Cost Savings Locator for Higher Ed Leaders
Align your leadership team on cost containment strategy by uncovering your institution's top savings opportunities and identifying the tactics already in place.
For many colleges and universities, cost containment efforts have already addressed the quick-to-implement wins. What remains are harder, more consequential decisions—often with real implications for employees, operations, and long-term financial sustainability.
EAB’s Cost Savings Locator helps senior financial leaders take an honest, comprehensive look at their cost containment posture to:
- Validate cost management practices already in place
- Surface savings opportunities that remain untapped
- Clarify where further action could deliver the greatest return
This service provides a structured, research-backed approach to align leadership teams around priorities for both immediate cost management and longer-term operational efficiency.
How to use this service
If you participate in the Cost Savings Locator, EAB will provide a custom report that documents existing cost containment actions and surfaces new (or only partially implemented) cost savings strategies in the areas most likely to drive impact, helping to align leadership on the same priorities moving forward.
3 steps to identify cost savings opportunities
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Take our executive-level diagnostic
The first step is for a senior business leader—typically the chief business officer—to complete a 20-minute diagnostic survey assessing implementation status across a comprehensive set of cost containment strategies.
The diagnostic evaluates your institution’s progress across 10 major cost containment categories, encompassing 56 specific opportunities. Categories include position control, benefits, space utilization, procurement, and more. -
Receive a custom report with recommended savings tactics
After completing the survey, partners will receive a custom report that includes:
- 1. A cost containment dashboard showing which tactics are already in place versus opportunities that are not yet deployed
- 2. Identification of your top three cost containment categories
- 3. A detailed breakdown of specific tactics within each category, with implementation status and estimated savings potential
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Debrief with an EAB expert
An EAB expert will walk you through your results, helping you interpret what the findings mean in your institutional context and where tradeoffs or constraints may apply.
After you receive your report, EAB can continue to provide implementation support through our best-practice cost containment research, hands-on expert guidance, and by helping your leadership team develop a broader administrative effectiveness and change management strategy.
Ready to request a Cost Savings Locator report?
The Cost Savings Locator is available to Strategic Advisory Services partners. If you are a partner, log in and fill out the form below to sign up. If you are not a partner, learn more about Strategic Advisory Services and how we partner with higher ed leaders to make meaningful progress on institutional priorities.