Ellucian Colleague SaaS Delivered 133% ROI for Higher Education Institutions According to Total Economic Impact Study

Independent study reveals transformative cost savings, productivity gains, and enhanced student retention after deploying Ellucian's cloud-based SIS and ERP

RESTON, Va., Feb. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, today announced the results of its commissioned Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) of Ellucian Colleague SaaS study conducted by Forrester Consulting. The study highlights a three-year 133% return on investment (ROI) and $4.11M in net present value (NPV) for higher education institutions that transition to Colleague SaaS, a cloud-based Student Information System (SIS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, with a payback period of less than six months after go-live. Forrester's study aggregated data and experiences from interviews with eight anonymized Ellucian customers, creating a single composite profile of a private four-year college with 2,500 students. This framework provided a detailed analysis of the costs, benefits, and risks associated with modernizing to Colleague SaaS with Ellucian Insights and Experience.

Key benefits revealed by the study include:

• Productivity Gains: Nearly $3M in value from increased staff productivity, enabling teams to focus on strategic initiatives, and from enhanced scalability and flexibility, ensuring institutions are well-prepared for growth and evolving needs.
  
  
• Operational Efficiency: $2.8M worth of reduced maintenance effort for IT staff, benefiting from vendor-managed services, as well as avoided legacy costs, such as infrastructure and on-prem maintenance.
  
  
• Reliability and Security: $1.4M worth of improved system performance through optimized reliability and efficiency.
  
  
• Student Retention & Enrollment: $152.6K in increased profit through advanced analytics that led to the creation of new courses improving enrollment, along with enhanced academic advising, class registration, and programs that reduced dropout rates.

"This independent evaluation by Forrester affirms for us the transformative power and impact of Colleague SaaS at a time when institutions are under incredible pressure to do more with less and new things too," said Laura Ipsen, President and CEO, Ellucian. "The results show that institutions leveraging our platform are realizing significant value—saving more than 35,000 hours of administrative time and 9,400 hours of IT time annually—while also reducing IT infrastructure expenses, improving student retention through advanced data analytics, and enhancing user experiences."

Ipsen added: "While this study focuses on Colleague SaaS, we believe there are relevant findings for all institutions considering modernization with Ellucian's broader suite of SaaS solutions. Higher education depends on agility and deep insight, and we're proud to deliver the comprehensive cloud technology that makes both possible."

Anonymized customers interviewed by Forrester spoke to the value of Ellucian SaaS:

• "I would stress to anyone who will listen: The peace of mind that we've experienced for the last five years with a system that's always up and stable and works is worth the cost that we had to invest." - Vice President of IT, higher education institution.
  
  
• "We wanted to work with a company that knew higher ed. We were not interested in a third-party generic ERP system that just had students as an add-on. If they didn't understand how this world worked, they wouldn't be able to meet the needs of our students, faculty, and staff." - Vice President of IT, higher education institution.
  
  
• "The SaaS platform is a core university system that will continue to innovate and evolve to meet our current and future needs. The SaaS environment ensures that there is a team of experts working around the clock to ensure our systems are up to date and that our student data is well protected." - Chief Information Officer, higher education institution.
  
  
• "We did a training session for faculty and all staff who use the system. We never did anything for students. The first attempt that they had at using Colleague was registration. It worked, nobody complained, and it was just easy." - Chief Information Officer, higher education institution.
  
  
• "Now that we're in Colleague SaaS, we're always on the latest and greatest of everything." - Chief Information Officer, higher education institution.
  
  
• "We had several conversations with Ellucian and became comfortable with moving to the SaaS platform. And in hindsight, I'm thrilled that we did." - Vice President of IT, higher education institution.

Click here to read Forrester's full study.

ABOUT ELLUCIAN

Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries, serving over 20 million students. Ellucian's AI-powered platform, trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, drives efficiency, personalized experiences, and strengthened engagement for students, faculty and staff. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

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SOURCE Ellucian