June 18, 2024 • 23 mins
What if the future of higher education is already here, driven by cutting-edge technology and strategic innovation? In this episode, we sit down with Laura Ipsen, CEO of Ellucian, live from the bustling ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego. Laura provides a front-row seat to the pivotal conversations reshaping higher education. From the integration of AI to enhance learning outcomes and streamline administrative tasks to the importance of digital transformation, community interaction, and workforce development, we cover it all. Laura also sheds light on how Ellucian's agile approach supports institutions worldwide and their role in addressing challenges like student mental health and the enrollment cliff.
Discover how cloud technology is revolutionizing educational institutions, boosting productivity, and aiding in the reskilling of non-traditional workers. Laura discusses Ellucian's strategic partnership with AWS and the use of AI for data privacy and cybersecurity. We also reflect on the excitement of Ellucian Live 2024, featuring notable speakers like Bill Nye and William Shatner, and drawing over 5,500 attendees. Laura's insights into evaluating and integrating new ed-tech solutions through open APIs and partnerships are not to be missed. Plus, we'll give you a sneak peek into our upcoming event in Orlando, promising even more engaging discussions and fresh ideas. Join us for an episode packed with innovation, strategy, and a vision for the future of higher education.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hi, this is Eloy Ortiz-Oakley, and welcome back
to the Rant, the podcast wherewe pull back the curtain and
break down the people, thepolicies and the politics of our
higher education system.
In this episode, I am back atthe ASU GSV Summit in San Diego,
sitting down with another greatleader, laura Ibsen, ceo of
(00:31):
Ellucian.
Ellucian provides enterpriseresource planning products and
cloud-based services to collegesand universities throughout the
globe, and I get to sit downwith Laura to talk about what's
going on in Ellucian, howthey're thinking about
integrating technology,specifically artificial
intelligence, into their suiteof solutions, and what interests
(00:52):
her about the ASU GSV Summit.
We'll also talk about theirevent, ellucian Live, and how
it's attracting more and morepeople from across the globe.
I also want to take a moment tothank Ellucian.
They are a sponsor of the Rantpodcast and without their
support, we wouldn't be able tobring you great interviews like
those that I'm recording at theASU GSV Summit.
(01:13):
With that, please join me inwelcoming Laura Ibsen to the
Rant and I hope you enjoy theinterview.
Laura, welcome to the Rantpodcast.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Thank you.
It's awesome to be here and Inever thought I'd be sitting
here with you doing a podcast,but it is exciting and
congratulations on all thesuccess.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, thanks, and thanks to Lucien for helping
sponsor the RENT Podcast.
Absolutely, we reallyappreciate it.
It gives us the opportunity tocome to events like ASU GSV, sit
down with great leaders likeyourself and talk about what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, ditto, back to you.
Thank you for being part ofthis community and making sure
that you shine a light on manyimportant things that we have in
higher education.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, there's a lot going on here in San Diego this
week, and let me start with that.
So, since you've been here atASU GSV this year, what's
exciting you?
What do you find interestingsince you've been here?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I've had a lot of meetings.
What I find exciting is thebuzz, the community, the sidebar
conversations just in theopening event that we had with
Debra Quaso just like connectingwith old friends.
I saw Chancellor Greenstein thePatsy system?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yes, so did.
I.
He should come on the podcast,Danny should.
Paula Blank, of course here.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So just like running into the people that are just
talking about different thingsin the community, I saw your
successors, dr.
Christian and she was justamazing.
So it's exciting to see themomentum getting carried forward
in the California CommunityCollege system.
And then this morning I hostedwith AWS and Google, a breakfast
(02:45):
of women leaders acrosseducation which was exciting,
and we talked about digitaltransformation.
We talked about the crisis ofstudent mental health workforce,
how we're building thesepipelines into the workforce as
digital is transformingeverything.
So lots on the horizon and wegot two more days.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Two more days.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yes, I don't know if I can survive two more days, but
yes, so it's been a lot of fun,very busy, but we came up
because of Ellucian Live too,which we'll get to.
That's right, that's right?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, that's always a big event and we'll talk about
Ellucian Live.
So, laura, for our listenerswho've been living under a rock,
who don't know Ellucian, tellus a little bit about Ellucian.
What's your mission and what'syour vision for the organization
over the next five, 10 years.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Sure.
Well, we as a company, we'vebeen focused on higher education
and the technology to serveinstitutions from the
administrative side and all ofstudent for over 50 years and
our mission really hasn'tchanged.
It's to power higher educationso institutions can empower
student success.
At Lucian, we really putstudents at the center.
We focus our innovation tomaking sure that you bring the
(03:48):
best class in, that they'regetting all the support and
services and education theygraduate into opportunities for
the future.
So more and more we're doingthat, just piling the innovation
in there.
We serve 22 million studentsaround the world.
We serve in 50 countries soit's an exciting time and close
to 3,000 institutions 80% of thecommunity colleges are using
(04:12):
the Ellucian ERP and studentinformation system.
So it's an exciting time, andnow we're transforming to this
thing called cloud.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
So do you consider yourself a technology company?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
We're an ed tech company 100% and we've got great
investors Blackstone and Vista.
