Monday, 8:40 a.m.
A board packet request arrives with no cohort and no term. Two emails later you still haven't started the pull, and three more requests are queued behind it.
How Clema handles intakeFor IR, IE and decision support teams
Clear the request queue before the board packet is due
Clema is the AI analyst for the office everyone on campus emails for a number. When a request is ambiguous, it asks clarifying questions, such as which cohort and term, then drafts a cited answer your analyst can review and send, and it builds your IPEDS peer and program outcome views.
Start free
Free plan: 1 user, 20 conversations a month, no credit card.
Book a demo
Read the researchBring a real request. We'll answer it live from your institution's public federal data and show you every source.
Sample figures, not real institution data.
Sound familiar?
Someone needs the number by Friday
Half the IR and IE offices we studied run on one to three people, and the requests peak in September, January and May, right when the deadlines do.
Six months before the accreditation visit
The self-study needs retention, completion and outcomes evidence going back years. The analyst who built the old numbers has left, and nobody knows which definition they used. On Max and Enterprise, each request your office answers keeps the ask, the clarifications, the data pulled and the reply sent.
How each answer keeps its recordThe night before the budget hearing
The CFO wants cost per FTE and net price next to three peers by 9 a.m. You know where the IPEDS files are. You don't have the evening to rebuild the comparison.
How peer benchmarks workProgram review season
A department chair asks what their program's graduates earn and where they end up working. The curriculum committee meets next week.
How program outcomes workAcross the 47 institutions in our study (50+ interviews, 19 states), half had IR teams of one to three people, and 47.1% named accreditation and compliance pressure. Source: Understanding Data Request Workflows in US Higher Education, Clema.
Data requests
Every request in one queue, with a draft waiting when you open it
Requests arrive by email, Slack and in the hallway. Clema puts the written ones in one queue, and a hallway ask becomes a ticket with one forwarded email.
When a request is ambiguous, Clema asks what a static form can't, such as which cohort, which term or which format. Then it queries your data and attaches a cited draft. Your analyst can review, edit and send it.
Intake that asks the follow-up for you
People write to "the IR team" the way they always have. When a request is unclear, Clema asks clarifying questions up front, so an analyst's first touch on a request goes into the answer, not another email.
One queue for every channel
Forwarded emails, Slack messages and web form submissions all land in one place. Nobody on campus has to learn a new portal.
Triage, assignment and response targets
Tag, assign, reassign and snooze requests, and set response targets so the board request doesn't wait behind a routine pull. Queue reporting shows what's open, what's late and who has it.
A cited draft in every ticket
Clema queries your data and drafts the reply with charts and tables attached. Every figure shows where it came from.
Last term's answer becomes this term's plan
A closed ticket becomes a standard procedure. When the same request comes back, Clema starts from that plan instead of a blank page.
A record of how each number was produced
Each ticket keeps the original ask, the clarifications, the data pulled and the reply sent. When an accreditor or the provost asks where a number came from, the record is already there.
“They just want the affirmation of me providing the data because they trust IR.”
Clema keeps your analyst as the person who sends the answer. You can require that every reply goes through an analyst before it is sent.
Which plan
Ticketing and the request queue are on Max ($299 a month) and Enterprise. Drafts use the data you've added: 1 uploaded dataset on Pro, up to 10 on Max, and live system connections on Enterprise. See pricing.
Peer benchmarks
Know where you stand against your peers before someone else asks
Describe your peers in plain English ("public R2s in our region"), paste a list, or start from your IPEDS comparison group and your published peer list. Clema builds the comparison and puts the peer median next to your number. Every figure shows its source and year.
Peer sets your way
Pick peers by name, by pasted list or by description. Clema proposes a starting set and you approve the final one. You can frame it as operational, strategic or aspirational.
Six areas in one table
Enrollment and demographics, retention and graduation (150% and 200%), finance and net price, faculty and staff, affordability and Pell, and admissions and selectivity.
