Identifying New Funding Pathways with Usage Data

May 20, 2024 |  Students, Track Usage
1 min

Understanding patterns of computer lab license usage and resource demand can inform long-term financial planning and budget allocation.

Higher education CIOs have access to immense data, but like many operations on campus, the data is siloed in powerful yet separate systems. 

Sure, CIOs can look into demographic information, but connecting that to student behavior hasn’t been possible–until now. LabStats extended API endpoints allow higher ed CIOs to connect hardware and software usage data to student management systems (SMS) through business intelligence tools. 

The result? Actionable financial insights. 

Proactive Financial Planning

Understanding patterns of computer lab license usage and resource demand can inform long-term financial planning and budget allocation. CIOs can use LabStats data to identify trends in resource utilization, forecast future needs, and justify budget requests based on data-driven insights.

With LabStats data combined with financial management systems, CIOs can understand the granular cost of software. For instance, they can identify the cost per launch of a specific software application to better forecast and support software contract negotiation with data.

Related: 3 Tips to Renegotiate Software Contracts Strategically

Identifying New Funding Pathways

By linking LabStats usage data to student management systems, CIOs can gain a comprehensive understanding of how computer labs and other technology resources are utilized by diverse student groups, especially those with specific funding.

Related: Optimizing IT Resources to Support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

For instance, LabStats can reveal which computer labs have the most activity and what software programs students are accessing in those labs. When combined with anonymized demographic data in student management systems, CIOs can spot trends and determine who is using those labs and software applications. This data changes the game when it comes to campus IT software asset management.

Connecting LabStats Data to BI Tools

LabStats offers access to robust historical data through expanded API endpoints. With this data, CIOs can join usage data with a variety of other data sources through the following business intelligence tools:

  • Power BI 
  • Tableau
  • Excel 
  • Qlick
  • R
  • Python
  • SQL tools
Related: Making the Most of Power BI in Higher Ed IT

Overall, integrating LabStats computer lab usage tracking software with financial systems offers higher education institutions a broader and deeper view of technology utilization, empowering CIOs to make informed financial decisions that support student success and institutional effectiveness.

To learn more about using LabStats, schedule a demo.


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