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Higher education institutions are under increasing pressure to improve student outcomes while navigating complex data environments. 

Many assume they must complete their Workday implementation before addressing data modernization, analytics, or student retention initiatives. 

Xavier University is proving otherwise. 

By modernizing its data environment in parallel with its Workday rollout, Xavier accelerated its student success strategy and established a scalable foundation for long-term impact. 

The Challenge: Limited Visibility Slowed Proactive Student Support 

Like many institutions, Xavier University was committed to improving retention and graduation outcomes but faced challenges due to fragmented data systems. 

Before this initiative: 

  • Student data lived across multiple systems and reports 
  • Advisors lacked visibility into academic, financial, and engagement indicators 
  • Faculty and staff had to piece together a student’s full experience 
  • Leadership lacked a unified, real-time view of persistence trends 
  • Evaluating outreach effectiveness required manual analysis 

As a result, student success teams relied heavily on manual reporting processes, limiting their ability to act quickly and proactively. 

A Strategic Start: Aligning Around Data-Driven Student Success 

Xavier partnered with Avaap’s Data, Analytics, and AI team to define a shared vision for data-driven student success. 

Over two months, the team established a strong foundation through: 

  • A current-state assessment of data and reporting processes 
  • More than 40 stakeholder interviews across eight departments 
  • Documentation of institutional goals and priorities 
  • Alignment on a long-term analytics strategy 

This work ensured the solution would address immediate needs while supporting future innovation. 

The Approach: Modernizing Data in Parallel with Workday 

Rather than taking a sequential approach, Xavier advanced data modernization alongside its Workday implementation. 

This allowed the university to: 

  • Deliver insights earlier in the transformation process 
  • Avoid delays associated with waiting for a fully mature ERP 
  • Establish a strong data foundation while systems were evolving 

As Xavier CIO Sheri Thomas shared: 

“By modernizing our data in parallel with our Workday implementation, Xavier was able to accelerate our student success strategy. Using Snowflake to unify Workday data with other critical sources enabled our first student persistence analytics capabilities, delivering immediate value and empowering leaders to support students proactively.” 

The Solution: A Unified Platform for Student Retention Analytics 

Working together, Avaap helped Xavier implement a modern data environment designed to support proactive student success. 

Centralized Data Platform 

  • A Student 360 data model brings together data from across the institution 
  • Expanding Workday integrations strengthen the connection between systems and analytics 

Automated Data Processing 

  • Alteryx automates data preparation 
  • Manual reporting processes are significantly reduced 

Interactive Analytics and Dashboards 

  • Tableau dashboards provide intuitive, interactive visualization 
  • Insights are accessible to both advisors and leadership 

Supporting Advisors with Timely, Actionable Insight 

The platform enables student success teams to evaluate patterns across key indicators: 

  • Academic performance 
  • Financial indicators 
  • Student engagement signals 
  • Enrollment and progression patterns 

With frequently updated data, advisors can: 

  • Identify students who may need additional support 
  • Search and filter students by ID, major, cohort, or indicators 
  • Understand enrollment patterns and term-to-term progress 

This reduces time spent gathering information and increases time spent supporting students. 

Enabling Strategic Decision-Making for Leadership 

In addition to supporting advisors, the platform provides leadership with a strategic view of student success. 

Leaders can: 

  • Monitor persistence and enrollment trends across cohorts 
  • Identify patterns across academic, financial, and engagement indicators 
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of student success initiatives 
  • Inform institutional planning and investment decisions 

The Results: Earlier Intervention and Stronger Outcomes 

Xavier now has a modern analytics platform that enables more proactive and informed decision-making. 

Key outcomes include: 

  • Earlier student support through improved visibility into student needs 
  • More effective advisor time with less effort spent on manual reporting 
  • Institution-wide visibility into persistence trends 
  • Reduced manual reporting through automation 
  • A foundation for future innovation across admissions, student success, and planning 

What’s Next: Expanding the Impact of Analytics 

The Undergraduate Student Persistence Analytics platform represents the first step in a broader vision for data-enabled decision-making. 

