Discover how to set up for success when implementing new higher education software.

Tips for Successfully Implementing Innovative Higher Education Software

Implementing new technology in higher education is not as simple as downloading an app. The scale of deployment means it will have a significant impact on users across campus. Institutional stakeholders must have a strategic plan for going live with new software, which should include everything from communicating which solution was selected to having a long-term outlook for what success looks like. All that is complicated—so how can institutions ensure successful implementation?

Help your admissions team get ahead of the application review season.

Elevate Application Review With Your CRM

The following is excerpted from a blog by Spark451, a Jenzabar Company. 
For higher ed admissions pros, application review season is where strategy meets execution. The stakes are high, your team is stretched, and there’s an incredibly slim margin for error. Fortunately, your CRM can help streamline the process in a number of ways.

Student success strategies need to involve the entire institution.

Student Success Is an Institutional Strategy, Not a Department Initiative

Traditionally, higher education student success initiatives lived in advising or retention offices, as those departments were primarily responsible for keeping students engaged on campus. Today, things have changed. An institution’s brand is now largely associated with student success outcomes, including overall persistence, graduation rates, career readiness, and job placement. As a result, student success programs need to be approached from more than just a single office; the entire institution needs to be involved.

Discover how to drive successful change management initiatives across campus.

Change Management Success Depends on Your Approach

Onboarding new technology is vital to an institution’s ability to evolve over time, but long-term success relies on seeing the whole picture: Just as much as it is about adopting new technology, change management is about adopting a new approach to modernization.

As expectations change, how can institutions ensure they get a return on higher education technology investments?

EdTech Investments: How to Strengthen ROI in a Rapidly Changing Landscape

Technology is paramount in higher education. But as institutions face unprecedented challenges like shifting student and staff expectations, tightening budgets, new compliance regulations, and more, how can campus leaders ensure a positive return on their technology investments (which are rarely small)? How can campus leaders stay ahead when systems and applications continue to evolve?

Learn how a unified platform can help you drive institutional success and agility.

Don’t Put a Pin It: It’s Time to Turn Patchwork Tech Stacks Into Platforms

There is a common technology complaint among many higher education institutions: Fragmented systems create inefficiencies, disconnected experiences, and data silos. But institutions’ tech stacks weren’t designed this way; they evolved over time, and their rips have grown each year. How did we get where we are today? And how do we find an organized way forward?

Legacy systems can contain hidden costs that can hold institutions back from transforming into the agile organizations that students and staff demand.

The Hidden Cost of Legacy Systems in Higher Education

When institutional decision-makers talk about technology costs, the conversation often focuses on the price tag. That’s because fees associated with licensing, maintenance, and upgrades are easy to quantify. But when legacy systems are examined more closely, hidden costs are brought to light—expenses that can hold institutions back from transforming into the agile organizations that students and staff now demand.

A SaaS SIS can enable more predictive budgeting, improve scalability, enhance security, reduce IT burdens, power innovation, and more.

Are You Considering SaaS SIS? Here’s Why You Should

The growing complexity of the technology landscape combined with increased pressure for colleges to deliver satisfying experiences across campus despite budget constraints has encouraged more institutional stakeholders to look to the cloud as a cost-effective, strategic option. And student information systems (SIS) delivered through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model are in the spotlight.

When building an institution-wide student success strategy, it’s important to consider the factors that will impact students and their ability to achieve success.

Factors to Consider When Building a Student Success Strategy

When it comes to their success in higher education, students have always been in the driver’s seat. However, institutions still have a major responsibility when it comes to ensuring student success; they need&nbsp;to&nbsp;establish&nbsp;and upkeep an&nbsp;institution-wide student success program that supports positive student experiences and&nbsp;outcomes. But when it comes to building a lasting student success strategy, what concerns need to be considered?&nbsp;What&nbsp;areas directly influence student success?

When choosing a new SIS, how important is implementation? Is it important enough to sway the decision?

What Role Should Implementation Play When Choosing a Student Information System?

When institutions evaluate a new student information system (SIS), the focus naturally lands on whether the features and student needs align, necessary integrations are present, and whether the system will support the institution’s vision for the future. These are essential considerations. But one factor often sits uncomfortably in the conversation: implementation.

We explore the current pressures facing today’s financial aid teams as well as how a modern financial aid management system can help.

How Financial Aid Offices Can Thrive in a New Era of Student Expectations

Sitting at the intersection of rapid regulatory change, heightened student expectations, and constant pressure to do more with fewer resources, financial aid offices are quietly carrying one of the heaviest loads in higher education. At many institutions, those external pressures are compounded by outdated internal systems—workflows that depend on spreadsheets, communications that can’t be automated, and oversight processes that require too much manual intervention. As a result, colleges and universities are taking a closer look at cloud-based, automated financial aid systems.

The campus may shut down, but student concerns often ramp up. Here’s how to help students during higher education’s holiday break.

How to Keep Student Support Systems Afloat During the Holiday Break

As campuses wind down for the holidays, students may be heading home, but many faculty and staff still have plenty left on their plates. December is crunch time across higher education: final grades, year-end reports, budget work, January term planning, financial aid updates, spring enrollment pushes, and a dozen other deadlines all converge at the same time. With to-do lists stacking up and offices preparing for reduced hours or short closures, it’s easy to overlook what students may need during the semester break.

Jenzabar President and COO Sam Burgio sits down with EDUCAUSE to discuss Jenzabar’s take on the 2026 Top 10.

Data and AI Define Higher Ed’s Path Forward: An EDUCAUSE Interview With Sam Burgio

Higher education is facing a growing paradox: Institutions need better data and AI-enabled insights to address enrollment, financial, and ROI pressures, yet many feel unprepared to adopt these tools with confidence. That tension, which is at the heart of the 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10, raises an important question: How can institutions move toward data- and AI-enabled decision-making in a way that is responsible, realistic, and aligned with their missions?

In the final part of our series, we explore how higher education leaders can leverage proactive strategies, AI efficiencies, and data to turn insights into action.

The 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10, Part 3: Turning Insights Into Action

In Parts 1 and 2 of our 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10 series, we explored how culture, tools, and processes can help institutions evolve from reactive problem-solving to proactive innovation. Higher education has done the hard work of modernizing its tools, data, and culture. Now comes the next step: using them.

We explore the next four trends from the 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10 and what tools or processes institutions need to prepare for the future.

The 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10 Part 2: Tools to Transform Campus Culture

In&nbsp;<a href="https://jenzabar.com/blog/the-2026-educause-top-ten-part-one-the-right-culture-is-critical" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Part 1 of our EDUCAUSE Top 10 series</a>, we explored how culture drives success across cybersecurity, AI, and analytics.&nbsp;In&nbsp;Part 2, we shift the focus to examine the technology&nbsp;and processes&nbsp;institutions will need to&nbsp;evolve&nbsp;campus&nbsp;culture. From building internal systems like governance committees to the intentional exploration of new, better technology systems, these next four trends—data-centric culture, knowledge management for AI, measured technology adoption, and technology literacy—focus on what it takes to make the shift from technological possibility to sustainable progress.

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Tips for Successfully Implementing Innovative Higher Education Software

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