Equip your institution with the tools and expertise to forecast, analyze and act—Plaid delivers the clarity and support higher education leaders need to advance strategic enrolment management and achieve their goals.
Expertise You Can Count On
Plaid Analytics helps colleges and universities turn complex student data into actionable insights that drive strategic enrolment management and institutional success. With over 60 years of collective experience, we combine best practices, practical tools, staff training, and visionary, proven approaches to deliver results. Trusted across North America, we are leaders in higher education data strategy and innovation.
Our solutions have helped institutions like the University of Alberta and Río Hondo College improve student retention, realize their visions for the future, enhance internal capacity and reduce manual data processes.
Why Plaid
Unlike other firms, we start and end our collaborations with you in mind.
- We meet you where you are at: What we do is based on creating data insight, but how we do it begins with understanding what you want to achieve, how you work with your information, and the people behind the data.
- We collaborate with your analysts: We know that your technicians and analysts are a key resource for building out any data technology. We work closely with your team to develop solutions that bridge any gaps between data, systems, and decision-making, to ensure project outcomes are both useful and trusted.
- For custom projects, we design solutions that fit your environment: Whether that’s on-premises servers, cloud data warehouses, or business intelligence tools you already use. If your data stack has a gap, we’ll recommend tools that complement what you have. For forecasting, we deliver Plaid Forecast as a secure, cloud-hosted SaaS product — no infrastructure to set up, no code to write. It’s ready to use out-of-the-box, giving you instant access to powerful forecasting without adding technical burden to your team.
- Empower your people: From training sessions to documentation, we ensure you and your staff are confident and capable of managing and expanding on the solutions we've built together.
- You get to decide: When the engagement ends, you get to choose your next steps. Whether you're ready to take over managing the data warehouse and workflow automations, want a roadmap for scaling up the work, or looking for extended support and maintenance time, Plaid works with you to ensure a successful project hand-off.
~ Melissa Padfield, Deputy Provost, Students and Enrolment
University of Alberta
We support people just like you
Our clients needs are as diverse as their institutions, but their responsibilities, positions, and resource constraints are just like yours. Project sponsors we've worked with include:
- Executive leadership, including Provosts and Associate Vice Presidents
- Institutional Research directors and managers
- Registrars and Strategic Enrolment Managers
- Independent and government-adjacent higher education support agencies
We've worked with cross-functional teams and designed solutions that address the needs of multiple departments, including:
- Information Technology & Services
- Institutional Effectiveness, Surveys, Business Intelligence, and Data Analysis
- Human Resources and Finance
- Facilities, Real Estate, and Operations
- Student Services, Success, and Advising
- Communications and Marketing
- Interdisciplinary working groups and sub-committees
We are thought-leaders
We provide practical insight and visionary thinking for data analytics and strategic enrolment planning for the North American higher education sector. Through webinars, case studies, conference sessions, speaking engagements, blogs, and research, we share our knowledge to advance the data practices and processes, showing how the sector can leverage the latest advances in technology to advance student success.
We invest in learners
Whether we are hiring students and recent grads, mentoring students, providing custom training to clients, speaking as an expert on a panel, presenting to a small group on a specialized topic, or hosting a webinar, we readily share what we know to help others grow.
We invest in people, providing opportunities for professionals in the sector to learn new skills, gain valuable work experience, or upgrade their understanding of complex topics.
Announcements
We're proud to announce Data with Purpose, a strategic partnership between Plaid Analytics and Higher Education Strategy Associates. Our shared belief in higher education as a force for transforming lives, communities, and the country brought us together. This joint venture is deliberately designed to meet the moment: helping postsecondary institutions navigate complexity with smarter tools, clearer insights, and more data informed decision-making.