Data Analysis and Matching Deduplication

Overview

Every institution’s student population is unique, so understanding yours is key to selecting the right target audience in Intelligent Names. Whether you want to find similar students or reach out to underrepresented demographic groups, Intelligent Names is a powerful tool for locating adult learners. The options and process below outline how to curate the ideal list to fit your strategy and how to exclude students currently enrolled, already in your prospect funnel, or affiliated with your institution, such as alumni.

Options for Analyzing Demographics 

Intelligent Names offers three options to analyze your recent student funnel populations. Discuss with your Client Success Director to determine the best option for you.

  1. Name and Address Matching: provide individual student-level data with Personal Identifying Information (PII) for analysis and deduplication. More information is provided below on what to submit and how.
  2. Address Only Matching/Anonymized Analysis: provide anonymized (PII removed) individual student-level data for past prospective students. The Intelligent Names team will conduct a basic demographic analysis. This method does not allow for matching or deduplication like option 1 but does provide basic demographic findings.
  3. BYOD (Bring Your Own Demographics): provide the aggregated demographic information and criteria you already know about your past prospective students. These filter options can be shared with Client Success via email before your list curation meeting. If demographics are not already available or not specific enough for planning purposes, consider options one or two above. 

How To Provide Student-level Data

Files should be securely shared with Othot via the DATA page in the platform in CSV format. If you need to upload several files, consider zipping them locally before uploading to avoid repeating the process multiple times.

To upload data: 

  1. Prepare your data file – review the Data/File Requirements section below. 
  2. In Othot, navigate to the DATA page from​ the menu icon in the top left. 

    Othot – Uploading Data 1.gif
     
  3. Create a new data upload​ and enter the details. Remember to check Notify Othot? with each update​. 

    Othot – Uploading Data 2.gif
     

Note: if you currently work with other Liaison solutions, your Client Success team member may be able to collaborate within Liaison to access your data and will discuss internal methods of doing so with your consent. Please specify which populations should be included in the review, such as enrollment level, status, years, etc. 

Data/File Requirements 

  • File Layout: header row must be the first line in the file
  • Accepted file types: .csv, .xls, .xlsx, (one worksheet per spreadsheet)
  • Max file size: 200MB
  • If providing PII for analysis and deduplication (option 1):  
    • Required Primary Identifying Fields: FirstName, LastName, State
    • AddressLine, City, OR Birthdate (MM/DD/YYYY)
    • Optional Identifying Fields: MiddleName, NameSuffix, ExtraAddressLine, Zip, Gender 
    • Optional Private Fields: any additional fields will not be used for matching but will be loaded for data analysis purposes. Institutions often include last status (inquiry, applicant, admit, etc.), intended academic major, first source, etc.  
  • If not providing PII (option 2), exclude name and birthdate fields 

Most institutions include inquiries and applicants from the last two or three years in their enrollment funnel. Some institutions also include current students and recent or all alumni.

Data Analysis and Matching Process

Upon receiving your student data, your Client Success team member will take up to 10 business days to analyze and aggregate the findings. If you provide PII (e.g., name, address), attempts will be made to match as many records as possible to the individuals available within the L2 platform. On average, match rates are around 30-40%. Matching in the L2 platform allows you to access demographic information you may not already have about the adults in your pipeline and enables deduplication of the populations you want to target. This ensures the delivery of quality, high-intent individuals who aren’t already in your recent pipeline.

Data Security 

As a leader in higher education technology, Liaison takes its responsibility to protect student and institutional data seriously. Preventing breaches of protected information and complying with institutional policies, as well as state and federal laws, is of utmost importance to the Intelligent Names team. For details on the technical aspects of our security measures, please refer to your contract. HECVAT and SOC Type 2 documents are available upon request for those who require them.

When you provide student data, whether with or without PII, please send it exclusively through the secure Othot platform. Your data will be used solely for analysis for your institution and will not be accessible to, or used by, any other Liaison clients. For more information on how Liaison protects our data resources, review our Technical, Security, and Compliance Overview.