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Higher Education
Industry Insights Designed to Help You Lead Digital Transformation
With Info-Tech's Industry Roundtables & Benchmarking, you will never again wonder "what are my peers doing?", "how do I compare?", or "what should I be doing?".
Industry Insights & Best Practices
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Industry Roundtable Events
Higher Education - Critical Projects
Deep Insights Tailored to Your Industry
1
Business-Aligned IT Strategy
Understand the capabilities and focus areas required to meet your industry’s needs and enable value creation.
2
Top Industry Trends
Identify resource, process, and environmental trends impacting your industry. Implement strategies to mitigate specific risks and take advantage of all relevant opportunities.
3
Industry Benchmarking
Reveal the true state of your IT services, processes, spend, and staffing levels to align your priorities and resources. Benefit from peer data to get a reference point for how well you stack up.
4
Core Industry Technologies & Software Selection
Arm yourself with everything you need to provide the right solutions to meet the needs of your business stakeholders.
1
Business-Aligned IT Strategy
Strategy Alignment
Develop a Business Continuity Plan for Higher Education
- Implement a structured and repeatable process that you apply to one business unit at a time to keep BCP planning efforts manageable.
- Use the results of the pilot to identify gaps in your recovery plans and reduce overall continuity risk while continuing to assess specific risks as you repeat the process with additional business units.
- Enable business leaders to own the BCP going forward. Develop a template that the rest of the organization can use.
- Leverage BCP outcomes to refine IT DRP recovery objectives and achieve DRP-BCP alignment.
Strategy Alignment
Priorities for Adopting an Exponential IT Mindset in Higher Education
- Recognize the urgency of adopting Exponential IT within higher education to combat industry disruptions.
- Understand the four priorities of Exponential IT transformation in higher education that are being adopted today to remain resilient within the market.
- Acknowledge the foundational capabilities and maturity required to begin an effective Exponential IT transformation, resulting in value creation.
Strategy Alignment
Higher Education Industry Impacts on IT Strategy: Senior Management Presentation Template
- Once you’ve completed the IT Strategy Initiatives Workbook, it’s time to pull it all together and share with your organization’s leadership team.
- Use the Higher Education Industry Impacts on IT Strategy: Senior Management Presentation Template to highlight the key findings from the business-aligned analysis you’ve done.
Strategy Alignment
Unify IT in the Education Sector
- Convince key stakeholders that IT unification is in everyone’s best interest.
- Understanding the opportunity for IT unification extends beyond cost savings to greater harmony in a time of rapid change.
- Identify the best implementation plan based on their goals, needs, and services.
Strategy Alignment
Support Innovation in Educational Technology
- Work with your experts in pedagogy and instructional design to develop a CoP for innovation in educational technology.
- Support faculty to collaborate, innovate, and share insights and promote the effective integration of technology in teaching methodologies.
- Gain stronger internal evidence of the value of new technologies and confidence in their adoption rates among faculty.
Strategy Alignment
Elevate the Role of the CIO in Higher Education
- Elevate your stature as an institutional leader.
- Empower the IT organization to act with an institutional mind first and technology second.
- Create a high-powered IT organization that is focused on driving lasting change, improving student experiences, and encouraging collaboration across the entire institution.
- Generate opportunities for institutional, as manifested through strategic enrollment planning, research growth, higher student experience satisfaction, greater community collaboration, etc.
Strategy Alignment
Higher Education Industry Reference Architecture
- Demonstrate the value of IT’s role in supporting your institutional capabilities for higher education while highlighting the importance of proper alignment between organizational and IT strategies.
- Apply Level 2 business reference architecture techniques such as strategy maps, value streams, and capability maps to design usable and accurate blueprints of your operations at institutions of higher education.
- Assess your initiatives and priorities to determine if you are investing in the right capabilities. Conduct capability assessments to identify opportunities and to prioritize projects.
Strategy Alignment
Understand the IT Implications for the Enrollment Cliff
- Plan for cost reduction both internally through centralization efforts and externally through partnerships with other institutions.
- Assess the external context of your institution; interview key stakeholders on their priorities; and determine how IT can support the competitive advantage of the institution.
Strategy Alignment
Adapt Governance to Align Educational Technology With Faculty Needs
Leverage Info-Tech’s process and deliverables to create an effective governance structure for educational technology:
- IT Advisory Committee for Educational Technology Charter Template
- IT Working Group for Educational Technology Charter Template
These customizable charter templates are complete with example purpose, goals, and responsibilities.
Strategy Alignment
Build Business-Aligned Privacy Programs for Higher Education Institutions
- Establish a holistic and integrated privacy program that embeds privacy by design principles into the business processes.
- Partner with business departments by speaking a language it can understand and providing tools it can implement.
- Gain the visibility of personal data processing activities and prioritize personal data protection initiatives.
- Create privacy policies, standards and procedures that are established with respect to how information is collected, processed, shared, and protected within the data lifecycle.
Strategy Alignment
Higher Education Business-Aligned IT Strategy
- Learn about the ecosystem factors that are impacting the Higher Education industry and how your IT team is set from a SWOT perspective, with expert insights and takeaways to update your IT strategy.