A paragraph you can paste
You get a sortable table with the peer median and a plain-English summary for a board deck or a self-study. The figures stay cited.
Beyond IPEDS when the question needs it
Add College Scorecard, federal Pell Grant disbursement data, cohort default rates, EADA athletics and Clery campus safety data to the same comparison.
| Metric | You | Peer median | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-year retention | 78% | 74% | IPEDS, Fall 2024 |
| 6-year graduation rate | 61% | 58% | IPEDS, Fall 2024 |
| Average net price | $18,400 | $19,900 | IPEDS, 2023 to 2024 |
Sample figures, not real institution data.
Peer-comparison dashboards are included on the Free plan.
Program outcomes
What each program's graduates earn, and where they go to work
Every program review asks what happens to graduates. Clema answers it program by program from federal data, with a source on every figure.
Graduates per year
Degrees awarded each year, from IPEDS completions, for your institution and your peers.
Graduate earnings
Median earnings after completion by field of study, from College Scorecard, shown next to cost and debt.
Occupations and wages
The federal CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps each program to the jobs it leads to. Each job shows BLS wages and outlook, labelled as occupation wages, not graduate earnings.
The earnings premium check
See which programs may be at risk under the earnings premium test in STATS (the Student Tuition and Transparency System), the federal rule created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. These are Clema's estimates from the Department of Education's Program Performance Data, not official results.
Sample question
Which of our programs could be at risk under the STATS earnings test, and what do their graduates earn?
Program and occupation pages are free to browse. No login needed.
Getting started
Ask your first question today, on data that's already loaded
You don't need a data project to start. The Free plan comes with 10 public federal datasets built in, including IPEDS, College Scorecard and Pell, so you can run your first peer comparison in your first session.
- 1.
Sign up free
1 user, 20 conversations a month, no credit card.
- 2.
Ask a question you answered last month
Pick a request you already know the answer to, and check Clema's answer and sources against yours.
- 3.
Add your team and your data
Pro, $99 a month
Three seats, a shared workspace, and 1 uploaded dataset of your own next to the federal data.
- 4.
Open the request queue
Max, $299 a month
Point campus email, Slack or a web form at Clema and start working requests. Max includes up to 10 users, up to 10 private datasets, a Power BI connector and a free onboarding session.
- 5.
Connect live systems
Enterprise
Our team sets up read-only connections to your systems with you, plus single sign-on and a full audit log.
Our research
We asked IR and IE offices where their week goes
We interviewed more than 50 IR and IE professionals across 19 states about how data requests really move through their offices.
- of team capacity goes to ad hoc requests.
- 40 to 60%
- from request to delivery.
- 3 to 14 days
- of clarification on a typical request.
- 2 to 5 rounds
- of offices named vague, unclear requests as a bottleneck.
- 73.5%
- of offices named dashboard underutilization as a problem.
- 32.4%
Source: Understanding Data Request Workflows in US Higher Education, Clema. Based on 50+ interviews with IR and IE professionals across 19 states. These figures describe the problem. They aren't Clema customer results.
Before you ask
The questions your CIO, your analysts and your provost will raise
Privacy
“Where does our data go?”
Clema is SOC 2 Type II certified. Your institutional data isn't sold or used to train AI models, and sub-processors are disclosed in our DPA. Enterprise adds single sign-on, a full audit log and HECVAT alignment for your procurement review.
Security detailsAccuracy
“How do I know the number is right?”
Every figure carries its source and year, so you can trace any answer. In the request queue, you can require that every reply goes through an analyst before it is sent.
Definitions
“Will it use our retention definition?”
When a request is ambiguous, Clema asks clarifying questions, such as which cohort and which term, before it drafts an answer. Each figure names its source, so your analyst can check the definition before the reply goes out.
Effort
“We're a three-person office. Will this add work?”
