The First Day of EDUCAUSE: What's New in Analytics at EDUCAUSE?, Edu1World, by Donald M. Norris By Donald M. Norris

October 12, 2010 - Tuesday was kickoff day at EDUCAUSE, and we used the occasion to talk with a number of analytics leaders who have perspectives on new developments today and in the future. Their full interviews will be posted and linked to our site, as will white papers, case studies, and applications briefs. Keep following the posts over the next week as the full body of knowledge supporting these conversations is built.

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Michael Psenka, President, eThority. eThority provides analytics solutions for a range of industries: higher education, health care, human resources, manufacturing and retail. They have been known for providing a "single-point of truth" for institutions striving to make sense of competing data sources. Among their first successes were university medical centers attempting to manage and make sense of grants and contracts and project management in the complicated work of funded projects. Last year at EDUCAUSE, eThority featured its efforts to create easily available predictive analytics that could be launched and customized by end users without specialized training or insight that characterize most existing analytics products.

eThority's big news at EDUCAUSE was that it has taken its Codie-award winning solutions (analytics, dashboarding and reporting for Higher Education) and made them available under the sobriquet "DataTalent" through a so-called Zero Cost License. They took this approach after a six-month analysis of the marketplace and collaboration with industry analysts to find an "over-the-top" strategy. They concluded that in the consumer data market, users were deploying Google, Wikipedia, and others to achieve open and free access, so eThority took its platform and made it available at zero cost. This is a 500 user license of eThority's basic analytics offering, not a stripped down version; although there are premium services available as well.

By eThority's reckoning 60% of their Zero Cost License customers will never pay a penny, utilizing the capability as it stands to fulfill their needs. On the other hand, 40% will utilize a variety of means to extend into pay-for-use: premium product offerings, extensibility, predictive analytics and more.

eThority also buys into the notion of embedded analytics as key to successful emergence of higher education as a sophisticated analytics market. They see predictive analytics needing to be embedded in processes and becoming a key tool in daily operational decisions. Learning data will be set up as new information becomes available. This is the higher education equivalent of health care's "sentinel events," which alert medical personnel that intervention is necessary.

eThority has always specialized in visualization. They are excited about a new offering called the "Variance Map," developed by Dr. Jim Young, their statistical and predictive analytics guru. The variance maps enables users to understand the population dynamics of groups and compare individual performance with the population to spot variance and act on it.

eThority has a range of clients from small institutions to large research universities such as the University of Michigan. eThority's platform and ZCL can be used to augment existing environments and support data collaborations with other data sets and platforms.

About eThority
Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Charleston, SC; eThority is provider of "user-obvious" enterprise performance engine software that empowers end users and offers IT an easily maintainable solution. In addition to eThority Enterprise, the company's award winning business analytics and reporting platform, eThority offers eXtensions: industry-specific modules designed to fill critical gaps in existing systems. Organizations choose eThority Enterprise because it provides real time end-user interaction with data in a secure, state-of-the-art platform capable of scaling from a single department to thousands of users. eThority's solutions are in use around the globe at major research universities and leading corporations. For more information, please visit www.eThority.com.

About DataScholar
DataScholar is a higher education performance engine that optimizes institutional efficiency and operations with complete data access and comprehensive, interactive analytics. Powered by eThority, a provider of intuitive solutions for Higher Education since 1992, DataScholar helps institutions leverage their user-obvious interface to empower users of all skills levels. DataScholar promotes collaboration with a secure, compliant platform; and offers simplicity, accessibility and flexibility in reporting across the institution. For more information, visit www.DataScholar.com.

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	http://twitter.com/eThorityBI

Trademarks
DataScholar and eThority are registered trademarks of eThority, Inc.

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