Florida-based Saint Leo University and Custom Technology Solutions LLC (CTS) have launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed for higher education institutions and aiming to give university leaders real-time access to critical data used in their decision-making.
The new platform – dubbed CogniEdu – was developed by CTS with Saint Leo University serving as the inaugural deployment partner.
The collaboration positions Saint Leo among the first universities to equip its leadership team with a unified, real-time view of institutional data, the organizations said in their April 23 announcement.
CTS led the development of CogniEdu, drawing on its experience building business intelligence systems in the corporate sector. Saint Leo played a key role in shaping the platform’s design and serving as its first real-world implementation site within higher education.
CogniEdu is designed to integrate data from multiple university systems –including student information, financial records, learning management platforms, and customer relationship management tools – into a single environment.
The goal of the effort is to provide institutional leaders with immediate insights into performance across enrollment, finances, and academic programs.
“For years, we have been making decisions about our institution’s future using information that arrived too late to influence outcomes,” said Jim Burkee, president of Saint Leo University.
“With CogniEdu, our leadership team now has real-time visibility into enrollment, finances, and program performance, he said, adding, “That shifts the quality of our conversations and allows us to act with greater clarity and confidence.”
“We have over 20 years of experience building business intelligence systems for the corporate sector where delayed or bad decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information carry immediate financial consequences,” said Nadeem Mazhar, CEO of CTS.
“When I began working with higher education, I expected to find similar infrastructure,” Mazhar said. “Instead, I found institutions with vast amounts of data but limited ability to use it at the moment decisions need to be made,” the CTS CEO said.
”CogniEdu was developed specifically for higher education, with a focus on how universities actually operate and what their leaders need in real time,” Mazhar emphasized.
The platform features several core capabilities, such as business intelligence dashboards, financial modeling and scenario planning tools, predictive enrollment analytics, AI-driven revenue forecasting, and governance dashboards for boards.
Together, these tools are intended to help universities make faster, more informed strategic decisions, the organizations said.
