Higher ed leaders continue to navigate a season of compulsory transformation, forced to rethink operations, investments and the value their institution brings to students. Though challenges and solutions are many, industry observers agree on one thing: Data holds the answer.

Traditionally, higher ed decisions were based mainly on hunches, peer input, preferences or observations, obscuring leaders’ ability to see hidden opportunities (or threats) as quickly as the market demands.

Data — now more readily accessible through cloud integrations — is helping a growing number of institutions identify pockets of overlap or redundancy, new opportunities and trending behaviors that would have remained concealed otherwise.

Identify wasteful spending and steer better resource allocation

As higher ed grows more connected, it’s tough to imagine a tool that touches more technology systems than ID management solutions. This technology ties staff and student credentials to every aspect of campus operations, from grades to tuition, dining, building access, equipment usage and more.

The more systems can “talk” with one another, the more visibility administrators have into behavioral, financial and operational data — both at individual and campuswide levels. Armed with those insights, higher education leaders can spot trends, underused resources and opportunities for revenue and engagement.

TouchNet, a platform that integrates commerce and credential solutions for colleges and universities, reports that many of its client institutions use dining data to forecast staffing needs and prepare the right amount of food at the right times, reducing food waste. Other applications include identifying how or when students use certain facilities or how many people use the fleet of printers institutions lease and service each month.

Repurposed real estate has also emerged as a source of savings or added revenue. Faced with shrinking enrollment and underused facilities, many institutions are converting those spaces into profitable ventures such as co-working spaces, business incubators and retail and event venues.

Identifying what facilities, services or resources are good candidates for repurposing is far easier when you let data do it.

“Seeing when and how users access campus resources helps you identify what your organization needs or doesn’t need with mathematical precision,” says Kala Mulder, director of client success for TouchNet. “The idea is to match resources to actual demand. Many of the institutions we serve are diving into data sets available today to help drive business decisions and cost reduction while ensuring a better experience for staff and students.”

How institutions can gather better data

The type and quality of data intelligence an institution can gather hinges on how well its technology systems can communicate with one another. Put another way, integrated systems produce integrated data, while disconnected systems produce disconnected data that’s much harder to access, interpret and apply. It’s the difference between accessing a unified dashboard with a couple of clicks versus having to stitch together dozens of spreadsheets from dozens of offices.

It’s why ID management technology — a core campus capability that touches all aspects of the student experience — is well positioned as a creator and key source to campuswide data visibility.

Higher education leaders are finally seeing ID management solutions as an unmatched source of campus intelligence, says Dawn Thomas, chief executive officer of the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU). “The campus card can tell you every transaction or interaction within a campus, revealing patterns,” Thomas says. “That knowledge can really impact the campus bottom line and decisions.”

In the spring of 2022, TouchNet and Industry Dive surveyed 150 higher education leaders on how their institutions use ID management technology today. Respondents reported a wide range of integrations and automation, including:

• Mobile access to student/staff IDs (83%) and self-serve ID setup and updates (68%)
• Virtual class attendance/check-ins (80%) and grades and class communication (71%)
• Administrator access to trending behaviors and individual-level data (75%)
• Administrator access to campuswide financial data (69%)
• Tracking equipment use, check-ins/outs (71%) and real-time resource availability (64%)
• Surveys, polls and capturing feedback (70%)
• Accessing account balances and making payments (69%) and automated refunds and account reconciliation (65%)
• Cloud-based staff access to ID management information or controls (69%)
• Contactless dining (68%), order-ahead (66%) and virtual queueing (65%)
• Event ticket sales (63%) and merchandise sales (59%)

Additionally, most respondents said advancements in ID management technology could help them recruit and retain students and high-quality faculty and staff members.

That sentiment matches the urgency in a joint statement on the role of data analytics in higher education by Educause, the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and the Association for Institutional Research (AIR):

“With the change-making capacity of analytics, we should be moving aggressively forward to harness the power of these new tools,” the authors state, adding that data must be viewed “as an institutional strategic asset, not the property of individual offices.”

Accelerate progress on your campus with analytics

Institutions looking to move hard-to-nudge needles such as recruitment, retention and revenue must “go big” in their investment in analytics, argue Educause, NACUBO and AIR in their joint report.

“For every year we fail to use data effectively to improve operations or to make better financial and business decisions, we threaten the financial sustainability of our institutions,” they write. “Whether you are encouraged by the significant opportunities or driven by the need to solve critical problems, it’s time to take a big step forward.”

What’s possible at your institution? Learn how your peers use ID management technology to drive recruitment, retention and revenue when you access TouchNet’s full survey findings.