Start on the federal data that's already loaded, and your dashboards stay where they are. When you're ready, Max routes the questions people were going to email you anyway.
Cost
“What will this cost us?”
Every plan is published. Free is $0, Pro is $99 a month and Max is $299 a month. Enterprise is quoted for your institution.
See pricingSOC 2 Type II
Certified
FERPA
Student data privacy
AES-256
Encrypted at rest and in transit
SSO / SAML
Enterprise plan
These controls describe Clema for IR and IE. The website assistants for colleges and schools are in early access and aren't covered.
Your systems
Your dashboards stay where they are
Many offices already have Power BI or Tableau dashboards, and requests still arrive by email. Clema answers those requests, and your dashboards stay in use.
Most teams start on uploaded files and the built-in federal data. On Enterprise, Clema connects read-only to your student system and warehouse, with no data migration.
By plan
- Pro and up
- Upload institutional datasets (CSV and Excel).
- Max
- Power BI connector.
- Enterprise
- Live, read-only student system and data warehouse connections, Tableau, custom integrations and API access.
Systems we connect on Enterprise
- Student systems
- Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, Workday Student, Jenzabar
- Warehouses
- Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, SQL Server, Oracle
Working in enrollment, or at a school district?
Enrollment teams
Our free program and occupation pages show the path from a program to a job to what it pays, from federal earnings and wage data.
- A website assistant that answers applicants from your own siteEarly access
- Lead capture in the conversationIn development
Schools (K-12)
Early accessAn assistant for district and school websites that answers family questions from the pages and files you already publish, with a source on each answer. It was built and tested on a U.S. K-12 district's site.
Clema for schoolsQuestions IR and IE leaders ask first
Clema is for institutional research, institutional effectiveness and decision support teams in U.S. higher education: the office that answers data requests from deans, the provost, the president and the board, and builds the peer comparisons and program reviews. Deans, the provost and the board still get their numbers from your office, with the source attached, and they spend less time waiting on the back-and-forth.
No. Keep your help desk for IT and facilities tickets, and send data requests to Clema. Clema tracks each request like a ticket and also drafts the answer. If a request lands in the wrong queue, forward it to Clema by email. Ticketing is on Max and Enterprise.
Not unless you give them a seat. In the request queue, Clema drafts the reply and your analyst can review and send it, so the answer still comes from your office with its sources attached. You can require that every reply goes through an analyst before it is sent.
Every answer shows its source, survey and year. In the request queue, you can require that every reply goes through an analyst before it is sent, and on Max and Enterprise each request keeps a record of what was asked, what was pulled and what was sent.
It helps with the numbers. Peer tables come with plain-English summaries you can use in a self-study, and program outcomes support program review. On Max and Enterprise, every answered request keeps a record of how each figure was produced, so the next time a number gets questioned, you can show where it came from.
Peer comparisons use IPEDS, and you can add College Scorecard and other federal datasets when you need them. You can describe your peers in plain English, paste a list, or start from your IPEDS comparison group. Peer-comparison dashboards are on the Free plan.
Yes. Pro and Max let you upload institutional datasets, and Max adds a Power BI connector. Enterprise adds live, read-only connections to your student system and data warehouse, plus Tableau and custom integrations. The full list is on our requirements and integrations page.
The Free plan is free forever: 1 user, 20 conversations a month, 10 public federal datasets including IPEDS and College Scorecard, and peer-comparison dashboards. No credit card is required. Paid plans start at $99 a month.
Get started
Bring us your next data request
Start free on IPEDS and College Scorecard data today. Or book a demo, bring one real request, and we'll answer it live from your institution's public federal data and show where each number came from.
For the provost: your office can take on more requests this term without a new hire.
- 1.Sign up free
- 2.Ask a question you answered last month
- 3.Compare your peers
Start free
1 user, 20 conversations a month, no credit card.
Book a demo
Bring a real request. We'll show you the trail behind every number.