Kent State University

Challenge

Manage data more effectively

Results

• Gain a better understanding of students throughout their lifecycle
• Extend the functionality of investments across the ecosystem
• Achieve stability in planning

Summary

We're looking to manage data more effectively. The conversation around that is helping us all understand the value that an enterprise approach has compared to, say, pockets of excellence. Having an enterprise approach really helps us better understand our students, from the point in time that we contact them or engage them to become potential students to the time that they graduate and become alumni.

Ethos has a data model that speaks specifically to higher education. And when I say "data model," what I mean is, it puts things in proper form for us to be able to gain insights into the work that we're doing and the impact of the work that we're doing. And it also allows us to think about how we might extend the functionality of the investments that we've had with the ecosystem of other vendors who provide related services that are important to the university.

And when we think about those interfaces, we think about the workflow of things that connect those transactions together. And Ethos gives us the ability to thread those things together more consistently, more easily, and in a fashion that really meets the business objective versus the IT delivery of that business need.

Our partnership with Ellucian is important in reaching our goals, because it really is the driving technology and the storage of all of the information that defines who Kent State is. And in talking with the executives from Ellucian and understanding the roadmap that's been set for the Ellucian platform, it gives us an opportunity to also set a strategic roadmap of how we want to do business at Kent State. It gives us stability in our planning, and it gives us a solid partner who is listening to the needs that we have and responding to those needs.