Combining Data to Reach Institution-Wide Goals

January 6, 2023 |  Data
1 min

With real and accurate data, IT leaders will be more confident and better contributors.

Although usage data is beneficial when applied to computer labs, it’s time to think bigger.

Listed in this year’s Top 10 IT Issues, Educause called out the growing role of IT leaders, and we think it’s long overdue: 

 “A Seat at the Table: Ensuring IT leadership is a full partner in institutional strategic planning.” 

With real and accurate data, IT leaders will be more confident and better contributors. It’s not just hardware and software data that they need, IT leaders should be thinking broader to reach institution-wide goals. 

Related: Takeaways from the Educause Top 10 IT Issues 2023

LabStats data can be combined with other data sources to build a more complete picture of what’s happening at your institution. Some other forms of pertinent data include:

  • Demographic Data: Discover how students from specific majors or demographic groups use technology and/or software, and uncover relationships to student success by combining LabStats data with Student Management Systems.
  • Financial Data: Understand the granular cost of software (for instance, cost per launch of a specific software) by combining LabStats data with financial data.
  • Inventory – Compare inventory levels to actual uses to gain insights surrounding software negotiations, finding unused computers, and optimizing tech facilities by combining LabStats data with inventory programs.
  • Security – Look for user patterns at precise times, in specific locations, to identify security vulnerabilities and risks by combining LabStats data with security systems data.
  • Utilities – Understand power consumption trends by comparing technology location and use data to known power consumption information.

How can LabStats data combined with all these other data sources? The answer is simple: Business Intelligence tools.

Related: LabStats and Power BI: A Match Made in Heaven

Connecting LabStats Data to BI Tools

LabStats offers access to robust historical data through expanded API endpoints that allow you to join usage data with a variety of other data sources through the following applications:

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

What broader goals might your team be able to tackle by combining LabStats data with other sources? Schedule a tutorial chat to discuss ways to use data to reach institution-wide goals.


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