Whether an institution needs to identify and implement measures to reduce costs or eliminate bottlenecks to increase efficiency, Cicero has the experience and capacity to help institutions reduce duplicated efforts, eliminate inefficient policies and processes, and move thoughtfully toward increased automation and standardization. Leveraging analysis of internal data alongside process mapping and implementation planning, we help institutions navigate these important but often challenging efforts with an eye toward creating a more sustainable operational future.

Institutions today find it increasingly difficult to unite behind a common mission or set of goals across academic and administrative units. Cicero helps institutions identify the right mechanisms to both define and then successfully achieve alignment around structures, policies, and processes that lead institutions to greater success.

Change is difficult for any organization. Institutions of higher education are no exception, particularly given that the founding organizational principles of shared governance and departmental operational independence often result in challenges for even the most badly needed change initiatives, such as software updates or process streamlining. Drawing upon our many experiences working in education orgainsations and consulting various academies, Cicero helps institutions understand their own change capacity, and establish structures and processes that work within the systems by which institutions are governed.

Marketing in higher education poses unique challenges. Millions of dollars are spent each year by marketing institutions for prospective students, often with little capacity to understand or measure impact. For example, in online marketing, click-through rates for institutions of higher education are often below two percent, with cost per click for specific programs sometimes in excess of $50. Calibrated targeting, positioning, and messaging is critical for institutions looking to compete the enrollment process. Cicero leverages cutting-edge research and analytics to measure the impact of institutional brands; to accurately define and target prospect segments; and to optimize marketing mix, positioning, and messaging to improve marketing ROI in higher education.

Institutions and programs can rapidly outgrow their existing admissions processes, resulting in burdensome processes for prospective students, leading to frustration, consideration elsewhere, or delayed enrollment. In today’s competitive landscape, institutions with efficient, high-functioning enrollment processes have an advantage in prospect conversion. Our team will work meticulously to map each step of your admissions process, quantify prospect attrition in accordance with the steps identified, and develop recommendations that enable your institution to improve prospect conversion.

We help institutions identify and break down silos, define and open bottlenecks, and appropriately structure service functions. Our processes help institutions realize maximum effectiveness while driving efficiency and collaboration that span disciplines and geographies. We help create streamlined processes that result in measurable outcomes for your institution.

Cicero Group is a premier management consulting firm focused on implementing data-driven strategies for a broad mix of private, public, and social sector organizations across the globe. We work with top management to assess needs and provide data-driven decision support to capture and build value in a variety of industries and across a full range of organization structures.

We bring deep functional expertise in advanced research and analytics, strategy, operational excellence and trajectory transformation to identify and capture value for our clients. These are the pillars of Cicero Group’s overarching purpose: Help clients create and continuously deliver extraordinary results.