Digital Maturity in Higher Ed Tied to Improvements in Students’ Journey: Study
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Why Higher Ed Needs to Go All-in on Digital
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of students within the 18-24-year-old demographic now expect hybrid learning environments–even once we are beyond the pandemic. And a vast number of adult learners are seeking options that accommodate their work and family lives now that it’s clear that effective learning can indeed occur virtually. Implementing cloud technologies and achieving digital maturity within higher education will enable institutions to be innovative and responsive to evolving student preferences, while being prepared for future disruptions.
The state of digital maturity
In February and March 2021, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), in partnership with Google, surveyed U.S. higher education leaders on their views of the state of digital maturity in the higher education sector. This survey found that institutional and technology leaders strongly agreed that moving legacy IT systems to the cloud, centralizing and integrating data, and increasing the use of advanced analytics is necessary to make a successful digital transformation, and ultimately achieve digital maturity.
But what is digital maturity? Digital maturity—a measure of an organization’s ability to create value through digital delivery—focuses on three areas of technological advancement that drive large-scale innovation:
- Using cloud infrastructure
- Expanding access to data
- Using that data to improve processes through advanced analytics, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)
Although university leaders agree on prioritizing digital maturity, more than 55% said they considered their schools to be “digital performers” or “digital leaders.” However, only 25% of tech leaders at these universities stated that their schools regularly use data analytics. As with corporations and governments, higher education institutions face barriers to technological innovation, such as:
- Competing priorities to meet step-change goals and decentralized decision making
- Budget constraints
- Cultural resistance to change
- Tech staff skillset gaps
Still, leaders understand that the way to overcome institutional inertia is with a strong, goal-oriented vision of what is best for the institution overall. Although only a handful of schools have reached digital maturity as we define it, others can learn a great deal from their examples. Here are the top takeaways from higher education leaders who successfully transformed their institutions:
Digital solutions can improve the student journey in many ways
As digital capabilities hold the key to dealing effectively with declining enrollment and rising costs, higher ed leaders identified four goals that are critical to improving performance:
- Improve the student journey
- Increase operational efficiency
- Scale computing power in advanced research
- Innovate education delivery
The research found that technology investments can help enhance the student journey in the recruiting and retention of students, improving digital education delivery, government funding, and donations from alumni. Digital maturity can make institutions more agile and efficient in delivering education that aligns with the changing societal norms, evolving student preferences, and future disruptions. Survey participants shared that they plan to increase the use of the cloud by more than 50% over the next three years. By shifting legacy IT systems to the cloud, institutions can increase scalability, lower the cost of ownership, and improve operational agility, while offering a more secure, long-term data storage solution.
Cloud-native software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions provide an excellent platform for centralizing data. However, institutions that attempt to “lift and shift” their legacy systems to the cloud may encounter challenges to achieving measurable improvements in data integration and cost reduction. Higher ed leaders must realize that centralizing data and transitioning to the cloud do not happen simultaneously.
Leaders who are able to articulate a strong vision and commitment will experience a more successful technology transformation. By linking their vision to specific needs, such as more effective recruiting, leaders will find their technology investments will have a more substantial return. University presidents should base their decisions about which systems to move, when, and how on desired performance outcomes.
Big visions become a reality with small steps. Small pilot projects are an excellent way to start the journey toward digital maturity. Small steps toward a significant transformation can reduce resistance to change, build positive momentum, and produce better student outcomes. Read the full report here. If you’d like to talk to a Google Cloud expert, get in touch.
Airbus: Taking the flight to a brighter future with Google Cloud and Google Workplace
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“Any device, anytime, anywhere.” A cohort of CIOs within Airbus believed that the cloud, combined with new ways of working, could provide the foundation for this vision. Google Workspace and Google Cloud have played a pivotal role in helping Airbus realize this new path, transforming security, data management, and collaboration along the way.
Adopting a secure-by-design approach
In adopting Google Workspace and Google Cloud Airbus needed to ensure a robust, zero-trust security model that works across the entire organization, even when employees are working outside the office. Google Workspace provides a single login that enables secure access to data, based on device and user information, as well as contextual inputs that inform the security risk of each login and user action. Airbus admins also use Google Workspace to define trust rules that govern what information and files can be shared within and outside the organization, making it easy for employees to comply with best practices from anywhere.
Encryption also plays a central role in keeping information secure and private. By default, Google Workspace uses the latest cryptographic standards to encrypt all data at rest and in transit. Google Workspace also offers client-side encryption, which Airbus uses for their most sensitive projects, giving them authoritative control over their data as the sole owner of their encryption keys.
And to ensure the organization is protected against hackers, Airbus has implemented sharding as a standard practice, thereby splitting data across multiple servers and data centers. Because the company works with incredibly sensitive information—including government and military information—the ability to locate data all within European data centers continues to be a necessity.
Powerful data management
Managing an enormous volume and variety of data, Airbus needs to ensure complete compliance with internal policies, as well as with external standards, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Given this context, Airbus requires a solution that has strong built-in governance controls. Airbus also leverages the Drive labels feature, along with manual classification, to ensure that every file added to Google Drive is tagged and labeled correctly. In turn, these labels define the loss-prevention policies assigned to each file.
