Version 3.2

Introduction 

Othot is pleased to announce release 3.2 of the Othot Platform. The release adds a variety of new features and enhancements, as well as significant improvements to overall performance and predictive capabilities.

If you have any questions regarding the contents of this document or require additional information on any updates contained in this release, please reference other Othot Help Center articles or contact Othot Support at support@othot.com.

Goals 

Tracking to annual goals is important. It’s even more valuable when you can also see the predicted final outcomes throughout the year. This allows for adjustments, either positive or negative, if trends appear to deviate from your current plan. Othot’s simulation capabilities, coupled with these goals in one place, allows for scenarios to be planned and help you figure out how to get back on track. There are two new features which make this possible:

• Goal Management
  Users with access to the Admin page are now able to manage as many Goals as needed to be tracked. Goals can be set for overall metrics, such as average test score, total enrollment, net tuition revenue; or, they can be set for subpopulations, such as retention in a specific program or enrollment of high achieving out-of-state students. Any variables in your Othot account can be used to create as many Goals as required.

• Goals Dashboard
  Having Goals recorded becomes more useful when they can be tracked against the current prediction. Dashboard templates and widgets will be automatically generated for users to create their own customized Dashboards. 

Usability

Refining the experience and increasing the ease of getting to insights is a focus of each release. Here are the handful included in this release.

• Improved Interface Styling
  Colors throughout the Platform have been updated. These changes increase readability, especially for individuals with accessibility needs.
   
• Division Name Display
  The Division name is now displayed on all primary pages. This provides more clarity of which group is being displayed for those switching between multiple instances of the same product for different campuses, departments, or student populations.
   
• Product Description Tool Tip
  The product name area has been given a reduced footprint, allowing for more real estate for insights and visualizations. In order to still display the question guiding predictions, a hover-over tooltip has been provided to show the full description.
   
• Prediction Overview Rate Calculation
  Yield rates are an important metric to understand when analyzing different populations and possible interventions. These yield rates are automatically calculated now and can be viewed in the hover over tooltip for the Historical, Current, and What-If aggregate values found in the Prediction Overview section. 

Analyze 

As the most heavily used area within the Othot Platform, enhancements and new features are developed in this area in each release. Below is a list of the latest improvements: 

• Pivot
  Aggregating data into different groups is a key function while performing an analysis. Understanding an expected average aid distribution, average likelihood score, or expected enrollment by different segments in one table is useful for understanding and reporting. This release has a new pivot table capability allowing for this type of analysis in the Platform on any subpopulation. 
   
• Groups
  Many marketing activities are dependent on having a way to segment large populations into meaningful “personas.” This new feature takes a data science approach to clustering similar individuals together into Groups based upon the variables most important to the desired outcome. These Groups can then be targeted in ways that are meaningful to who they are and their interests.
   
• Predicted Enrollment Breakdown Visualization
  A new visualization has been added to the carousel at the top of the page. This chart shows the breakdown of the number of expected students still in each lifecycle phase for both the Historical and Current predictions. The composite view is an easy way to assess where the bulk of students are in the funnel or to determine if there are still prospects or applicants that still need to be ushered through the process.

Prescriptive Modules

• Matrix Optimization Calculated Features
  Even more complex calculated features can now be used as Matrix constraints, such as Net Tuition Revenue and Discount Rate. For example, this enhancement enables Financial Aid teams to create award packages that are optimized for maximum enrollment without exceeding a Discount Rate target.
   
• Calculated Fields in What-If Results
  Financial Aid variables, such as Percent of Tuition Met by Aid, naturally have other dependent variables that determine their values.  In this example, if Merit Scholarship is increased for a student there is a ripple effect on the Perecent of Tuition Met by Aid. The dependent variable that is used in modeling will now be displayed in the What-If results to see how each is affected as well.
   
• Sensitivity Link to Individual Student
  When reviewing a Sensitivity analysis, the user is limited to the information selected as aggregates for each student before running. To better understand each student, the individual student page will be pop up when their row is clicked, similar to the behavior in the Grid on the Analyze page.
   
• Top Result Feature in What-If and Scenario Jobs
  In some situations, applying a What-If to an entire population in the grid is not necessary. There are circumstances where resources only allow a fixed number of actions, like only having 2,000 viewbooks available to send, while still aiming for the most lift possible. This feature allows for only the top number, by increase in delta, to be included in the result for both What-If and Scenario.

Other Enhancements

As with every release, many existing features have been improved or expanded. A few of the more notable items are:

• Impactful What-If rebranded as Recommendation
• Grid Filter by Exclude List
• Improved Correction Factor
• Exclude Rewind Phases
• Enhanced Widget Caching
• Refactored Model Page
• User Initiated Integration
• What-If Feature Aggregation
• User Search on Admin page
• File Search on Model page
• Dynamic Widget Title and Description
• User Domain Restriction

Next Release

The Othot development team is already working on the next release, 3.3. This release is scheduled to go into production in Q4 2020. For more details about the features planned for the 3.3 release, contact Othot Partner Success or Othot Sales.