There has been a lot of talk in the higher education sector recently regarding the 2014 Australian Federal Budget and what that will mean for the sector as a whole. If data intelligence was important before, it’s even more so now.
What is data intelligence and how can higher education make full use of the value hidden within their data? The 2014 ‘Higher Education Business Intelligence Conference’ in Sydney highlighted the need for more agile BI tools to help improve efficiencies in the sector.
Some key points that were highlighted included the need for:
- real-time decision making
- a boost to productivity, performance and student services
- data analysis for critical insights into future market developments
- the use of BI tools for forecasting future student load, course demand and commercial viability
While there were many issues being discussed, it was surprising to learn that many universities are still in the process of consolidating their BI capabilities, while others are still grappling with the basic concepts.
The two key issues for many universities were the integration of their existing systems with BI tools, and lack of take-up due to the complexity of working with most of the BI tools on the market (due to the need for programming).
Additionally, the following points were highlighted as key areas for improvement among all universities:
- Cloud Analytics
- Self-Service and Intuitive Systems
- Bringing data to life with stories
- Enhanced Visualisations
- Predictive Analytics
Read our brochure to learn more about BI tools for the Education sector.
