As higher education faces declining enrollments and rising demands, universities are under pressure to do more with fewer resources. Legacy systems, staff bandwidth challenges and siloed technology make integrations a slow climb, but institutions that move quickly can create connected experiences that resonate with students and faculty alike.

That urgency drove Gonzaga University to overhaul its approach to integration and automation, replacing an older platform with the Workato platform to speed delivery and open access across campus, according to Darren Owsley (pictured ), deputy chief information officer and chief information security officer of Gonzaga University.

Gonzaga University’s Darren Owsley talks with theCUBE about the school’s shift to Workato and how agentic AI is shaping a campus-wide strategy for students and faculty.

“One of the reasons why we purchased Workato was that we don’t want it just to be an IT tool,” he told theCUBE. “We want our students utilizing it, we want our faculty, our staff — we want all the departments on campus. I think that’s really the beauty of Workato is [that] it’s not a tech-heavy platform. On the other side … you’re not losing the features from other iPaaS solutions. You get feature-rich, and we have end users that are able to use it.”

Owsley spoke with theCUBE’s Savannah Peterson and Rob Strechay at the WOW: World of Workato event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed Gonzaga’s shift from legacy systems to Workato, the gains from integrations and how agentic AI is shaping a campus-wide strategy for students and faculty. (* Disclosure below.)

From integrations to AI-driven strategy

Gonzaga migrated more than 120 integrations in under three months — two weeks ahead of schedule — while simultaneously rolling out software from Salesforce Inc. That leap allowed the IT team to deliver integrations 60% faster and shift its focus from building to quality assurance and strategy, according to Owsley.

“My team originally thought, ‘Man, we’re crazy for doing this. We have two months. We’re going into a Salesforce implementation. We have all these integrations to get through,’” he said. “They did a wonderful job. We made it; our Workato partners were there every step of the way and just an amazing experience.”

Now the university is extending Workato into campus-wide AI use cases, aiming to support students across the entire lifecycle, from prospect to alum. This agentic approach helps offset enrollment pressures and ensures consistent engagement across touchpoints, according to Owsley.

“Our goal right now with the prospective students is [that] higher ed is in an enrollment cliff right now,” he said. “We may see position cuts, so we’re going to have to do more with less and really focus on an experience for Gonzaga and what that experience looks like … same experience for every single one of them at any stage of where they’re at in the Gonzaga community.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the WOW: World of Workato event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the WOW: World of Workato event. Neither Workato Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE