Consolidate to elevate: Streamlining your institution’s tech stack for 2026
What to expect
Universities today are grappling with “digital sprawl”, a fragmented landscape of redundant software and siloed data that drains budgets and frustrates students and faculty alike. Combine that with possible campus mergers, increasing workload for too few hands and AI and it’s difficult to know where to start.
Join campus technology peers as we explore the strategic shift toward technology consolidation as a means to move from reactive maintenance to proactive innovation.
Maximizing ROI & cost recovery: Explore how they reduce administrative workloads, leverage integration and consider vendor consolidation
Reducing friction for student success: Learn how a unified digital journey improves retention by removing the “tech chaos” of multiple logins and disparate platforms.
Empowering faculty with integrated tools: Explore how automated workflows and shared service models free faculty from routine administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on teaching and high-value research.
Future-proofing for AI & innovation: Understand why a consolidated “foundational base” of data is critical for scaling AI-powered teaching assistants and personalized student support apps.
About the speaker
Darren Bauer Kahan (DBK)
As the Chief Product & Technology Officer, Darren leads the development and engineering strategy at Watermark. He has a background in technology and product leadership for some of the world’s largest enterprise software brands as well as consumer-focused retail companies. Prior to Watermark, Darren served as Chief Technical Product Officer at SAP Concur, where he oversaw global product management and program management. He was previously CTO for SAP’s SMB software suite and head of technology for Concur’s flagship travel product. He also held leadership roles in software engineering, product development, and agile operations for organizations including TripIt, Limos.com, and Hotwire. Darren holds a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
