HelioCampus, a provider of data analytics platforms covering the student lifecycle, institutional finance and advancement, has announced its acquisition of ABC Insights, a higher ed benchmarking consortium that helps its members better understand administrative spending as compared to peer institutions. The goal, says HelioCampus CEO Darren Catalano, is to “become the most trusted source and advisor to higher education by helping [colleges] leverage their data to accelerate their path to financial sustainability.” The solutions and services will help improve institutional health across academic and administrative functions with benchmarking, data analytics and decision support.
HelioCampus describes itself as a technology-enabled services company that provides colleges with decision support services needed to operate more strategically and sustainably. Its roots are at the University System of Maryland, and ABC Insights was launched at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The newly combined company will offer cross-campus visibility into academic and administrative efficiencies to help institutions take actions and respond to current challenges with the pandemic. “Even before COVID, colleges and universities were exploring ways to operate more strategically and sustainably, but as a result of the ongoing pandemic, there is now greater urgency to this work,” says Catalano. “Big changes are required to solve today’s fiscal challenges and institutions have the unenviable task of reacting to an evolving crisis while proactively planning for the future.”
Navigating COVID and getting on the path to long-term financial sustainability requires data from every corner of campus, adds Catalano, who will lead the combined company as CEO. “With the addition of ABC Insights’ services and benchmarking capabilities, HelioCampus is increasing the depth of its offerings and adding new solutions that help institutions rationalize their cost structure across the university and make hard decisions in a more precise and strategic way versus cutting across the board.”
HelioCampus plans to expand its capabilities and core offerings, and anticipates no interruption to current services and support being provided to clients of either company. The HelioCampus headquarters will remain in Maryland, with plans to grow its footprint in North Carolina. ABC Insights’ co-founders will be assuming new leadership roles at HelioCampus: Steven Beisser will serve as vice president of operations, Paul Friga as vice president of strategy and Joe Rice as vice president of technology.
Melissa Ezarik is senior managing editor of UB.