What's really fantastic now isthat we're doubling down on all
of the innovation to moveartificial intelligence in to
really see and predict and usethe data to make sure students
are successful to take some ofthe administrative burden and
things like reporting off thebacks of institutions,
successful to take some of theadministrative burden and things
(04:46):
like reporting off the backs ofinstitutions.
And so it's a really excitingtime to be an ed tech company
driving a significant amount ofthe transformation.
We're about 50% of the marketin the US.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Wow.
So here at ASU GSV, you knowthis is the sea of ed tech
companies.
It is All shapes and sizes, allbackgrounds, from all parts of
the world.
You know Lucian's no smallstartup.
Lucian's been around for a longtime, as you said.
So how do you think aboutintegrating the technologies
(05:14):
that you see popping up?
I mean, this time last year wewere just talking about ChatGPT
and here we are.
Everything is AI-driven,everything is about large
language models.
So how are you leading thisvery mature organization in this
kind of environment thinkingabout implementing technology?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
We are mature.
We're a billion dollar companyin the billion dollar club when
it comes to revenue, so we'rethe market leader exclusively
the largest ed tech event,exclusively focused on higher
education.
So first we feel a deepresponsibility to deliver to the
institutions that have beenwith us for decades and decades.
While we power up significantinfrastructure, the
(05:55):
administrative tools and all ofthe CRM, it's also important to
be very agile.
We built our platform, our SaaSplatform, where we're working
with.
California Community Colleges onand many others to be open,
interoperable, extensible,secure, and the reason that's so
important is that thisecosystem that we see in the ed
tech community, we want it tothrive, we want innovation to
(06:16):
happen and by integrating withall of these new startups and
younger companies, it's veryimportant, it's very healthy for
higher education, startups andyounger companies.
It's very important, it's veryhealthy for higher education.
So our goal is to make surethat we're open, that we
integrate, that we provide thatas opportunities across the
entire landscape.
So that's what makes it fun andnot just higher education, but
now we can connect back into Kthrough 12.
(06:37):
And when?
We talked for many years.
It was about how do you see thedata for all students.
Now the game changer moment isaround AI.
So everything that we're doingnow helping students stay on
track, understand not only whatare they learning in terms of a
degree, but how do they amplifytheir opportunity with different
courses and curriculum andtying that into the skill sets
(06:58):
and then attaching that directlyto more of the workforce
opportunities.
So, as you look at the fundinggoing into higher education,
that you can have outcomes thatare good for learners, good for
the institution and thecommunities that are going to
work in.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
So I spend a lot of time talking about those
workforce outcomes.
I mean you can't find a statein the country, a governor or
mayor who's not talking aboutthe workforce outcomes, the
economic mobility, the lift forlearners, the return on
investment.
So how do you add value to thatequation when an institutional
(07:32):
leader is thinking about usingyour ERP?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, number one.
All of the information aboutstudents flow through the
European Student InformationSystem, so the most powerful
thing we can do is to helpinstitutions unlock the value of
their data to make sure it'sall connected.
So, right, most powerful thingwe can do is to help
institutions unlock the value oftheir data to make sure it's
all connected.
So, right now it lives in manydifferent silos.
It's not about going to thecloud, but when you move to the
cloud and software as a service,you connect all that data.
(07:56):
It's one massive lake of data.
Then you can actually add onnew capabilities so that the
bursar has insights that thesame the student has a registrar
, your Provost, your faculty soit's really unlocking the value
of data.
That's the most powerfultransformation that we see
happening now democratizing thatdata, connecting it, serving up
new experiences for studentsand also making sure that we
(08:19):
take care of the most the thestudents that are
underrepresented, that we makesure that the students that are
underrepresented, that we makesure that the students that are
from diverse backgrounds havejust as great of a learning
opportunity and the financialsupport, the support that
students need across the wholeexperience for when they go in,
that there's a value of a degree.
And that's the biggestchallenge right now.
(08:39):
Right, every student and manyparents.
I have two in college what isthe value of a degree?
And now it's really about withthe products we build.
We just announced the LucienJourney.
This is a student journey thatwe can then show that the
curriculum and degrees and theplanning, what skill sets do
students have, and then tie thatdirectly to the workforce
(08:59):
opportunities.
So a student that may graduatewith a degree in anthropology
can say hey, that degree.
I have skill sets that map intomany more jobs.
So this is where we just haveto get better between the
intersection of higher educationand the needs of the workforce,
and AI will be a powerful toolto do that.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, given how far we've come in AI in just one
year, I'm looking forward to seewhat changes come about In just
one year.
I'm looking forward to see whatchanges come about.
So we talk a lot about goinginto the cloud or moving to the
cloud, moving these services inthe cloud.
And for our listeners who arenot in the IT department, to you
(09:37):
, how do you explain to a highered leader why is this a good
thing?
How does this make theiroperation more efficient?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, it is about efficiency and productivity that
when the institutions we servemove to cloud, we do a full ROI
and total cost of ownership.
So you see what the value is.
We show where the workflowswill be more productive.
We automate all the reporting.
So if you have access to thedata.
The report should be like sendme a report on this, versus
(10:07):
having teams of people withExcel, spreadsheets and
everything else.
