Higher Education Client

STARTING POSITION

The higher education client had multiple, inconsistent ad hoc reports from legacy systems across several siloed departments. A lack of one source of truth lead to:

• A leaky bucket. Admissions was unable to retarget prospects because they didn’t have credible data. Leads left the funnel and no one could identify who the leads were and why they weren’t progressing.
• Inconsistent forecasts. Enrollment was declining but no one knew by exactly how much. Administrators had trouble creating reliable enrollment forecasts and a target for right sizing the budget because everyone disagreed on the number of students in the funnel.

PROCESS AND IMPACT

CDA built an Admissions forecast tool by connecting directly to the legacy CRM using an ODBC connection with Tableau. The tool created one source of truth by aligning definitions and providing credible data. The process:

• Reduced human touchpoints. CDA’s process entirely removed human touchpoints that created inconsistent results. The data are created at the user interface rather than through a reconciliation process of excel spreadsheets.
• Provided credible and timely data. Prospective students were no longer leaking from the funnel since the data stream no longer required manual intervention. Each administrator now works from the same set of definitions and counts to inform decisions. The data are refreshed hourly rather than quarterly to provide timely insights. Decisions are now based on fact rather than a best guess from disparate and conflicting ad hoc reports.
• Incorporated forecast tools and active tracking. The forecast tool provided scenarios to build projections and the ability to track to the forecast in real time. Administrators and staff could track historical conversion rates and attainment to inform their forecasts without manual manipulation of historical spreadsheets.
• Saved the client over $70,000 in manual report building per year and provided an additional $40,000 in revenue by shoring up the leaky funnel.