Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are frequently confronted with unprecedented financial challenges. HEIs are facing the difficulty of managing the raising of tuition fees, additional pension contributions, reduced international student demand, increased costs and uncertainty over political direction. Determining how to simultaneously approach this issues without diminishing on the quality of teaching that the HEIs provide is a crucial challenge that key decision makers are facing. 

In our most recent publication, we delve into how digitally transforming operational and estates data can streamline the intensive tasks typically handled by the senior team, ensuring they possess reliable data for effective scenario planning. The current pace of this process is noteworthy and is expected to accelerate as the underlying technologies and their corresponding databases expand. 

Higher Education Institutions can transform their estates into digital landscapes with OPAL, a powerful digital assistant that simplifies estate management. It enhances the use and development of HEIs physical assets, alongside capital and operational costs. OPAL offers a comprehensive perspective of the HEIs estate portfolio, enabling data-driven decision making and scenario testing. With OPAL, HEIs can optimise their estate assets, improve space utilisation, implement energy-saving initiatives, effectively manage backlog maintenance, reduce costs, leverage technology and data analytics and foster partnerships and collaborations.