Platform Supports Data-Driven Decision Making Across the Institution
AMSTERDAM – 9 February, 2011 – Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) today launched Blackboard Analytics, a business intelligence solution for higher education. This data analytics solution demonstrates Blackboard’s ongoing commitment to accelerating innovation to help universities make better use of data and informed decisions across the institution.
The company’s newest platform offering, Blackboard Analytics™, is a suite of applications that gives deeper insight into an institution’s performance. The solution’s analytical dashboard applications help to view progress against goals in real time. The platform maps to the most common data sources on campus, integrating with the leading student information, human resources and financial systems.
In contrast to typical data warehousing projects which can be expensive, time consuming and risky, Blackboard Analytics can be implemented in a matter of weeks to help institutions quickly and cost-effectively turn complex data into actionable information. As a result, universities can better understand and improve performance in areas including student enrollment and retention, student bursaries, institutional financial performance, fundraising and human resources.
The new platform is available to all institutions regardless of whether they already work with Blackboard. The effort, which builds upon work that the company had already begun in education analytics, was strengthened by the acquisition of new technology and a development team from iStrategy, LLC.
“This isn’t just a new product – it’s a major commitment of resource over the long term to really innovate in bringing data warehousing applications to the market,” said Ray Henderson, President of Blackboard Learn. “We’re opening the lens to help solve a wider range of problems in education with greater speed by helping leaders analyze and act on real time data. With better access to more reliable information, they can improve programs and institutional performance and be in a better position to deliver learning and services at scale over time.”
A growing number of clients already rely on the platform to improve student recruiting, retention and completion, optimize class schedules and faculty resources and grow new programmes. The platform is also used to help campuses get the most out of student finance programmes, better understand spending across the institution and inform fundraising and development efforts.
In addition to giving institutional leaders access to accurate information to better measure and improve institutional performance, the Blackboard Analytics platform also puts current and reliable information into the hands of administrative and departmental leaders throughout the organization to help them better measure performance and act to improve it.
“Institutions don’t lack for available data, but they often find it difficult, timely or cost-effective to harness and act on it to improve performance,” said Jim Hermens, Senior Vice President at Blackboard and General Manager of Blackboard Analytics. “We want to give institutions easier access to data as well as statistical analysis and predictive modelling that can help them better gauge which are their fastest growing programmes or where they may have courses and faculty resources that are underutilized.”
For more information about Blackboard Analytics, please visit: http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Analytics/Overview.aspx.