Future opportunities include: 

  • Evaluating the effectiveness of student support initiatives 
  • Expanding insights for admissions and enrollment teams 
  • Supporting academic departments with program-level analytics 
  • Continuing to integrate new data sources through Workday and Snowflake 

Together, these efforts are helping Xavier create a more connected, proactive student success ecosystem. 

What Higher Ed Leaders Can Learn 

Xavier’s experience reinforces a key takeaway: 

Data modernization and Workday transformation do not need to happen sequentially. With the right approach, they can progress together to deliver faster, more meaningful results. 

Institutions can begin building retention analytics capabilities even without fully mature data environments when they focus on collaboration, practical progress, and scalable architecture. 

Join the Webinar: See the Approach in Action 

Want to learn how to apply this approach at your institution? 

In the upcoming webinar, Scaling Student Success: Advancing Snowflake and Workday in Parallel, you’ll hear directly from: 

  • Sheri Thomas, AVP and Chief Information Officer, Xavier University 
  • Kimberly Moore, VP of Student Affairs and Chief Success Officer, Xavier University 
  • Annaleah Morrow, Ph.D., VP of Customer Success, Avaap 

You’ll walk away with: 

  • Practical steps to advance student retention analytics during an active Workday transformation 
  • Guidance on structuring a collaborative data initiative 
  • Approaches for navigating data quality challenges 
  • Insights into how cloud platforms like Snowflake support scalable data foundations 

Save your spot to explore how Xavier is advancing student success with modern data. 

Register for the Webinar

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With the start of 2026, organizations are prioritizing their digital transformation roadmap to stay competitive and agile. One theme continues to dominate boardroom conversations: digital transformation. The pace of change isn’t slowing down, and the organizations that thrive will be those that embrace innovation, modernize their systems, and align technology with strategic goals. 

Why You Should Start Your 2026 Digital Transformation Roadmap Now 

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to evaluate your technology landscape. Legacy systems may have served you well, but they often limit agility, scalability, and the ability to deliver exceptional experiences for employees and customers. A well-planned digital transformation roadmap ensures your organization can operate more efficiently, make data-driven decisions, and adapt quickly to market changes. 

Key Steps to Build a Successful 2026 Digital Transformation Roadmap 

1. Align Technology with Business Strategy 

  • Define your organization’s top business priorities for 2026. 
  • Ensure every technology initiative directly supports these goals. 
  • Treat digital transformation as a business enabler, not just a system upgrade. 

2. Assess Current Systems and Gaps 

  • Conduct a comprehensive audit of your technology stack. 
  • Identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and manual processes prone to error. 
  • Use findings to prioritize investments and eliminate redundancies. 

3. Focus on Data & Analytics

  • Establish strong data governance policies for accuracy, security, and compliance. 
  • Integrate data across silos to create a single source of truth. 
  • Data is the foundation of transformation. Ensure your roadmap includes strategies for data governance, integration, and advanced analytics to empower better decision-making. 

4. Plan for Change Management 

  • Provide training programs to upskill employees on new tools. 
  • Engage stakeholders early to build buy-in and adoption. 

5. Leverage Cloud and Automation 

  • Modernize infrastructure with cloud solutions for scalability and flexibility. 
  • Deploy automation tools to reduce costs and free resources for innovation. 
  • Explore AI-driven workflow tools for customer service and supply chain 

Looking Ahead: Making Your 2026 Digital Transformation Roadmap Actionable 

Digital transformation is not a one-time project—it’s an ongoing journey. By starting now and building a clear roadmap, you position your organization for success in 2026 and beyond. Avaap is here to help you navigate this journey with expertise, proven methodologies, and a commitment to delivering measurable outcomes. 

Ready to start your transformation?  

Connect with our team to learn how Avaap can help you design and execute a roadmap that drives real business value. 