Strategy Alignment
Higher Education IT Strategy Initiatives Workbook
- With input from our research and analysts and your peers, identify new or updated initiatives for your IT strategy.
- Working with our team, update your IT Strategy Initiatives Workbook.
- Once you’ve completed the IT Strategy Initiatives Workbook, it’s time to pull it all together and share with your organization’s leadership team.
- Use the Higher Education Industry Impacts on IT Strategy: Senior Management Presentation Template to highlight the key findings from the business-aligned analysis you’ve done.
2
Top Industry Trends
Top Trends
Prioritize AI Use Cases for Education
- Discover and comprehend the relevant use cases that can address organizational challenges.
- Begin the AI journey by identifying and prioritizing use cases for their departmental units through the use case analysis tool.
- Leverage the output to gain executive buy-in. Determine the most suitable problems with the greatest-value solutions and meet institutional needs to implement AI responsibly.
Top Trends
Optimize the Use of Classroom Technology: A Buyers Guide
- Discover the current context in the higher education market for classroom upgrades.
- Review the basic architecture for a hybrid learning environment.
- Address key considerations to support the most frictionless environment possible for instructors.
Top Trends
Understand the Implications of Generative AI in Education
Info-Tech has a three-phase approach for addressing generative AI:
- Short term: Address cheating and the limitations of technology.
- Medium term: Identify benefits to education.
- Longer term: Consider policy changes and governance.
Top Trends
Align IT With Institutional Priorities for Student Experience
Leverage this research presentation to understand the issues around student experience and what the technology implications are.
- What are the primary concerns of student experience?
- What technology is required to address these concerns?
- Why do student experience initiatives hinge upon strong data management?
Top Trends
Support a Data-Driven Student Retention Program
- Clarity of the retention challenge from different stakeholder perspectives.
- An assessment of the institution’s current state of advising technology and data related to student retention.
- Clarity on how IT can provide value to the institution through student journey-mapping.
Top Trends
Develop and Mature an Esports Program in Education
Gain guidance on what type of initiatives should be taken, depending on the current state of esports activity at your district or institution.
Top Trends
Higher Education Strategic Foresight Trends Report
Info-Tech’s approach focuses on an analyst’s investigation of strategic foresight. Use the trends report to:
- Gain perspective on what is happening in the wider industry environment.
- Determine which strategic initiatives are most likely to lead to success on an industry level.
Top Trends
Higher Education Blended & Online Learning Report
- Finding the right mix between online, blended, and in-person learning will require new thinking, all accelerated by COVID-19.
- Learn about the blended & online learning trend and how it affects both your institution and IT specifically, including challenges and opportunities, with expert assistance.
Top Trends
Higher Education Analytics for Student Success Report
- The reputation of Higher Education rests upon the quality of its graduates. Students need to achieve their full potential and excellent results.
- With the assistance and leadership of IT, the institution needs to do everything it can to track and support student achievement and success.
- Learn how to approach this issue and set the course for solid improvements in analytics for student success in your institution.
Top Trends
Higher Education Rethinking Higher Education Report
- As society rethinks the value of post-secondary education, accelerated by the changes from COVID-19, higher education institutions need to respond to prove their value via new, flexible ways to prepare students for the workplace.
- It is critical for the IT team to help its institution rethink and achieve this direction in order to remain relevant in the face of rapidly changing circumstances.
3
Industry Benchmarking
Peer Benchmarking
Ground Your Institution for Higher Education’s Future Shock
Analyze your effectiveness from these three perspectives to assess where your institution’s IT department stands:
- Is there institutional support to strengthen organizational capabilities?
- Do executives mandate the necessary innovations and investments to enable growth?
- Can the IT department effectively build the organizational capabilities required?
Peer Benchmarking
Benchmarking Report: A Cross-Industry Comparison of IT Stakeholder Satisfaction
- Every industry has unique characteristics that can hamper progress or facilitate success in satisfying IT stakeholders. Reimagine your strategy by shifting the definition of who your peers really are.
- Discover which industries achieve high stakeholder satisfaction across 13 core IT services.
- Learn the characteristics that different industries have that can help or hinder IT success.
- Understand what your industry has in common with others that you can leverage to improve stakeholder satisfaction and overcome your own institutional barriers.
Peer Benchmarking
Higher Education IT Stakeholder Satisfaction Benchmarking Report
- IT leadership needs to understand where clients are unsatisfied with the quality of service they’re receiving from IT.
- While Higher Education IT is generally meeting the needs of its stakeholders, innovation, analytical capability, and overall IT capacity are ongoing challenge areas.
- Understand important common focus areas to address and insights into how your team compares with other Higher Education IT organizations.
Peer Benchmarking
Higher Education IT Staffing Benchmarking Report
- Many IT departments are already running lean, struggling to keep pace with never-ending demands from the business. Higher Education IT staffing is stretched thin.
- While Higher Education IT is keeping the lights on, there is little opportunity to lead, innovate, or plan for the long term.