So how do we get more of thatwork?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
done faster.
People love their Excelspreadsheets.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I know they do, and it's not that we don't love
Microsoft but you can have thosetoo.
But how do we make everythingmore productive?
The other one is how do youmake it more secure Because this
is an area you focused on fromfraud detection?
all of those types of things youcan do much better when you're
in the cloud.
So delivering up cloud is aboutthe productivity of an
(10:33):
institution, especially as nowwe see better capabilities to
deliver on the class that youwant to bring in.
And enrollment, because rightnow the enrollment cliff is
right now and in the future,institutions need to be more
focused on how do they market toand attract the traditional
(10:54):
learners.
But more importantly when wethink about reskilling
non-traditional workers, andthis is what was so compelling
in Sonia's conversation withMichael Crow.
Compelling in Sonia'sconversation with Michael Crow,
dr Christian, that she said wehave 1.6 million high school
students in.
California, but there's 10million that can be part of the
community college system toretrain, to make sure that we
(11:15):
help them find those jobs of thefuture, and I just think that's
so exciting.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, no, lots of different opportunities,
particularly as it comes tomaking sure that we improve the
pipeline to a workforce outcome,because, as you mentioned,
that's what learners are lookingfor.
That's what attracts them to aprogram of study.
Very few have the luxury ofjust learning for learning's
sake.
They want to learn becausethey've been told that there is
(11:42):
an economic value on the otherend of that, that there's a
better life on the other end ofthat.
So now you talked about dataprivacy.
I can't tell you how manyinstitutional leaders I've come
across that have had challenges,you know, most recently with
financial aid fraud.
They've had challenges withhaving ransomware attack their
(12:03):
servers and all sorts ofchallenges with managing their
data.
You know a lot of actors outthere creating false profiles
trying to get access tofinancial aid.
How does Ellucian helpinstitutional leaders guard
against those threats?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Well, we have a very robust technology group.
We have a chief informationsecurity officer that not only
works with us, but is attachedto many institutions as an
advisor when a ransomware mayhappen, embedded in all of our
solutions, and both on-premisebut more and more service in
cloud.
We have an amazing partner inAWS, and so a lot of that
(12:45):
security, those capabilitiesaround breach and cybersecurity,
is in partnership with AWS,with our software.
So that's where we're enablingnew AI to detect things early,
before someone infiltrates intoour system.
And then there's many othercompanies that we know very well
.
They're looking at capabilitiesthat will detect fraud.
(13:06):
And some of that we're buildinginto our new student portfolio
of innovations is frauddetection that someone can't
come in, register and apply andwe know it'll be a false student
.
I don't know if that's even afalse student, but a fake
student.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
A fake student, that's right.
A bad actor.
Let's talk about your big event.
Yes, you just coming offEllucian Live 2024.
2024.
And it is a big event I've hadthe pleasure of attending.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We get you back there again.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yes, it's always fun.
So tell us about Ellucian Live.
What were some of the thingsthat were exciting this year?
What are chief informationofficers, chief student services
officers telling you that theyneed right now?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, well, a lot of them, I think, have seen that.
The messaging that we've hadabout putting students first,
putting them at the centermaking sure that we're
delivering all the value tostudents, tying it to the
workforce opportunities, makingsure that we're delivering all
the value to students, tying itto the workforce opportunities.
That really resonated witheveryone from the broad
community of the user community,which this is.
We had over 5,500 attendeesthis year and so the power of
(14:15):
everything we're doing toinnovate with AI, new tools that
serve students, both on theadministrative side and with the
students themselves, in areaslike automated reporting enabled
by AI, our communicatorcapabilities that can have
constant connection withstudents, knowing what they need
All of that was just whatsurfaced really well.
(14:35):
Beyond that, we had Bill Nye,the science guy.
We had William Shatner, who wasamazing.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I missed Kirk.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
You missed him and he was just fantastic.
He talked a lot about educationhis views on what should happen
and what students are demanding.
So that was tremendouslyexciting.
But the most important thing isthe community is getting
together.
Many of our customers now wehave 2,000 that are actually
consuming something in SaaS.
So the wave is happening tomove to the most modern platform
so that institutional leadersand faculty and staff can really
(15:06):
build this future, this verydynamic hybrid way of learning
where you're going to learnanytime, anywhere.
It's going to be degree,non-degree credentials,
micro-credentials, all of that'scoming together.
We just are there to be theenabler, to be the platform of
experiences of innovation and tobetter serve the institutions
around the world of experiencesof innovation and to better
serve the institutions aroundthe world.
We have 250 million students,traditional learners, around the
(15:28):
world Wow, we serve 10% today.
So you know for us it's also anopportunity to bring a global
community together because manyinstitutions that are looking at
enrollment cliff.
Us institutions have a greatopportunity to bring learners in
from other parts of the world,to be more diverse increasingly
diverse from the perspective, sowe found that really powerful
(15:48):
as well.
We had 33 countries attendingeLive this year.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Wow, that sounded like a fun event.
Here at ASU GSV, there are lotsof technology companies trying
to build solutions that answersome of the questions that
you've raised and some of thequestions that you're getting
from your users.