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As higher education faces demographic shifts, fiscal pressures, and rapid technological change, 2026 will mark a turning point for colleges and universities. We believe that institutions that embrace innovation while maintaining trust and governance will lead the way. Continue reading to learn more about Avaap’s expert predictions for 2026 higher education trends.

Avaap’s 2026 Higher Education Predictions:

1. Agentic AI and the “Trusted Campus Assistant” Era

By 2026, colleges will transition from merely experimenting with generative AI to integrating systems that actively assist students, faculty, and administrators with tasks like scheduling, advising, and initiating workflows. The key factor will be trust and governance: how institutions curate, rather than just deploy, AI to enhance human judgment.

2. Financial Sustainability Through Shared Services

As demographic and fiscal pressures grow, institutions will increasingly combine administrative and technology functions — creating regional or mission-aligned micro-consortia that share ERP platforms, analytics hubs, and even data governance frameworks. The aim: maintain institutional identity while achieving scale and efficiency.

3. Data-Driven Academic Strategy and Workforce Alignment

Colleges are set to integrate institutional data with labor market analytics and learner outcomes, transforming program planning from a reactive approach to a predictive one. We can anticipate an increase in skills intelligence platforms, redesigning curricula based on employability data, and developing tools to optimize faculty workload that links teaching efforts to student success and ROI.

4. Tech Fluency Becomes the New Student Satisfaction Metric

By 2026, institutions that effectively utilize administrative and learning technologies will significantly outperform those that only implement these tools without mastery. As hybrid and AI-assisted learning become more prevalent, the key differentiator will not be merely accessing technology, but rather how intuitively it is used to organize courses, foster connections, and enhance teaching—rather than replacing it.

Why These Trends Matter

As we approach 2026, higher education leaders must act now to prepare for these changes. From AI governance to shared services and predictive analytics, getting ahead of these 2026 higher education trends will define which institutions thrive.

Ready to Future-Proof Your Institution?

Avaap partners with colleges and universities to implement ERP modernization, analytics solutions, and AI-driven strategies that align with these emerging trends.

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As we approach 2026, state and local governments are facing increasing challenges and opportunities due to fiscal constraints, rapid technology adoption, and changing workforce needs. In this article, we share 2026 state and local government predictions from Avaap experts, highlighting three major trends that will shape public sector transformation and service delivery.

Avaap’s 2026 State & Local Government Predictions:

1. Fiscal Pressures Will Reshape Service Delivery 

Governments are facing budget cuts and rising costs, requiring them to reevaluate how they deliver services. Rather than expanding programs, agencies will focus on their core functions, optimize the resources they already have, and strive for greater efficiency through technology. We can anticipate an increased emphasis on cost containment strategies, shared services, and data-driven decision-making to ensure maximum impact despite limited funding. 

2. AI Will Require Smarter Governance 

Artificial intelligence will continue to expand in government, automating tasks and providing meaningful data and context for decision-making. However, this progress will demand smarter governance—not replace it. Governments must ensure human oversight for quality assurance and reliability, maintaining accountability as AI systems become more integrated. While AI can enhance efficiency and deliver predictive insights, human judgment will remain essential to guide ethical use and safeguard public trust. 

3. Workforce Adaptability Will Define Success 

Hybrid work models and rapid technological changes require a workforce that can adapt swiftly. Traditional one-time training is no longer sufficient; agencies must focus on continuous change management and ongoing digital skills development to keep up with the pace of change. Organizations that invest in consistent enablement and user adoption strategies are likely to achieve a higher return on investment from their technology initiatives. 

Why These Trends Matter

Our 2026 predictions highlight the importance of strategic technology implementation and effective change management. Avaap collaborates with state and local government organizations to modernize ERP systems, responsibly integrate AI, and develop resilient workforces prepared for the future. 

Ready to prepare for 2026?

Contact Avaap to learn how we can help your organization navigate fiscal pressures, leverage AI, and empower your workforce for success.

Contact Our Team