Download PDF
Ensuring strong ROI in education: Gray Associates teams with Qlik to deliver powerful insights
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics
- Analytics & Modeling - Machine Learning
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
Applicable Industries
- Education
Applicable Functions
- Sales & Marketing
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Supply Chain Visibility
- Predictive Quality Analytics
Services
- Data Science Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
The traditional undergraduate education in the US is facing a decline, and the competition is increasing, especially with the advent of Covid-19 which has forced many institutions to move online. Budgets are tight, particularly for on-the-ground organizations that face the additional cost of maintaining buildings. It is vital that colleges and universities maximize returns when they are making large investments like opening a new campus or satellite. They must be sure that the site is right and must know the demographics of the students they aim to recruit. They must also pinpoint the best focus for their marketing spend. Obtaining this information requires the analysis of millions of lines of data, billions of highly complex calculations and input from the latest machine learning technologies.
About The Customer
Gray Associates is a company founded in 2002 and headquartered in Boston with representatives across the US. Initially a management consultancy, in 2010 it began to work with education institutions and has now transformed into a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business. Over ten years, it has amassed a huge bank of data assets and methodologies that it has combined into a proven method of identifying and predicting where institutions can reach the most students. The company uses Qlik to collect data from its educational clients and combine this with its own data and methodologies.
The Solution
Gray Associates uses Qlik Sense to collect data from its educational clients and combine this with its own data and methodologies. Insights are derived from big data sources including US Census data, as well as competitive indicators such as regional job postings and matching programs from existing universities or trade schools. Qlik data is then brought into the automated machine learning program, Qlik AutoML, designed to simplify machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Not only are Qlik AutoML’s predictions operationalized into Qlik Sense for visualization, but the predicted dataset is enhanced with prediction influencers which explain how each attribute in the dataset influences the prediction. The results show how many students the client can reach by locating a campus near a particular region or spending more marketing dollars there. Colored heat maps make it easy to identify opportunities or drawbacks and clients have ongoing access to the results through Qlik Sense dashboards that are built, housed and managed by Gray Associates.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
IoT platform Enables Safety Solutions for U.S. School Districts
Designed to alert drivers when schoolchildren are present, especially in low-visibility conditions, school-zone flasher signals are typically updated manually at each school. The switching is based on the school calendar and manually changed when an unexpected early dismissal occurs, as in the case of a weather-event altering the normal schedule. The process to reprogram the flashers requires a significant effort by school district personnel to implement due to the large number of warning flashers installed across an entire school district.
Case Study
Revolutionizing Medical Training in India: GSL Smart Lab and the LAP Mentor
The GSL SMART Lab, a collective effort of the GSL College of Medicine and the GSL College of Nursing and Health Science, was facing a challenge in providing superior training to healthcare professionals. As clinical medicine was becoming more focused on patient safety and quality of care, the need for medical simulation to bridge the educational gap between the classroom and the clinical environment was becoming increasingly apparent. Dr. Sandeep Ganni, the director of the GSL SMART Lab, envisioned a world-class surgical and medical training center where physicians and healthcare professionals could learn skills through simulation training. He was looking for different simulators for different specialties to provide both basic and advanced simulation training. For laparoscopic surgery, he was interested in a high fidelity simulator that could provide basic surgical and suturing skills training for international accreditation as well as specific hands-on training in complex laparoscopic procedures for practicing physicians in India.
Case Study
Implementing Robotic Surgery Training Simulator for Enhanced Surgical Proficiency
Fundacio Puigvert, a leading European medical center specializing in Urology, Nephrology, and Andrology, faced a significant challenge in training its surgical residents. The institution recognized the need for a more standardized and comprehensive training curriculum, particularly in the area of robotic surgery. The challenge was underscored by two independent studies showing that less than 5% of residents in Italian and German residency programs could perform major or complex procedures by the end of their residency. The institution sought to establish a virtual reality simulation lab that would include endourological, laparoscopic, and robotic platforms. However, they needed a simulator that could replicate both the hardware and software of the robotic Da Vinci console used in the operating room, without being connected to the actual physical console. They also required a system that could provide both basic and advanced simulation training, and a metrics system to assess the proficiency of the trainees before they performed surgical procedures in the operating theater.
Case Study
Edinburgh Napier University streamlines long-distance learning with Cisco WebEX
• Geographically dispersed campus made in-person meetings costly and inconvenient.• Distance-learning programs in Malaysia, India, and China required dependable, user-friendly online tools to maximize interaction in collaborative workspaces.• Virtual learning environment required a separate sign-in process, resulting in a significant administrative burden for IT staff and limited adoption of collaboration technology.
Case Study
8x increased productivity with VKS
Before VKS, a teacher would spend a lot of time showing a group of 22 students how to build a set of stairs within a semester of 120 hours. Along with not leaving the teacher much time to provide one-on-one support for each student to properly learn carpentry, it also left a considerable amount of room for error. Key information would be misinterpreted or lost as the class was taught in the typical show-and-tell way.
Case Study
Scalable IoT Empowering GreenFlex's Sustainable Growth
GreenFlex, a company that supports sustainable development, decarbonization, and energy efficiency, faced several challenges in its quest to expand its business. The company needed to deploy a robust and sustainable IoT technology to support its growth. It was crucial for them to monitor and control devices at customer sites in a safe and reliable manner. They also needed to integrate devices across a range of communication protocols and gather and act on data to meet efficiency targets. GreenFlex had previously built IoT capabilities into its digital platform, GreenFlexIQ, to monitor and manage customer sites remotely. However, they soon realized that they needed a new platform to support their ambitions. They needed a platform that could scale to connect more devices for production management and make it easier for the operations team to manage devices in the field.