As the predominant platform inthe US, I'm sure there's a lot
(16:13):
of ed tech companies coming toyou, you know.
Can we build this?
Can we add this service to you?
How do you evaluate this hugeuniverse of solutions that are
being created?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well, that's where being an open and not a
proprietary platform is reallyimportant.
So, as we build that out, wehave strategic partners, whether
it's AWS or TouchNet.
That does the payment systemsthat we focus on every day.
We have delivery partners, butwhen it comes to these new
capabilities, we listen to theinstitutions we serve.
(16:46):
What do you need?
We want them to be openlyintegrating into our platform,
so we have open APIs where theycan connect.
So, it's not about putting wallsup or you're great, but we're
not sure about this, and many ofthem will compete, but that's a
good thing because it makes usstronger.
So it's building that openecosystem, helping them
integrate into what aninstitution needs and making
(17:08):
sure that we keep the pulse onwhat is next.
What do you need for yourstudents, what do you need for
faculty, for the administrationand serving up the data in new
ways.
So one of the most powerfulthings is making sure that we
have, with the Lucy andexperience, the cards and the
dashboard based on persona as achance, or you can see all of
the student information, theeconomic profiles across the
(17:29):
state, how you're connecting tothe workforce.
That's the big dream that.
I know you talk quite a bitabout is that you show the value
of education through thesuccess of students.
Our vision really is to unlocklearning for all, and in many
places around the world andstates we haven't done that yet.
Many of our underrepresentedstudents are disadvantaged from
getting into education, not tomention you know FAFSA didn't
(17:52):
help.
We're super focused on theFAFSA issues, like out front on
that and it's it really hurts.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And you give the Department of Education a little
help.
Yeah, we offered.
We offered to give them helpand we would still help.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And I think we're making progress there.
But that's where, as anindustry leader, we feel that we
have a responsibility to showup on the toughest issues with
customers, whether it'scybersecurity, the issues with
the challenges of FAFSA, thatwe've had to be there for many
of the institutions that serveso well the HBCUs.
We had one of our owners,robert Smith who runs the
(18:27):
Student Freedom Initiative onstage.
He was phenomenal.
It resonated across with everyinstitution.
It showed the power of the bestinvestors investing in our
success, which leads to thesupport and success of
institutions.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So just a really really exciting time there.
Well, it sounds like I need tobe doing podcast interviews at
Ellucian Life.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Well, actually.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
I was going to raise that at the end.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
This is just so wonderful, we've got a few that
do it, but I would love for youto host you.
We're passionate about what wedo and serving and we truly
believe that education, thattechnology, is a great equalizer
for education, and education isa great equalizer for all, so
we want to facilitate that.
(19:10):
So every learner, no matter whatage, has the opportunity to
improve their lives, and thetechnology is the enabler to do
that.
But great leaders, how you ledin California and many others,
that's where we intersect withthe mission that we all have.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
So let me ask you a couple of last questions as we
begin to wrap up.
So, first of all, for thoseinterested in Ellucian Live, can
you tell us a little bit aboutwhat you see coming in 2025,
where you'll be?
And then the last question I'dhave for you is is if there's
anything that you'd like ourlisteners to know about Ellucian
(19:49):
that you haven't talked about.
What would that be?
I know that you have a lot ofgreat competitors out there
trying to do good work as well,but what sets Ellucian apart?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Well, we are true partners.
We just won an opportunity withIndian River State College in
Florida, and the quote fromPresident Moore was very
powerful to me.
President Moore said that youcan find vendors anywhere, but
you can't find partnerseverywhere.
Right, and that's thepartnership that we've committed
(20:20):
to.
It's not just about showing upwith some software and here you
go.
It's really about making surethat they have the value, and so
we're really proud of being atrusted partner to the
institutions we serve.
We are very focused on givingback, so all of our employees
have 40 hours to give back.
Most of them do that right intheir schools and with higher
education.
And then I'm really proudbecause over the last couple of
(20:43):
since COVID, we announced ourPATH scholarship.
So, that's very powerful for usin terms of how we support
students in need.
It oftentimes goes to the MSIs,the community colleges, because
we see that students can youknow $250 or $500, they can make
it through.
So we've given $1.6 million inthose scholarships and we made
(21:07):
another commitment this year.
So you know we want to be knownas the most innovative platform
.
We serve students globally.
We meet institutions where theyare so that they can modernize.
We are super innovative,bringing on artificial
intelligence.
Focus on student success andwell-being, understanding where
the pain points are for highereducation and being a trusted
(21:27):
partner for the future, fortoday and the future.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
And that's really coming through across all of the
institutions we serve globally.
So Ellucian Live next year.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
How do people find out about the event?
They go to our website,elluciancom.
Look at our social mediachannels because certainly
you'll be thrilled with what yousee just the community coming
together, the vibrancy.
I would say the community isour superpower in higher
education, because this is aplace where maybe institutions
compete a little bit and youhave a lot of you know like, hey
, you're really proud of yourstate and what you do, but this
(22:04):
is where the communities cometogether because we're
mission-based, we're servantleaders of what we do and that's
very powerful.
So it's all over social media.
Come to our website, Learn moreabout Ellucian and we'd love to
see everyone early April 6ththrough 9th in Orlando.
And we want to have the podcastthere too.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
So let's get the rant there.
Well, that sounds like a greatplan.
Well, Laura, I know how busyyou are at events like this.
I appreciate you taking thetime out of your busy schedule
to sit down and talk with me.
It's great to have you.
It's always great to see youand appreciate the work that
you're leading at Lucian.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Wonderful Well, thanks for your leadership and
making sure that you illuminatelots of ideas in your podcast,
and look forward to having youin Orlando.
All right, I'll look forward tothat Sounds good.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
All right, thanks for being here.
Hi, this is Eloy Ortiz-Oakley, and welcome back
to the Rant, the podcast wherewe pull back the curtain and
break down the people, thepolicies and the politics of our
higher education system.
In this episode, I am back atthe ASU GSV Summit in San Diego,
sitting down with another greatleader, laura Ibsen, ceo of
(00:31):
Ellucian.
Ellucian provides enterpriseresource planning products and
cloud-based services to collegesand universities throughout the
globe, and I get to sit downwith Laura to talk about what's
going on in Ellucian, howthey're thinking about
integrating technology,specifically artificial
intelligence, into their suiteof solutions, and what interests
(00:52):
her about the ASU GSV Summit.
We'll also talk about theirevent, ellucian Live, and how
it's attracting more and morepeople from across the globe.
I also want to take a moment tothank Ellucian.
They are a sponsor of the Rantpodcast and without their
support, we wouldn't be able tobring you great interviews like
those that I'm recording at theASU GSV Summit.
(01:13):
With that, please join me inwelcoming Laura Ibsen to the
Rant and I hope you enjoy theinterview.
Laura, welcome to the Rantpodcast.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Thank you.
It's awesome to be here and Inever thought I'd be sitting
here with you doing a podcast,but it is exciting and
congratulations on all thesuccess.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, thanks, and thanks to Lucien for helping
sponsor the RENT Podcast.
Absolutely, we reallyappreciate it.
It gives us the opportunity tocome to events like ASU GSV, sit
down with great leaders likeyourself and talk about what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, ditto, back to you.
Thank you for being part ofthis community and making sure
that you shine a light on manyimportant things that we have in
higher education.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, there's a lot going on here in San Diego this
week, and let me start with that.
So, since you've been here atASU GSV this year, what's
exciting you?
What do you find interestingsince you've been here?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I've had a lot of meetings.
What I find exciting is thebuzz, the community, the sidebar
conversations just in theopening event that we had with
Debra Quaso just like connectingwith old friends.
I saw Chancellor Greenstein thePatsy system?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yes, so did.
I.
He should come on the podcast,Danny should.
Paula Blank, of course here.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So just like running into the people that are just
talking about different thingsin the community, I saw your
successors, dr.
Christian and she was justamazing.
So it's exciting to see themomentum getting carried forward
in the California CommunityCollege system.
And then this morning I hostedwith AWS and Google, a breakfast
(02:45):
of women leaders acrosseducation which was exciting,
and we talked about digitaltransformation.
We talked about the crisis ofstudent mental health workforce,
how we're building thesepipelines into the workforce as
digital is transformingeverything.
So lots on the horizon and wegot two more days.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Two more days.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yes, I don't know if I can survive two more days, but
yes, so it's been a lot of fun,very busy, but we came up
because of Ellucian Live too,which we'll get to.
That's right, that's right?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well, that's always a big event and we'll talk about
Ellucian Live.
So, laura, for our listenerswho've been living under a rock,
who don't know Ellucian, tellus a little bit about Ellucian.
What's your mission and what'syour vision for the organization
over the next five, 10 years.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Sure.
Well, we as a company, we'vebeen focused on higher education
and the technology to serveinstitutions from the
administrative side and all ofstudent for over 50 years and
our mission really hasn'tchanged.
It's to power higher educationso institutions can empower
student success.
At Lucian, we really putstudents at the center.
We focus our innovation tomaking sure that you bring the
(03:48):
best class in, that they'regetting all the support and
services and education theygraduate into opportunities for
the future.
So more and more we're doingthat, just piling the innovation
in there.
We serve 22 million studentsaround the world.
We serve in 50 countries soit's an exciting time and close
to 3,000 institutions 80% of thecommunity colleges are using
(04:12):
the Ellucian ERP and studentinformation system.
So it's an exciting time, andnow we're transforming to this
thing called cloud.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
So do you consider yourself a technology company?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
We're an ed tech company 100% and we've got great
investors Blackstone and Vista.
What's really fantastic now isthat we're doubling down on all
of the innovation to moveartificial intelligence in to
really see and predict and usethe data to make sure students
are successful to take some ofthe administrative burden and
things like reporting off thebacks of institutions,
successful to take some of theadministrative burden and things
(04:46):
like reporting off the backs ofinstitutions.
And so it's a really excitingtime to be an ed tech company
driving a significant amount ofthe transformation.
We're about 50% of the marketin the US.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Wow.
So here at ASU GSV, you knowthis is the sea of ed tech
companies.
It is All shapes and sizes, allbackgrounds, from all parts of
the world.
You know Lucian's no smallstartup.
Lucian's been around for a longtime, as you said.
So how do you think aboutintegrating the technologies
(05:14):
that you see popping up?
I mean, this time last year wewere just talking about ChatGPT
and here we are.
Everything is AI-driven,everything is about large
language models.
So how are you leading thisvery mature organization in this
kind of environment thinkingabout implementing technology?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
We are mature.
We're a billion dollar companyin the billion dollar club when
it comes to revenue, so we'rethe market leader exclusively
the largest ed tech event,exclusively focused on higher
education.
So first we feel a deepresponsibility to deliver to the
institutions that have beenwith us for decades and decades.
While we power up significantinfrastructure, the
(05:55):
administrative tools and all ofthe CRM, it's also important to
be very agile.
We built our platform, our SaaSplatform, where we're working
with.
California Community Colleges onand many others to be open,
interoperable, extensible,secure, and the reason that's so
important is that thisecosystem that we see in the ed
tech community, we want it tothrive, we want innovation to
(06:16):
happen and by integrating withall of these new startups and
younger companies, it's veryimportant, it's very healthy for
higher education, startups andyounger companies.
It's very important, it's veryhealthy for higher education.
So our goal is to make surethat we're open, that we
integrate, that we provide thatas opportunities across the
entire landscape.
So that's what makes it fun andnot just higher education, but
now we can connect back into Kthrough 12.
(06:37):
And when?
We talked for many years.
It was about how do you see thedata for all students.
Now the game changer moment isaround AI.
So everything that we're doingnow helping students stay on
track, understand not only whatare they learning in terms of a
degree, but how do they amplifytheir opportunity with different
courses and curriculum andtying that into the skill sets
(06:58):
and then attaching that directlyto more of the workforce
opportunities.
So, as you look at the fundinggoing into higher education,
that you can have outcomes thatare good for learners, good for
the institution and thecommunities that are going to
work in.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
So I spend a lot of time talking about those
workforce outcomes.
I mean you can't find a statein the country, a governor or
mayor who's not talking aboutthe workforce outcomes, the
economic mobility, the lift forlearners, the return on
investment.
So how do you add value to thatequation when an institutional
(07:32):
leader is thinking about usingyour ERP?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, number one.
All of the information aboutstudents flow through the
European Student InformationSystem, so the most powerful
thing we can do is to helpinstitutions unlock the value of
their data to make sure it'sall connected.
So, right, most powerful thingwe can do is to help
institutions unlock the value oftheir data to make sure it's
all connected.
So, right now it lives in manydifferent silos.
It's not about going to thecloud, but when you move to the
cloud and software as a service,you connect all that data.
(07:56):
It's one massive lake of data.
Then you can actually add onnew capabilities so that the
bursar has insights that thesame the student has a registrar
, your Provost, your faculty soit's really unlocking the value
of data.
That's the most powerfultransformation that we see
happening now democratizing thatdata, connecting it, serving up
new experiences for studentsand also making sure that we
(08:19):
take care of the most the thestudents that are
underrepresented, that we makesure that the students that are
underrepresented, that we makesure that the students that are
from diverse backgrounds havejust as great of a learning
opportunity and the financialsupport, the support that
students need across the wholeexperience for when they go in,
that there's a value of a degree.
And that's the biggestchallenge right now.
(08:39):
Right, every student and manyparents.
I have two in college what isthe value of a degree?
And now it's really about withthe products we build.
We just announced the LucienJourney.
This is a student journey thatwe can then show that the
curriculum and degrees and theplanning, what skill sets do
students have, and then tie thatdirectly to the workforce
(08:59):
opportunities.
So a student that may graduatewith a degree in anthropology
can say hey, that degree.
I have skill sets that map intomany more jobs.
So this is where we just haveto get better between the
intersection of higher educationand the needs of the workforce,
and AI will be a powerful toolto do that.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, given how far we've come in AI in just one
year, I'm looking forward to seewhat changes come about In just
one year.
I'm looking forward to see whatchanges come about.
So we talk a lot about goinginto the cloud or moving to the
cloud, moving these services inthe cloud.
And for our listeners who arenot in the IT department, to you
(09:37):
, how do you explain to a highered leader why is this a good
thing?
How does this make theiroperation more efficient?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, it is about efficiency and productivity that
when the institutions we servemove to cloud, we do a full ROI
and total cost of ownership.
So you see what the value is.
We show where the workflowswill be more productive.
We automate all the reporting.
So if you have access to thedata.
The report should be like sendme a report on this, versus
(10:07):
having teams of people withExcel, spreadsheets and
everything else.
So how do we get more of thatwork?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
done faster.
People love their Excelspreadsheets.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I know they do, and it's not that we don't love
Microsoft but you can have thosetoo.
But how do we make everythingmore productive?
The other one is how do youmake it more secure Because this
is an area you focused on fromfraud detection?
all of those types of things youcan do much better when you're
in the cloud.
So delivering up cloud is aboutthe productivity of an
(10:33):
institution, especially as nowwe see better capabilities to
deliver on the class that youwant to bring in.
And enrollment, because rightnow the enrollment cliff is
right now and in the future,institutions need to be more
focused on how do they market toand attract the traditional
(10:54):
learners.
But more importantly when wethink about reskilling
non-traditional workers, andthis is what was so compelling
in Sonia's conversation withMichael Crow.
Compelling in Sonia'sconversation with Michael Crow,
dr Christian, that she said wehave 1.6 million high school
students in.
California, but there's 10million that can be part of the
community college system toretrain, to make sure that we
(11:15):
help them find those jobs of thefuture, and I just think that's
so exciting.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, no, lots of different opportunities,
particularly as it comes tomaking sure that we improve the
pipeline to a workforce outcome,because, as you mentioned,
that's what learners are lookingfor.
That's what attracts them to aprogram of study.
Very few have the luxury ofjust learning for learning's
sake.
They want to learn becausethey've been told that there is
(11:42):
an economic value on the otherend of that, that there's a
better life on the other end ofthat.
So now you talked about dataprivacy.
I can't tell you how manyinstitutional leaders I've come
across that have had challenges,you know, most recently with
financial aid fraud.
They've had challenges withhaving ransomware attack their
(12:03):
servers and all sorts ofchallenges with managing their
data.
You know a lot of actors outthere creating false profiles
trying to get access tofinancial aid.
How does Ellucian helpinstitutional leaders guard
against those threats?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Well, we have a very robust technology group.
We have a chief informationsecurity officer that not only
works with us, but is attachedto many institutions as an
advisor when a ransomware mayhappen, embedded in all of our
solutions, and both on-premisebut more and more service in
cloud.
We have an amazing partner inAWS, and so a lot of that
(12:45):
security, those capabilitiesaround breach and cybersecurity,
is in partnership with AWS,with our software.
So that's where we're enablingnew AI to detect things early,
before someone infiltrates intoour system.
And then there's many othercompanies that we know very well
.
They're looking at capabilitiesthat will detect fraud.
(13:06):
And some of that we're buildinginto our new student portfolio
of innovations is frauddetection that someone can't
come in, register and apply andwe know it'll be a false student
.
I don't know if that's even afalse student, but a fake
student.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
A fake student, that's right.
A bad actor.
Let's talk about your big event.
Yes, you just coming offEllucian Live 2024.
2024.
And it is a big event I've hadthe pleasure of attending.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We get you back there again.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yes, it's always fun.
So tell us about Ellucian Live.
What were some of the thingsthat were exciting this year?
What are chief informationofficers, chief student services
officers telling you that theyneed right now?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, well, a lot of them, I think, have seen that.
The messaging that we've hadabout putting students first,
putting them at the centermaking sure that we're
delivering all the value tostudents, tying it to the
workforce opportunities, makingsure that we're delivering all
the value to students, tying itto the workforce opportunities.
That really resonated witheveryone from the broad
community of the user community,which this is.
We had over 5,500 attendeesthis year and so the power of
(14:15):
everything we're doing toinnovate with AI, new tools that
serve students, both on theadministrative side and with the
students themselves, in areaslike automated reporting enabled
by AI, our communicatorcapabilities that can have
constant connection withstudents, knowing what they need
All of that was just whatsurfaced really well.
(14:35):
Beyond that, we had Bill Nye,the science guy.
We had William Shatner, who wasamazing.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I missed Kirk.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
You missed him and he was just fantastic.
He talked a lot about educationhis views on what should happen
and what students are demanding.
So that was tremendouslyexciting.
But the most important thing isthe community is getting
together.
Many of our customers now wehave 2,000 that are actually
consuming something in SaaS.
So the wave is happening tomove to the most modern platform
so that institutional leadersand faculty and staff can really
(15:06):
build this future, this verydynamic hybrid way of learning
where you're going to learnanytime, anywhere.
It's going to be degree,non-degree credentials,
micro-credentials, all of that'scoming together.
We just are there to be theenabler, to be the platform of
experiences of innovation and tobetter serve the institutions
around the world of experiencesof innovation and to better
serve the institutions aroundthe world.
We have 250 million students,traditional learners, around the
(15:28):
world Wow, we serve 10% today.
So you know for us it's also anopportunity to bring a global
community together because manyinstitutions that are looking at
enrollment cliff.
Us institutions have a greatopportunity to bring learners in
from other parts of the world,to be more diverse increasingly
diverse from the perspective, sowe found that really powerful
(15:48):
as well.
We had 33 countries attendingeLive this year.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Wow, that sounded like a fun event.
Here at ASU GSV, there are lotsof technology companies trying
to build solutions that answersome of the questions that
you've raised and some of thequestions that you're getting
from your users.
As the predominant platform inthe US, I'm sure there's a lot
(16:13):
of ed tech companies coming toyou, you know.
Can we build this?
Can we add this service to you?
How do you evaluate this hugeuniverse of solutions that are
being created?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well, that's where being an open and not a
proprietary platform is reallyimportant.
So, as we build that out, wehave strategic partners, whether
it's AWS or TouchNet.
That does the payment systemsthat we focus on every day.
We have delivery partners, butwhen it comes to these new
capabilities, we listen to theinstitutions we serve.
(16:46):
What do you need?
We want them to be openlyintegrating into our platform,
so we have open APIs where theycan connect.
