From Digital Sprawl to Sustainable Systems
Colleges and universities have a traditional way to meet new needs: add a new program, department, or technology. Despite good intentions, their siloed structures and poor strategic planning mean that institutions adapt by adding. This is especially true when it comes to technology. The result is digital sprawl.
More technology means more training, support, and communications. It also creates more data to secure, analyze, and manage. Instead of suburban sprawl with dead downtowns and long commutes ruining our cities, with digital sprawl we get awful experiences, unsecure data, and unsustainable costs wrecking our colleges and universities.
Sprawl Isn’t Seamless or Sustainable
Current experiences are anything but seamless. There is a new app for nearly every aspect of university life. It’s not just the LMS, SIS, ERP, or CRM infrastructure. It’s also niche apps for everything from mental health to time management across 44 different segments. Most institutions have several redundant systems to book appointments, send messages, manage relationships, book spaces, and more. One leader I talked to determined that students needed to bookmark 22 different sites to navigate their institution. Another found that students needed 7 different tabs open to effectively register for classes.
They are not sustainable either. From 2013 to 2023, technology spend per FTE has increased 113% among colleges and has increased 32% among research universities, according to EDUCAUSE’s core data survey, adjusted for inflation. Forrester’s Q2 2024 Tech Pulse Survey found that 77% technology decision-makers in the US report moderate to extensive levels of sprawl. These sprawling systems confuse students and waste the time of staff who are often already spread thin trying to support students. They also create data sprawl. The Driving Toward a Degree study found lack of integration was the biggest barrier to successful advising. It also uncovered that 65% of academic advisors use two to three different systems, and the same is true for 66% of career services staff, 70% of financial aid staff, and 75% of mental health staff.
How to End Digital Sprawl
To tame digital sprawl, inventory what you have, lean into IT Governance and institutional strategy to decide what you need, and make bold decisions for the sake of your students, staff, and faculty. Start by knowing what you have and how well it’s working. Even a simple audit to inventory your different systems will yield results. I’ve conducted dozens of technology service design workshops where simply listing each tool on a sticky note led to leadership epiphanies. When they saw all the tools, support services, and training they offered, the need to focus and consolidate was clear.
Go one step farther by overlaying usage data and satisfaction data to uncover where you can consolidate. Go farther still by combining this kind of “bottom up” analysis with a “top down” review through the lens of institutional strategy. Not a typical strategic plan that’s a list of anodyne statements about innovation and excellence but one that makes choices to provide focus or differentiation. Together, this can uncover what technologies to sunset or combine as you simplify your tech stack – and give you the stories and the stats to communicate the changes.
Courageous Case Studies
There is hope and you are not alone. Forrester’s survey also found that 63% of technology decision-makers will implement at least “moderate consolidation strategies” in the next two years. Across the country, institutions are consolidating tech stacks. One promising area is creating next gen student portals that function as digital hubs for students. University of the Pacific went from 29 different systems to 5, reducing their tech budget by 45%. Likewise Alabama A&M consolidated their student portal, mobile app, chatbot, and employee intranet to reduce their budget by 18%. Consolidation can happen on the back-end too. Institutions like Unity Environmental University have consolidated their systems to streamline operations and fuel growth.
Figure out what you’ve got. Get your IT governance groups to roll up their sleeves not just on what to add or upgrade but on what to sunset. Find a set of systems you can combine, starting with ones that are a pain to use and costly to operate. You probably have separate systems to book advising, tutoring, writing, and tech support appointments? Or separate systems to book space in your library, union, and business school? Maybe start there? Manage the change process and measure your impact on experience and expenses. Then scale up. You’ll create seamless, secure experiences at a cost you can sustain. Your students, staff, and faculty will thank you for it – as will your CFO. This is how to create better connected colleges and universities that enable student success at scale.
Elliot Felix is a student success author, speaker, and consultant to more than 100 colleges and universities who has helped more than 1,000,000 students. He leads Buro Happold’s higher education advisory practice and is the author of The Connected College: Leadership Strategies for Student Success, an encouraging, evidence-based playbook for busting silos so students succeed (from which the above was excerpted and adapted)