The Hidden Cost of Disconnected Systems

Campuses are generating more data than ever, yet many still struggle to answer essential questions like, “Which students need support right now?” and “Which initiatives are truly driving outcomes?”

At the root of this disconnect is, well, disconnection.

Disconnected systems. Disconnected teams. Disconnected insight.

The cost isn’t just inefficiency—it’s missed opportunities, wasted resources, and, ultimately, students falling through the cracks.

The Myth of “More Data Is Better”

Many institutions believe that more data equates to better decisions. But when that data lives in silos—the student information system (SIS) in one place, the learning management system (LMS) in another, the advising tool somewhere else—its value drops dramatically.

Disconnected systems:

• Delay interventions because data is stale or fragmented
  
• Obscure which support programs are truly high‑impact
  
• Force frontline teams to do heavy manual work just to locate basic student signals
  
• Create duplicate efforts and wasted energy as departments work in parallel instead of in sync
  

A recent article on legacy systems in higher ed puts it plainly:

“Disconnected internal systems often fail to integrate properly, leading to data silos, redundant processes, and a fragmented user experience for students and faculty.”

When you can’t get a clear, unified view of a student’s journey, you can’t intervene in time—and the downstream risk is real.

Real Risk, Real Students

This isn’t just a tech infrastructure issue—it’s a student experience and institutional‐survival issue. When tools don’t talk to each other, students can get lost:

• Advisors may not see early warnings because the LMS alert never surfaced in the advising workflow
  
• Faculty might miss engagement patterns because the system capturing them isn’t tied to the right outreach tool
  
• Leadership makes decisions based on outdated or partial data
  

As one campus puts it:

“When a centralized IT, HR, or finance system fails, the entire campus feels the impact. Delays in communication can jeopardize grant management, undermine compliance, derail entire studies, and reduce student support.”

In other words: Disconnected systems lead to disconnected support. Disconnected support leads to preventable attrition.

It also creates a vulnerability in institutional finances and reputation. For example, a major institution consolidated services and paused new hiring as part of its effort to reduce operational risk tied to fragmented systems. 

From Fragmentation to Impact

So what does connection look like? It’s more than just “having a dashboard.” It’s:

• Unified student profiles built across SIS, LMS, CRM, and other data sources—from card swipes to career services data and financial aid records—giving every team a shared, current picture of each student
  
• AI‑powered, institution‑specific models that surface the most relevant students and signals
  
• Actionable workflows embedded where teams already work (advisors, faculty, student services)
  
• Shared tools that enable coordination across student‑facing teams
  
• Real‑time analytics and initiative evaluation so you can measure what works, for whom, and pivot quickly
  

This is exactly the promise of the Civitas Learning Student Impact Platform: to help institutions apply their data to improve the student outcomes that matter most.

Here are a few published outcomes from Civitas Learning customer institutions:

• University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) achieved a 16 percentage‑point lift in first‑year retention by using data‑activated tools and building a unified “hub‑and‑spoke” student success ecosystem.
  
• According to the 2025 Student Success Impact Report, institutions using integrated tools saw a 4.1 percentage point lift in persistence when they streamlined registration with connected planning and scheduling.
  
• Not every initiative moves the needle—and that’s exactly why insight matters. In a study of 1,000+ programs, Civitas Learning found nearly 40% showed little measurable impact. With the right tools, institutions can identify those early, shift strategy, and focus on what actually works.

The ROI of Connection

Disconnected systems don’t just threaten student success—they threaten institutional viability and ROI.

Consider:

• Legacy platforms consume disproportionate resources. One article noted that universities relying on older systems “often spend a significant portion of their IT budgets on keeping legacy systems running instead of investing in modern, more efficient solutions.”
  
• When systems are disjointed, teams cannot collaborate well, leading to redundant services and unaligned investments
  
• When student support efforts can’t be measured in real‑time, budgets are misapplied and outcomes remain stagnant
  

For example, UTSA’s use of a unified student success platform enabled more streamlined processes across advising, tutoring, and student services—freeing up capacity and reducing waste. They noted that the platform “ensures we’re not leaving any gaps that students could fall through along the way. And in this time of limited resources and budgets, it enables us to avoid offering redundant services.”

In short: integration isn’t optional, it’s strategic. The institutions that build connected systems, workflows and data culture are the ones that will weather enrollment decline, shrinking budgets, and rising student expectations.

Don’t Just Surface Insights, Act on Them

It’s not enough to know which students are at risk. Institutions must act, together, in real time.

That means:

• Breaking down departmental siloes so that student‑facing teams operate with shared insight
  
• Embedding workflows so that data triggers action (not just alerts in a dashboard nobody checks)
  
• Continuously measuring program impact to allocate resources toward what actually works
  
• Building a culture of data‑informed decision‑making at every level — from student services to the C‑suite
  
• Selecting technology that is connected by design, not patched together over time
  

Institutional leaders often say: “We know we need to act faster. But we’re stuck because the systems don’t support real‑time collaboration.” The math is simple: the longer you wait to fix disconnected systems, the bigger the gap between what you could do for students—and what you actually do.

What’s the Real Risk?

The real risk isn’t selecting the “wrong” platform. The real risk is doing nothing—continuing to operate in silos, fragmented workflows, disconnected data. In an era of budget constraints, heightened accountability and rising student expectations, operating with disconnected systems is a liability.

If your institution wants to shift from “we might intervene in time” to “we will intervene ahead of time”, then building a connected infrastructure isn’t optional anymore. It’s foundational.

Invest in connection, not just collection.

Because when your data, systems, and people are connected—that’s when insight drives action, and student success drives institutional sustainability.

To see how connected systems turn insight into action, explore the Civitas Learning Student Impact Platform.

For real-world results and data-backed impact, download the 2025 Student Success Impact Report.