What Does It Take To Be a Data-Enabled Institution – and Why Would You Want To Be One?
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.
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