University expects 30% uplift in student load planning with connected planning approach

A leading Australian public university.

The client faced significant challenges with its student load planning processes

resulting in missed opportunities for coordinated planning. They had already achieved over $900K p.a. of labour savings for academic workforce planning. They wanted to extend this successful planning approach into student load planning. The university lacked an effective method for scenario planning across all functions and historical plans failed to inform annual planning instruments or link plans. The academic workload planning process was highly manual and inflexible on a legacy platform, requiring around 4,000 hours of manual effort annually.

To prepare annual forecasts and determine enrolment numbers, the commercial analytics team used SAP BW & SAP BPC but encountered platform limitations and lacked automatic downstream planning linkage. The university lacked an effective method for scenario planning across all functions and historical plans failed to inform annual planning instruments or link plans. The academic workload planning process was highly manual and inflexible on a legacy platform, requiring around 4,000 hours of manual effort annually. To prepare annual forecasts and determine enrolment numbers, the commercial analytics team used SAP BW & SAP BPC but encountered platform limitations and lacked automatic downstream planning linkage.

Innovior extended the connected planning approach using Anaplan

to address the university's student planning challenges. They developed a proof of concept student load planning model that was rolled out in phases synced to academic planning periods. Innovior collaborated with the client and Anaplan to standardise and scale the model across the university, including implementing casual workforce management to improve budgeting and spending management.

Change management activities included online showcases, frequent communication, regular training sessions, user surveys and a self-serve knowledge base with support through phone and online chat. The approach consisted of pre-engagement, mobilisation, sprint cycles, deployment and ongoing managed services. Should the proof of concept be successful and Anaplan permanently implemented into the university, the following results are expected to be achieved: