Higher education institutions need to leverage modern technology to meet evolving student demands, enable staff agility when teams are increasingly lean, maximize cost efficiencies as budgets tighten, and more. But updating or modernizing the tech stack is not as easy as flipping a switch, and there are common pitfalls that can impede an institution’s ability to transform. What should institutions be on the lookout for when planning to modernize their technology?
Let’s take a look at some of the more common mistakes higher education institutions may encounter as they pursue technology modernization.
1. Adopting Technology Without a Clear Strategy
Technology is a resource that the entire institution uses. Each department—and even different staff members within departments—may use technology differently to achieve different outcomes. This can make selecting and implementing the right systems difficult, but it underlines a core priority: Institutions need to approach technology with a clear and scalable strategy.
A common issue from the past that many colleges and universities deal with today stems from previous technology adoption plans that focused more on finding and deploying tools with the right features instead of those that deliver critical outcomes. This narrow approach not only contributed to ad-hoc technology ecosystems, but often led to integration issues and silos, which impair decision-making, information transparency, campus collaboration, and operational efficiency.
Institutional leadership needs to approach technology modernization with a cohesive strategy. They need to first identify desired outcomes, evaluate which technologies support those goals, and build a modernization roadmap that leads to success. Campus leaders should also delegate ownership when adopting new technology to mitigate confusion down the road.
2. Treating Technology as IT's Responsibility
While the term “technology” is in its name, IT should not be the only department responsible for finding, adopting, and implementing new systems on campus. IT departments are certainly key stakeholders in technology modernization initiatives, but they should not be the only ones making decisions.
When technology choices are siloed in IT without input from academic, administrative, and leadership teams, institutions may find themselves facing shadow systems, devices, or applications that were deployed without oversight. Similarly, if IT didn’t get input from other campus stakeholders, the required solutions may not necessarily support critical workflows, leading to adoption challenges and workarounds.
For technology’s value to be truly realized, institutions must embrace a campus-wide modernization strategy. To support this endeavor, it can be helpful to formulate committees comprised of stakeholders from various teams across campus. Forming a committee like this will not only distribute the load and ensure the right systems are used, but doing so can also lead to more successful user adoption rates.
3. Ignoring the Signs and Waiting Too Long
Institutions that fail to adapt to today’s changing standards, whether that means addressing student demands, financial restraints, or other, will struggle as their peers evolve. And while all the signs in the universe may be blinking and pointing toward the need for change, sometimes institutions stick with the “old dogs, new tricks” mantra by believing what they have will continue to work.
But the signs are there. Legacy systems can cause real complications for institutions. Sometimes that may mean inefficiencies when staff are forced to circumnavigate existing problems, but other times those issues can be more serious. Outdated platforms pose serious security and compliance risks—areas in which problems can lead to substantial financial, legal, and branding implications.
Institutions should not intentionally get in their own way and limit their ability to innovate. Yes, technology modernization efforts can be complex, intimidating, and costly—but failing to adapt can have existential consequences.
4. Neglecting Change Management
Even the best technology will not support institutional goals if it is not adopted or used correctly. Ignoring change management when modernizing technology can lead to significant operational challenges, including low usage, increased workarounds, inefficiencies, and frustration among users.
To overcome these issues, institutions should adopt a change management mindset. That means investing in training, communicating the reasons for leveraging new technology, supporting stubborn users or individuals that encounter problems, and more.
Another important component of change management is evaluation. Technology modernization is not a one-and-done process. Stakeholders and campus leaders should regularly reevaluate their tech stacks to identify areas of improvement, optimization opportunities, as well as mandatory updates. Institutions should treat their tech stacks as an ecosystem that is always evolving—they should regularly assess what is and what isn’t working and how to overcome identified gaps.
5. Not Working With a Proven Partner
A technology partner can truly help institutions find and adopt modern systems that can drive performance, enrollment, efficiency, innovation, etc. But not all partners are built the same. Institutions should aim to work with technology partners that behave like more than just another vendor, have a proven track record, can clearly demonstrate outcomes, and support a robust client advocacy community.
When institutions approach technology modernization efforts with a clear strategy, shared and communicated objectives, long-term planning, and support from a proven partner, they can avoid many of the complications that could come with implementing new systems, opening doors for long-term innovation and growth.
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