Reading the Signal at JAM 2026: Jenzabar Bets on the Fundamentals
Jenzabar JAM 2026 emphasized performance, reliability, security, accessibility, and a foundation-first roadmap. Here is what higher education leaders should take from the company’s cloud, AI, and student success direction. Vendor conferences have a familiar rhythm. The lights come up, the roadmap slides appear, and the pitch races toward whatever the industry has decided is the […]
Higher Education in a BANI World: The Case for Resilience by Design
At Tambellini, we spend a great deal of energy working with institutions that have tough problems. This has always been true, but we have to admit that the time we are living through is not the same as in previous decades. “Resilience by Design” is the theme of both our research and our upcoming Future […]
The HBCU CIO Exchange: Ideas, Innovation & Impact
Post-Conference Summary & Future Steps | July 8–9, 2026 | Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL Executive Dialogue at the HBCU CIO Exchange The HBCU CIO Exchange convened CIOs, CTOs, and senior technology leaders from across the HBCU community for two days of executive-level dialogue on the campus of Alabama State University. Framed around the themes […]
Stability Before Innovation: What Building Blackboard Together 2026 Signaled for Institutions
Building Blackboard Together 2026 did not feel like a company trying to convince the market that it had reinvented itself. It felt like a company showing customers that the uncertainty was ending. The context makes that shift significant. Following Anthology’s bankruptcy and Blackboard’s emergence as a stand-alone company, the conference took place during an important […]
D2L Fusion 2026: Inside D2L’s Next Phase: Learner Mode, Createspace, and the Shift to Governed AI
D2L Fusion 2026 did not center on a sweeping reinvention of the learning management system. Instead, the company focused on a more practical question: how can AI improve the work students, faculty, and instructional teams are already doing inside Brightspace? That direction was most visible in two announcements: Lumi Learner Mode and Createspace. The products […]
AI Pilots Are Not an AI Strategy
AI pilots are not an AI strategy, but for a lot of organizations, the pilot has become the default first move. And that’s fine as a starting point. Pilots let teams test an idea, see what the technology actually does, find where the workflow breaks, and get comfortable with it. The trouble starts when the […]
Career Services Is Where Higher Education Proves Its Value
Career Services in Higher Education Connects Talent with Opportunity The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 2026 Conference’s opening keynote in Denver put a phrase in my head that I keep returning to. The goal of career services is to “Connect Talent with Opportunity,” and in that framing sits the full weight of what […]
Workday DevCon 2026: Agentic Ambition Meets Adoption Reality
The Workday Developer Conference 2026 in Las Vegas was the company’s most ambitious developer conference to date — 1,200 attendees in person, 8,000 online, with participants from 26 countries. As I entered the conference, the words “agents are the agenda” were animating on a wall-to-wall screen. Every session of the conference stayed true to those […]
We Keep Rebuilding the Engine While the Driver’s Seat Is on Fire
Higher education has spent the last decade focusing heavily on technology modernization. But modernization and experience are not the same thing. Walk into any strategic planning session at a university, and you’ll hear the same conversation: ERP modernization, cloud migration, system consolidation, and digital transformation roadmaps. You’ll hear about tens of millions of dollars, multi-year […]
Alteryx Redefines Itself. Can Its Customers Keep Up?
Eighteen months into private ownership by Insight Partners and Clearlake, Alteryx came to Orlando last week with a story that is sharply different from the one the company has historically told. Instead of the identity centered in being the analytics workflow tool for analysts, Alteryx is pitching (and building for) being the business logic layer […]
