With our institution portal to be launched soon, we continue to work on the tech peer model and have refined the grouping elements. The idea remains to technologically group the institutions instead of correlating them with sociodemographic data.
After many trials and error to find the best combination, we concluded that the following eight IT systems are the best way to compare the institutions technologically:
- Business Intelligence (BI)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Financial Systems
- Human Resource Systems (HR)
- Learning Management Systems (LMS)
- Integrated Library Systems (ILS)
- Student Information Systems (SIS)
Please note that all systems have an equal value in the comparison mix.
We have also demoed the institution portal (coming out on August 15th) to some clients and business partners, and we received some great feedback. One of the comments we got was about the use of “peer institutions.” For many, this terminology is strongly linked with the Carnegie Classification. For readers outside of the USA who are not familiar with Carnegie, this classification system considers, among other criteria, institution type, enrollment size, degree of selectivity, undergraduate students who live in university housing, etc. to classify the different colleges and universities. These are mainly based on sociodemographic data.
At LISTedTECH, we want to support our portal users with tech peer institutions: universities, colleges or school districts that use the same (or almost the same) core IT systems. We no longer look at 2-year versus 4-year or private versus public or institution size. We only look at the tech stack since we believe that peer institutions often use the same stack. Following the comment we received, we have taken two groups of institutions to compare them with our tech peer algorithm.
First example:
| Cluster | 10 | 10 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level | 4-year or above | 2-year | 4-year or above |
| Type | Public | Public | Private not-for-profit |
| Student Population (Fall 2017) | 1,456 | 11,782 | 10,025 |
| carnegie classifications | Basic Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields | Baccalaureate/Associate’s Colleges: Associate’s Dominant | Doctoral/Professional Universities |
| Page Id | 9270 | 23866 | 14877 |
| Business Intelligence – BI | Microsoft BI suite//Workday Analytics | ||
| Customer Relationship Management – CRM | Salesforce | Homegrown Customer Relationship Management | |
| Outlook Live – 365 | Outlook Live – 365 | Outlook Live – 365 | |
| Financial Systems | Workday Financial Management | Workday Financial Management | Workday Financial Management |
| Human Resources – HR | Workday Human Resource Management | Workday Human Resource Management | Workday Human Resource Management |
| Learning Management Systems – LMS | Canvas | Canvas | Canvas |
| Library Information Systems | Ex Libris Alma | ALEPH | Sierra Services Platform |
| Student Information System – SIS | Workday Student | Workday Student | Workday Student |
Second example:
| Cluster | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Page Id | 2607 | 16678 | 21583 | 18494 |
| Level | 4-year or above | 2-year | 4-year or above | 2-year |
| Type | Private not-for-profit | Public | Private not-for-profit | Public |
| Student Population (Fall 2017) | 1,802 | 9,914 | 7,278 | 9,273 |
| carnegie classifications | Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus | Associate’s Colleges: High Transfer-Mixed Traditional/Nontraditional | Doctoral/Professional Universities | Associate’s Colleges: High Career & Technical-Mixed Traditional/Nontraditional |
| Business Intelligence – BI | Informer Web Reporting//SPSS | Nuventive BI//BrioQuery | Informer Web Reporting//Power BI | Informer Web Reporting//BrioQuery |
| Customer Relationship Management – CRM | Salesforce | CampusNexus CRM//Salesforce | Salesforce | Salesforce |
| Google Gmail | Microsoft Exchange//Outlook Live – 365 | Microsoft Exchange//Outlook Live – 365 | Microsoft Exchange | |
| Financial Systems | Datatel Colleague Finance | CampusNexus Finance//Datatel Colleague Finance | Datatel Colleague Finance | Datatel Colleague Finance |
| Human Resources – HR | Colleague Human Resources | CampusNexus HR//Colleague Human Resources | Colleague Human Resources | Colleague Human Resources |
| Learning Management Systems – LMS | Canvas//Sakai | Canvas | Canvas | Canvas |
| Library Information Systems | Ex Libris Alma | Ex Libris Alma | Ex Libris Alma | Ex Libris Alma |
| Student Information System – SIS | Colleague Student Information System | CampusNexus Student//Colleague Student Information System | Colleague Student Information System | Colleague Student Information System |
We can notice that tech peer institutions are often not in the same Carnegie Classification category. By removing the sociodemographic comparison, we offer to portal users the whole picture of technology users.
Another exciting feature of the institution portal is the list of current clients of a product. Via the “Who else is using?” search box, users can enter any products (for example Banner SIS, Blackboard LMS, Salesforce CRM) used in universities, colleges or school districts to get a list of customers that are Tech peers.
As mentioned in another post, we value the privacy of institutions and their employees. Therefore, only verified institutions will have access to this functionality.
