The increasing uptake of business intelligence (BI) within the higher education space has been attributed to a parallel demand for accountability, coupled with the requirement for institutions to ?do more with less?. In this interview, Rajesh Ramaswami, head, DW-BI, Marlabs, tells FE?s Abhishek Chakraborty that most forward-looking firms have realised the value of BI and hence the market is on the cusp of an explosion. Excerpts:

How business intelligence (BI) can be used in the education sector?

The education sector in India can be classified into school-, university- and non-syllabus-based sectors. There is scope for BI and analytics in each of these sectors. Some of the interesting cases include determining which students should get admitted, areas of special tutoring, improving application/admission rates, reducing student attrition/drop-offs, evaluating faculty, improving curriculum, helping students prepare study plans, helping students analyse academic and career options, deciding where to open the next school/university, what courses are people able to study best in an e-learning environment, learning recommendations etc.

What is the impact of BI on the education sector?

BI and analytics help optimise the entire education sector from the perspective of every stakeholder?the student, the institution, the faculty, the government and the industry.

What is the future of BI in the education space?

There is big potential for BI in the education sector. Despite education being one of the fastest growing sectors in the industry, the usage of data for taking better decisions is still very limited or nearly absent. As the maturity is very low, the potential for growth given the undoubted business benefits is very high.

What is the current size of BI?

Gartner predicts the size of the Indian BI market to be around R7 billion. Considering that (at a conservative estimate) services are bound to be 50-75% of the software cost, we are looking at an overall market of around R11-13 billion.

And what is the future?

As the overall adoption rate for BI is low, it is bound to grow fast in sectors that are receptive to analytics. Most forward-looking organisations have realised the value of BI, EPM and analytics applications and hence the market is on the cusp of an explosion. From a technology perspective, I anticipate major growth in the areas of predictive analytics (among larger companies), in memory visualisation systems (among smaller and more agile players) and mobile BI (for service-based firms).

What tools are used in higher education?

The transactional software we see being used include LMS (learning management system), SIS (student information system), CRM, assessment software, campus and knowledge management software.

How can BI address faculty crunch, teaching in remote areas and time management?

It is important to understand that BI cannot help create new resources, it can only help optimise the existing ones. Some problems like faculty crunch or teaching in remote areas can only be addressed by solving fundamental societal issues. What BI can do is help make the best of what we have today. Teacher assignment algorithms for optimal assignment of teachers to classes, planning better for rural growth by assessing impact and reach of rural education and thereby ensuring maximum bang for the money spent are some ways in which BI can assist.