Liaison News

New Integration Helps Graduate Business Schools Integrate Predictive Analytics Into Admissions Process

Mar 31, 2022

Schools of business can now use a suite of predictive analytics to enhance 
admissions outreach, shape their classes, and support DE&I

WATERTOWN, Mass., March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Liaison International, developer of the technology that has helped millions of students apply to academic programs at more than 1,000 colleges and universities over the last 30 years, today announced a new technology integration that will enable graduate business programs to deploy advanced analytics to strengthen enrollment and expand their pipelines of prospective MBA students. Business schools using the firm’s BusinessCAS™ Centralized Application Service will now be able to access a powerful suite of analytics, predictive and prescriptive modeling, and data visualization tools from Othot to identify and engage best-fit students, optimize financial aid resources, and support their DE&I goals.

“While competition for enrollment continues to increase, business schools are increasingly in search of ways to expand the pool of applicants and grow enrollment by reaching new—or previously overlooked—demographics, regions and industries,” said Robert Ruiz, vice president of strategic enrollment and managing director for BusinessCAS at Liaison International. “The application of predictive analytics enables graduate admissions leaders to understand the complex intersection of workforce and demographic trends—and identify previously overlooked students to shape a more diverse, equitable, and committed class.”

With the integration of the suite of analytics tools from Othot, a division of Liaison International, admissions and enrollment management leaders at business schools can now use advanced machine-learning models to analyze the geographic location, diversity, and professional and academic backgrounds of prospective students. Business schools will be better able to understand and predict the complex factors that drive enrollment across a larger and more diverse number of students, and then leverage model prescriptions to optimize outreach efforts, financial aid, and other resources to build a more diverse and committed class of incoming students.

“As the competitive landscape in business education continues to tighten, admissions leaders are feeling a heightened sense of urgency to expand the pipeline of prospective students by reaching new and more diverse demographics,” said Andy Hannah, president of Liaison’s Othot division. “For business schools to grow, evolve, and remain sustainable, they can look beyond the practices used in the past and take a more nuanced—and in some ways more aspirational view—of who their students are, where they come from, and how best to serve them.”

BusinessCAS helps graduate business programs to expand and strengthen enrollment by enabling students to submit applications to multiple programs using a single, uniform application. Approximately 1,000 schools currently benefit from Liaison’s application processing support, pipeline development services, and networking opportunities that connect leaders to best practices in graduate business school admissions.

The integration is the latest example of Liaison’s Total Enrollment approach, which enables institutions to integrate historically-siloed products, applications, and workflow tools from other technology providers, alongside those developed by Liaison. The features and functionality from across the Liaison family of products provide campus leaders with a unique set of planning, analytics, outreach, and communication tools and services needed to help institutions navigate complex enrollment and retention challenges and tailor support for incoming and enrolled students.


About Liaison International: Over the last two decades, Liaison has helped over 7,000 programs on more than 800 campuses more effectively manage admissions through its Centralized Application Service (CAS™) technology and complementary processing and support services. Partnering with over 30 professional associations, the company has developed discipline-wide services for a range of fields, including most of the health professions, as well as engineering (EngineeringCAS), graduate management education (BusinessCAS), graduate education (GradCAS), social work (SocialWorkCAS), psychology (PSYCAS) and architecture (ArchCAS).

About Othot: Othot is the leader in artificial intelligence and prescriptive analytics solutions for higher education institutions across the United States. Othot focuses on each school’s specific enrollment, retention, student success, and alumni engagement goals. Othot’s cloud-based software provides continuous intelligence in real-time and empowers schools to engage each prospective, current, and former student with the right tactic at the right time. To learn more, visit othot.com

Over the last three decades, Liaison has helped over 40,000 programs on more than 1,200 campuses more effectively manage admissions through its Centralized Application Service (CAS™) technology and complementary application processing and support services. The higher education technology leader supports its partner institutions’ total enrollment goals by pairing CAS with its Enrollment Marketing (EM) platform as well as the recently acquired TargetX (CRM) and advanced analytics software Othot.