So, it's not about putting wallsup or you're great, but we're
not sure about this, and many ofthem will compete, but that's a
good thing because it makes usstronger.
So it's building that openecosystem, helping them
integrate into what aninstitution needs and making
(17:08):
sure that we keep the pulse onwhat is next.
What do you need for yourstudents, what do you need for
faculty, for the administrationand serving up the data in new
ways.
So one of the most powerfulthings is making sure that we
have, with the Lucy andexperience, the cards and the
dashboard based on persona as achance, or you can see all of
the student information, theeconomic profiles across the
(17:29):
state, how you're connecting tothe workforce.
That's the big dream that.
I know you talk quite a bitabout is that you show the value
of education through thesuccess of students.
Our vision really is to unlocklearning for all, and in many
places around the world andstates we haven't done that yet.
Many of our underrepresentedstudents are disadvantaged from
getting into education, not tomention you know FAFSA didn't
(17:52):
help.
We're super focused on theFAFSA issues, like out front on
that and it's it really hurts.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And you give the Department of Education a little
help.
Yeah, we offered.
We offered to give them helpand we would still help.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And I think we're making progress there.
But that's where, as anindustry leader, we feel that we
have a responsibility to showup on the toughest issues with
customers, whether it'scybersecurity, the issues with
the challenges of FAFSA, thatwe've had to be there for many
of the institutions that serveso well the HBCUs.
We had one of our owners,robert Smith who runs the
(18:27):
Student Freedom Initiative onstage.
He was phenomenal.
It resonated across with everyinstitution.
It showed the power of the bestinvestors investing in our
success, which leads to thesupport and success of
institutions.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So just a really really exciting time there.
Well, it sounds like I need tobe doing podcast interviews at
Ellucian Life.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Well, actually.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
I was going to raise that at the end.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
This is just so wonderful, we've got a few that
do it, but I would love for youto host you.
We're passionate about what wedo and serving and we truly
believe that education, thattechnology, is a great equalizer
for education, and education isa great equalizer for all, so
we want to facilitate that.
(19:10):
So every learner, no matter whatage, has the opportunity to
improve their lives, and thetechnology is the enabler to do
that.
But great leaders, how you ledin California and many others,
that's where we intersect withthe mission that we all have.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
So let me ask you a couple of last questions as we
begin to wrap up.
So, first of all, for thoseinterested in Ellucian Live, can
you tell us a little bit aboutwhat you see coming in 2025,
where you'll be?
And then the last question I'dhave for you is is if there's
anything that you'd like ourlisteners to know about Ellucian
(19:49):
that you haven't talked about.
What would that be?
I know that you have a lot ofgreat competitors out there
trying to do good work as well,but what sets Ellucian apart?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Well, we are true partners.
We just won an opportunity withIndian River State College in
Florida, and the quote fromPresident Moore was very
powerful to me.
President Moore said that youcan find vendors anywhere, but
you can't find partnerseverywhere.
Right, and that's thepartnership that we've committed
(20:20):
to.
It's not just about showing upwith some software and here you
go.
It's really about making surethat they have the value, and so
we're really proud of being atrusted partner to the
institutions we serve.
We are very focused on givingback, so all of our employees
have 40 hours to give back.
Most of them do that right intheir schools and with higher
education.
And then I'm really proudbecause over the last couple of
(20:43):
since COVID, we announced ourPATH scholarship.
So, that's very powerful for usin terms of how we support
students in need.
It oftentimes goes to the MSIs,the community colleges, because
we see that students can youknow $250 or $500, they can make
it through.
So we've given $1.6 million inthose scholarships and we made
(21:07):
another commitment this year.
So you know we want to be knownas the most innovative platform
.
We serve students globally.
We meet institutions where theyare so that they can modernize.
We are super innovative,bringing on artificial
intelligence.
Focus on student success andwell-being, understanding where
the pain points are for highereducation and being a trusted
(21:27):
partner for the future, fortoday and the future.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
And that's really coming through across all of the
institutions we serve globally.
So Ellucian Live next year.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
How do people find out about the event?
They go to our website,elluciancom.
Look at our social mediachannels because certainly
you'll be thrilled with what yousee just the community coming
together, the vibrancy.
I would say the community isour superpower in higher
education, because this is aplace where maybe institutions
compete a little bit and youhave a lot of you know like, hey
, you're really proud of yourstate and what you do, but this
(22:04):
is where the communities cometogether because we're
mission-based, we're servantleaders of what we do and that's
very powerful.
So it's all over social media.
Come to our website, Learn moreabout Ellucian and we'd love to
see everyone early April 6ththrough 9th in Orlando.
And we want to have the podcastthere too.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
So let's get the rant there.
Well, that sounds like a greatplan.
Well, Laura, I know how busyyou are at events like this.
I appreciate you taking thetime out of your busy schedule
to sit down and talk with me.
It's great to have you.
It's always great to see youand appreciate the work that
you're leading at Lucian.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Wonderful Well, thanks for your leadership and
making sure that you illuminatelots of ideas in your podcast,
and look forward to having youin Orlando.
All right, I'll look forward tothat Sounds good.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
All right, thanks for being here.
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