Education has always been about potential – helping people discover what’s possible and giving them the means to reach it. For Reynolds Community College in Richmond, Virginia, that mission carries extra weight. As one of the largest schools in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), Reynolds serves more than 12,000 students each year, preparing learners of every background to build careers, strengthen communities and drive economic growth.

Across the United States, community colleges face mounting pressure: enrollment fluctuations, funding gaps and growing demands for accountability. At the same time, AI and data analytics are reshaping how higher education leaders make decisions. Institutions that can interpret their data in real time are better positioned to understand student needs, anticipate challenges and allocate resources efficiently. Those who can’t adapt quickly risk falling behind in outcomes and impact.

When Melanie Boynton arrived to lead the institutional research and analytics function at Reynolds Community College, the situation was urgent. Enrollment had fallen to its lowest point in more than a decade, her department – reduced to just five team members – was overwhelmed by manual procedures, and reporting was driven almost exclusively by external compliance demands.

For Reynolds, the path forward was clear – modernize its analytics ecosystem to transform how decisions were made, from the classroom to the president’s office.

“We needed to quickly scale up an infrastructure that could support compliance but also provide data-driven insights to understand the student experience and increase enrollment,” she explained. “We needed to quickly modernize and automate while ensuring the team had the skills it needed. For that, we went to SAS.”

From manual reporting to meaningful insight

Before SAS, Reynolds’ data environment was functional, but fragile. “Everything was manual,” recalls Boynton. “Every report, every analysis, every refresh had to be done by a person. One of our analysts spent 30 minutes every morning just running a financial report. Multiply that across the year, and you’re talking about hundreds of hours lost.”

The team needed more than speed – they needed strategy. Boynton led a full audit of the reporting activity across the college. “I kept asking the unpopular question: Why? Why are we producing this? What is the value? Who uses it?” she said. “Busy is not a badge. If a report didn’t drive action, we stopped producing it.”

Which reports truly added value? Which data sources could be unified to eliminate duplication? And most importantly, how could Reynolds turn its institutional knowledge into a living, breathing asset accessible to every stakeholder?

SAS Viya became the catalyst. Its cloud-native architecture offered automation, scalability and flexibility – essential for a lean institutional research team supporting hundreds of decision-makers. Using SAS Viya, the team built more than two dozen dashboards and analytical tools that replaced hundreds of static reports.

Now, faculty, staff and administrators can drill into data by department, demographic, or program area instantly. “Instead of combing through a report that’s hundreds of pages long,” says Boynton, “they can apply filters, visualize results and get the answers they need in seconds.”

But not every dashboard was an instant success. “For everything we built that worked, there were two that didn’t, and we shut those down quickly,” Boynton said. “That was part of building trust. If something didn’t help users, we didn’t force it. We iterated and learned.”

That approach paid off.

“We’re seeing the highest enrollment in six years and the highest retention rate in a decade because our people have the data they need, the moment they need it.”

Data-informed culture drives real-world change

The shift wasn’t just technological; it was cultural. “We don’t say ‘data-driven decisions’ at Reynolds,” Boynton explains. “We say ‘data-informed.’ Our people’s lived experience matters, and SAS helps us complement that experience with data.”

That philosophy has yielded powerful results:

• Improved retention and revenue. A retention dashboard built with SAS Viya helped Reynolds retain an additional 450 students. This adds $675,000 in tuition revenue while also improving outcomes for Hispanic, Black and Pell-awarded students. "We now have the highest retention rate among students of color – particularly Asian, Hispanic and Black students – that we've seen in nearly 10 years," Boynton shared. "And for the first time, our first-generation students have a higher retention rate than non-first-generation students."
• Optimized facilities and avoided costs. Analytics revealed underutilized computer labs with high maintenance costs. By repurposing those rooms into new learning spaces –including a welding studio, automotive bay and expanded nursing program – the college saved $1 million in unnecessary technology upgrades. “We saved over $1 million in just six months,” Boynton noted. “Once the data made the resource costs visible, conversations that used to be emotional became straightforward.”
• Accelerated decision-making. Departments that once waited weeks for reports can now access real-time data during meetings, turning discussions into decisions.

“Having data available when we need it changed everything,” Boynton says. “Those conversations that used to take weeks now happen in real time. It’s made us more nimble and more responsive to our students’ needs.”

A foundation for innovation

Behind Reynolds’ modern analytics environment lies a foundation built for stability, security and scale. By choosing to use SAS Managed Cloud Services on Microsoft Azure, the college gained more than a deployment model; it gained peace of mind.

“Our relationship with SAS Managed Cloud Services is one where we can sleep well at night,” says Boynton. “If there’s ever a disruption, the SAS team is on it immediately. The infrastructure is stable, the uptime is excellent and that means our users can focus on insights instead of IT.”

That reliability is no coincidence. Hosted on Microsoft Azure’s global infrastructure – spanning more than 60 regions worldwide – SAS Managed Cloud Services guarantees 99.5% or greater uptime. For Reynolds, that means uninterrupted access to data, analytics and insights across every campus.

But uptime is only part of the story. With SAS managing the infrastructure and the analytics platform, Reynolds reduced its dependency on internal IT resources – freeing its small research team to focus on high-value analysis rather than system maintenance. SAS experts handle everything from capacity planning to performance optimization, ensuring the environment stays tuned for evolving institutional needs.

This hosted model also gave Reynolds faster time to value. Without the delays of on-premises setup or hardware procurement, the college was able to modernize reporting and dashboards almost immediately. And from a strategic standpoint, SAS’ managed services ensure Reynolds stays ahead of the technology curve, continuously delivering the latest SAS Viya releases and AI capabilities through the managed cloud environment.

The college continues to expand its analytics footprint across finance, enrollment management, workforce development, DEI reporting and strategic planning. Looking ahead, Boynton is eager to explore predictive modeling and generative AI to further enhance student success.

“Technology evolves fast, and we have to move with it if we’re going to do our best work,” she says. “SAS gives us the confidence and capability to keep advancing.”