Staying connected during the pandemic
Before the pandemic, nearly every employee spent their workdays at an Airbus facility. When remote work became mandatory, the company made the pivot to Google Chat and Google Meet as an essential part of supporting real-time and asynchronous collaboration. Gmail also played a significant role in secure, anywhere-anytime communication, with its built-in anti-spam and anti-malware protections. Customizable filters let administrators protect against suspicious attachments, untrustworthy links, and countless other forms of malicious content. While Gmail blocks more than 99.9% of spam and phishing messages from ever reaching users’ inboxes, more advanced security measures like sandboxing can be put in place for specific use cases.
Protecting more than just data
Google Cloud’s sustainability efforts are as equally important to Airbus as data security. Google Cloud has been working to keep its climate footprint and those who use its services as low as possible, with all of Google currently carbon neutral and with a goal to run on carbon-free energy 24/7 at all of our data centers by 2030. And with our smarter, more efficient data centers, we’re already on that path with more than six times the computing power for the same amount of electrical power we used 5 years ago.
Building the future of work
By combining Google Workspace with Google Cloud, Airbus has been able to live up to its vision of “any device, anytime, anywhere.” The new model is a core foundation for its evolving future of work. Not only has Airbus adopted a zero-trust model across the organization, it’s also transformed how data is secured, managed, and accessed by employees working across a broad range of locations. The new flexible approach has also led to changes in how collaboration happens. Google is deeply gratified to have supported Airbus as they implement these changes and we continue to be proud that we’re running the cleanest cloud in the industry.
Want to learn more about how Google Workspace helps businesses like yours do more while keeping your data secure? Read this whitepaper to find out about our zero-trust model and other ways we protect organizations.
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The Inside Story of How PayPal Became an Innovator in a Competitive Market
PayPal is an American company operating a worldwide online payment system that supports online money transfers and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods like checks and money orders. The company enables over 29 million payments or transactions on a peak day. in over 200 markets around the world.
PayPal wanted to scale its business. It had achieved a 25% payment growth across the world. It wanted to ensure it’s available wherever its customers are and enable seamless transactions. PayPal also wanted to ensure flexibility. “There are huge variations in the amounts of payment that happen every day of the week or every week of the year. We wanted to ensure our systems are capable of keeping up with these variations,” says Sri Shivananda, SVP and CTO, PayPal.
The company also had to meet regulatory compliance needs across its 200 markets and increase its efficiency. It wanted to get rid of hardware on-premises which it wasn’t using on a regular basis. And above all, the company wanted to innovate quickly to beat the competition.
This is why PayPal turned to Google Cloud. Watch how it made the transition and reaped the benefits.
Customer Voices: How Firms from Across Industries Leverage Google Cloud
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From powering everyday operations and accelerating application innovation, to providing tools for specific business needs and executing on big ideas, to advancing the security of technology solutions, companies from across industries have leveraged Google Cloud for business benefits.
Companies from across industries have turned to Google Cloud for transforming their business, modernizing their infrastructure, and gleaning intelligence from data. For instance:
- Johnson & Johnson achieved a 41% increase in search results from high-quality job applicants, significantly improving the company’s ability to quickly hire top talent.
- Sony Network Communications now processes 10 billion monthly queries faster, which advances data analysis.
- University College Dublin saw significant 6-figure savings by eliminating legacy hardware, software, and maintenance.
And there are many such examples. Read the collection of case studies to find out how companies from across industries and geographies leveraged Google Cloud for measurable business benefits and for solving complex problems.
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Digital transformation is about how digital technologies can connect people and processes to solve challenges that traditional methodologies could not.
While this transformation is imperative for businesses of all sizes, the Frost & Sullivan Enterprise Cloud Maturity Index (ECMI) assessment indicates that around 85% of CXOs want to digitally transform their enterprises, but only 39% of them have a clear plan to achieve this transformation.
Most business leaders are exploring new business ideas around cloud to extract better outcomes, increase productivity, create opportunities and redefine customer engagement processes as part of their internal strategies.
It has been proved time and again that enterprises need to bank on emerging technologies like cloud that provide ‘do more with less’ approach. Cloud has the potential to transform IT departments through infrastructure consolidation and optimization.
To understand the interest and level of cloud adoption in enterprises, Google Cloud partnered with Frost & Sullivan to recognize the unique business drivers and key challenges in Cloud adoption that come the enterprise way during their business transformation journey.
Read the report to find out the challenges, solutions and benefits of digital transformation and the cloud.
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Modeling and Comparing Cloud Solutions, Costs, and Strategy
Sole-tenant nodes? VMaaS and CloudSimple? N1 vs N2 vs E2 instances? BYO Microsoft or Linux licenses? Understand how the choices available with Google Cloud can maximize your savings while expanding your migration scenarios.
Watch this webinar and learn how to assess your on-premises private cloud and compare your per-VM costs and complete solution against differing Google and third-party cloud solutions to find the best fit based on cost and features.
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