Case Study: AACSB
The nonprofit AACSB International (AACSB) connects over 1,000 accredited business schools across the globe.
They offer business and professional development, quality assurance, and learning opportunities to member organizations worldwide. As a membership association, AACSB is in the unique position of being able to collect and compare data on an impressive sample size of higher education institutions.
Since 2005, AACSB has partnered with Peerfocus for all of their data collection, management, and benchmarking needs.
DataDirect, AACSB’s Peerfocus-powered site, uses custom surveys and on-demand reporting to keep a pulse on trends and standards across higher education, on everything from salaries and staffing to enrollment and more. They also generate revenue by offering benchmarking insights to interested parties.
Before Peerfocus
AACSB has always prioritized research, but their previous process was segmented and prone to error, with multiple vendors and too many touchpoints.
To design their surveys, AACSB used spreadsheets or worked with consultants. Any questions or changes required coordinating with vendors, and turnaround time was often slow. These technical issues prevented AACSB staff from building the nuanced surveys they needed.
Once surveys were completed, AACSB had to clean all of the data manually, which was a time consuming process and vulnerable to human error. That data then had to be imported into reporting software. AACSB offered custom reports to their members, but this was also a tedious process with no opportunity for on-demand reporting.
With Peerfocus
Switching to Peerfocus gave AACSB an all-in-one platform that allowed them to focus on the data, not the platform. With their user-friendly site, AACSB built surveys and validation rules on their own – giving them more control over survey design, distribution, and participant experience while reducing their workload.
And our customer support was never more than a quick message away. Peerfocus was there with a timely response and expert guidance whenever AACSB needed to chat or ask questions. Our goal is always to empower our customers to make the surveys they envision.
AACSB’s days of manual data cleaning were over with Peerfocus’s data validation system, which prevents respondents from submitting invalid responses. Survey responses are automatically validated at the time of submission, with respondents fixing or explaining any issues, so post-hoc data cleaning is a fraction of what it used to be.
Once surveys are completed, data is immediately available for release and ready for benchmarking in the same platform. No importing or exporting is necessary, although the ability to import and export data is still available. On-demand reporting is available for all of their surveys, and custom reports are easy to create for member organizations’ individual needs.
That means no more waiting days or even weeks for third-party vendors to create custom reports. Using DataDirect’s online interface, AACSB can make small adjustments as needed and see the results right away. AACSB members can easily run their own custom reports without involving AACSB staff.
Working with Peerfocus was the first time AACSB was able to give participants an easy-to-use interface for survey participation and all post-survey deliverables. That’s because Peerfocus is the only system that offers end-to-end survey design, data collection, built-in validation, on-demand reporting, and benchmarking.
AACSB has also increased engagement by giving benchmarking access to participants who complete surveys. They even generate revenue from their surveys by offering benchmarking access to other interested parties while keeping confidential information confidential.
When it comes to survey frequency, the sky’s the limit with a Peerfocus partnership. AACSB users currently run about 10,000 reports every year and AACSB receives thousands of survey responses. That volume is easy to manage without the need to transition between different platforms, software, or vendors.
Whether it’s a new survey, custom peer group, or benchmarking report, AACSB doesn’t have to look any further than the platform they’re already using.