Decision Support Systems

Four tools of the trade facilitate solving IT problems in higher ed by removing the need to develop solutions “from scratch” every time a problem arises.

In the past, decision makers across Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) had poor access to data. Requests for data had to be directed to specific operational areas and were often provided only in hard copy. To analyze and transform data into useful information, decision makers and their staff had to enter non-integrated data into their local systems. Executives often couldn't "see the forest for the trees"—either they were drowning in too much data with poor options for analyzing it or received too little useful data"—and frequently received conflicting information or responses based on inaccurate assumptions about the types of data and analysis required.

This study, designed and analyzed by ECAR on behalf of the Council of Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA), identifies the forces of change that are building for higher education and seeks to understand their potential implications. The report adds the voice of higher education's administrative leadership to the dialogue about the future of our institutions. Sponsored by 22 CHEMA member associations, the study examines how administrators and officials engaged in college and university support functions anticipate that higher education will change over the next ten years by identifying the changes, opportunities, and threats these leaders foresee for higher education, for their institutions, and for specific functional areas. In addition, the study discusses how prepared institutions are to manage change and shape their own futures.

Since the 1980s, higher education has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on administrative technologies to improve access to information. Institutions implemented new enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, data marts, data warehouses, and technologies to improve reporting. This study analyzes the outcomes at more than 380 higher education institutions. It looks at what the chosen strategies have accomplished, in what ways institutions use the data they collect, whether institutions are investing more resources in tools that enable them to collect and manipulate management information, and the degree to which information and analysis are being used to support institutional decision making. A corporate edition is available here.