2010 Letter from the President: What’s the big idea?

What’s the big idea?

It has been a little over a year since we sent out my last open letter to our clients (part of our annual IData Ink newsletter), and it has been a very unusual year. For most of you, it has been a difficult year managing reduced budgets with increased demand by students. The budget problems don’t appear to be going away any time soon and that has led all of us to do some creative thinking about how to serve students and employees in new, innovative ways.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the idea of “innovation.” For the last five years, IData’s mission has been focused on improving productivity in higher education. This often meant automation, systems integration, streamlining business processes, and better use of data. As I look forward to the next five years, I see an opportunity for a broader mission. We are looking for the new ideas that will help institutions teach and work in new ways.

Last December, I joined a number of innovative thinkers at the Big Ideas Fest in California. This three-day conference was focused on inspiring and modeling cutting-edge thinking in K-20 education (http://www.bigideasfest.org). The conference lived up to its billing, and I left inspired to help our clients achieve the big ideas they have and to prepare their institutions for the next decade and beyond. Over the last five years, IData has built a team of expert higher education technology consultants and partners that have all the tools, brains, and straight-up moxie to help make any innovative idea a reality.

We love working with our clients on all of their projects, but I would like to challenge all of them to think big and consider what could be done if they believed all things were possible. Our goal is to make sure that these ideas can move from dreams, to possibilities, to realities.

If you have any crazy ideas, give me a call and let’s talk about it. You may be surprised how possible it may be to achieve. IData strives to not only offer the highest level of expertise, but to offer it at a great value. With IData, you don’t have to break the bank to break the rules.

Thank You,
Brian Parish, President
IData Incorporated