- By taking the IT Staffing Diagnostic and participating in our unique IT Spend Benchmarking, you will gain critical information to understand how you can position your IT team to be more strategic and influential to the business.
Peer Benchmarking
Higher Education IT Management & Governance Benchmarking Report
- Understanding your IT team’s perception of what’s important and how well they’re doing is central to identifying strengths, weaknesses, and potential misalignments with business priorities and expectations.
- Learn about how IT departments in your industry assess the importance and effectiveness of 45 IT processes to gauge your own alignment and identify select processes for targeted improvement.
4
Core Industry Technologies & Software Selection
Core Industry Technologies
Identify a Resilient Approach to the Future of Your Higher Education ERP
A straight ERP replacement is not always the best approach. Work with Info-Tech to decide on what approach your institution should take for ERP renewal.
Core Industry Technologies
Higher Education Facility Management Systems Report
- A facility management system (FMS) is critical to Higher Education simply because of the sheer magnitude of most campus environments, which operate much like small cities.
- Learn about what an FMS is, the state of the market, key features and functions, and leading vendors in the space and see how an FMS can transform your IT strategy and the ability to deliver it.
Core Industry Technologies
Higher Education Learning Management Systems Report
- Your learning management system (LMS) is the central hub for delivering effective online education.
- The major challenge is accommodating a very wide variety of methods to deliver each course and providing strong support to faculties to provide engaging, informative, and effective online programs.
- Get insights into how you as CIO can lead this transformation.
Core Industry Technologies
Higher Education Student Information Systems Report
- As the future of higher education undergoes a disruption, your student information system (SIS) must be set up for success as a flexible set of services.
- Gain key insights about features of modern SISs, integration with online platforms, flexible enrollment periods, extended student journeys, micro-credentials, and more.
Core Industry Technologies
Select a Student Information System
- The impact:
- Improvement on the probability of selecting a system that aligns with the strategic goals of the institution by following a structured and holistic approach that considers all aspects and stakeholders.
- The result:
- Successful execution of a complex task that could have significant implications for the institution.
Latest Higher Education Notes
Short, tailored research notes aimed at providing you with timely insights, relevant to your industry. Hot off the press, these notes will be published regularly and pair great with your morning coffee.
Meet the Education Sector Executive Services Leadership Team
November 6, 2023
The Education industry is undergoing dramatic changes due to forces in the economy, the cybersecurity environment, and the expanding value of data. Our global Education team at Info-Tech is the world-renowned provider of choice for premier CIO and executive leadership, research, coaching, and mentoring services dedicated to IT leaders. Our mission is to serve as a trusted strategic advisor to enable Education IT leaders and increase the value of their organization. Our advice improves the teaching, learning, research, student experience, and community engagement aspects of their institutions through IT best practices and research. We will ensure that our members in the global Education sector receive exceptional value from their investment in their Info-Tech membership as they build an exponential IT mindset to embrace the changes in the Education industry.
Don't Get Left Behind: American Rescue Plan Funding Priorities Aims to Strengthen the Modernization of Educational Technology and Improve Cybersecurity Capabilities
May 27, 2021
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) is the third stimulus package passed by the federal government since March 2020. The stimulus funding announced seeks to address gaps created by the COVID-19 pandemic. ARP comprises $1.9 trillion in mandatory funding, programming, and tax policies and provides significant relief to Americans adversely affected by the pandemic. Education IT professionals must be aware of the variety of funding opportunities to ensure the consistent delivery of quality education.
Don't Get Left Behind: American Rescue Plan Funding Priorities Aims to Strengthen the Modernization of Educational Technology
May 27, 2021
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) is the third stimulus package passed by the federal government since March 2020. The stimulus funding announced seeks to address gaps created by the COVID-19 pandemic. ARP comprises $1.9 trillion in mandatory funding, programming, and tax policies, and it provides significant relief to Americans adversely affected by the pandemic. Education IT professionals must be aware of the variety of funding opportunities to ensure the consistent delivery of quality education.
Higher Education: Next Steps From the CIO COVID-19 Strategy Webinar
April 21, 2020
The CIO will play a critical role across this crisis, and it is an opportunity to shine. This is a key time for CIOs to demonstrate leadership and technology capability. Higher education organizations will look to IT for a clear technology strategy to support recovery efforts and readiness for the next crisis.
Higher Education – The Essential Ten-Step Guide: Building and Communicating Your CIO Strategy for COVID-19
April 16, 2020
CIOs in Higher Education will play a critical role during the COVID-19 crisis. This is an opportunity to shine. Use this plan to help you build and communicate a clear strategy for the next 90 days, allowing you to demonstrate both leadership and technology capability.
Benchmarking Reports
Industry-specific benchmarking reports built on years of in-depth industry data, collected using our innovative diagnostic programs. We aggregate the data across hundreds of IT departments in your industry to give you tailored vertical insights, all packaged in professional boardroom-ready reports.
Higher Education Reference Architecture
Reference architectures built on years of industry expertise, honed by analysts working with real IT professionals in your industry. Leverage industry best practices so you don’t waste time and money reinventing the wheel.