lifetime of maintenance.
Maintaining your own integrations may not seem too bad to begin with, but the actual costs and the opportunity costs begin to snowball from year to year. One year, you’re just building and keeping up with a couple of integrations…the next year, you’re building a couple more, and maintaining twice as many. The year after that, you’re handling the maintenance on 4-5 integrations while you build a few more, and the next year, you’re beating your head against the wall because there’s just no way you can possibly add in any of the new apps you’re being asked to without hiring some new team members or outsourcing something in order to keep everything running smoothly!
Having to maintain all those custom integrations also means you don’t have time to work on other strategic projects that could be central to moving your university forward – the opportunity cost of those free puppies is far-reaching.
So what’s a CIO to do?
Buy, rather than build.
Building may seem smart initially, but the snowball effect is real.
Working with a partner firm to create integrations that they can then maintain for you is the smart way to maximize your productivity and optimize your results.
That’s why so many colleges and universities call N2N.
At N2N, we handle all your existing and future integrations, using our API Management Platform, Illuminate. That frees up your team to worry about issues more central to your university’s mission, while all your apps and databases are communicating seamlessly and reliably in the background.
If you’d like to try out a free demo, give us a call today. Our demo’s free as in beer, not free as in puppies, so you’ve got nothing to lose!
It’s a little known fact that data behaves a lot like a herd of cattle.
It needs to be herded by experts in order to get to the right places.
It can be compromised if that herding process isn’t being watched with an eagle eye.
And it can overwhelm anyone trying to handle it on their own, or even with a team.
So while a university CIO might not immediately think of themselves as a cowboy or cowgirl, in a sense, that’s exactly what they are. Movin’ data between apps and databases, and makin’ sure data quality remains high. Whether that means manual data transfer or custom coding, it’s expensive, time-consumin’, and frustratin’, carnsarn it!
If only the cowhands back in the day had had some way to automate cattle drives, life sure would have been a lot easier. Cattle moving smoothly from point to point on the trail, with no chance of mishaps, and no cowboy involvement required.
Well, gosh darn it, you know what’s funny? That’s exactly what N2N’s Illuminate platform provides for today’s CIO cowboys!
Just imagine how that old song Rawhide from the TV show might have sounded if CIOs had written it:
Rawhide: API Edition
Codin’ codin’ codin’
Codin’ codin’ codin’
Codin’ codin’ codin’
Codin’ codin’ codin’
APIs!
Custom codin’, codin’, codin’
The data streams are swollen
Keep them bits a-movin’, APIs!
With a SaaS app preoccupation
Hell bent for integration
Wishin’ N2N was by my side
All this custom codin’
They’d replace by simply loadin’
The Illuminate platform with APIs!
Move ’em on, head ’em up
Head ’em up, move ’em on
Move ’em on, head ’em up, APIs
Cut ’em out, write ’em in
Write ’em in, cut ’em out
Cut ’em out, Write ’em in, APIs
Keep movin’, movin’, movin’
Though the Budget Committee’s disapprovin’
Keep them bits a-movin’, APIs
Why not try to automate it,
At low cost so they won’t hate it?
Then you can stop with all this strife!
The Committee’s calculatin’
The N2N team will be waitin’
Be waitin’ by the phone when you decide.
Move ’em on, head ’em up
Head ’em up, move ’em on
Move ’em on, head ’em up, APIs
Cut ’em out, Write ’em in
Write ’em in, cut ’em out
Cut ’em out, Write ’em in, APIs
Codin’ codin’ codin’
Codin’ codin’ codin’
Codin’ codin’ codin’
Codin’ codin’ codin’
APIs!
You sure as heck don’t need to be out there moving that data around yourself, and neither does your team, trailboss! All you need to do is call N2N, and we’ll get you set up with our API Management Platform, Illuminate. Illuminate takes the hard work out of herding data, by integrating all your apps, databases, and systems seamlessly and effortlessly, in no time flat. Data quality is assured, and the monthly cost is less than the cost of hiring a decent cook for your chuck wagon, guaranteed!
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