Introduction

In higher education, staying ahead of the competition is key in understanding how an institution can provide the best student services and opportunities. At The University of Berkeley, Kinshuk Uday Nigam, a Product Manager and User Researcher for the career services team, knows this challenge all too well.

Kinshuk and his team relied on manual processes to keep tabs on competitor websites.

"We used to spend two to three days going through various websites to find out what had changed."

To reduce time spent on tedious and time-consuming research process, Kinshuk turned to Visualping – one of the top competitor monitoring tools – to streamline his team’s research.

Saving time with Automatic Competitor Website Monitoring

Visualping is a website change monitoring tool that allows you to track updates to any web page on the internet.

Kinshuk used Visualping to automate the process of tracking competing universities’ websites, to detect any new features, student resources and offerings that could inform Berkley's strategy for enhancing their own student services.

“We look for new student offerings, such as new job search features, or workshops for newcomers, which we may not have.”

Understanding Updates Quickly with Highlighted Changes

When a change is detected, Visualping sends an email alert of a screenshot of the page, with the changes highlighted. There's also an AI-generated summary, distilling the change in two to three lines.

Visualping's ability to capture visual changes made it easier for Kinshuk to quickly identify content changes, without having to sift through the website and identify updates himself.

“When I discovered Visualping, I was searching for a tool that could automate the process of alerting me of changes. It wasn’t just text monitoring; I wanted visual, as well.”

This automation has saved his team significant time, allowing them to focus on strategic analysis rather than tedious monitoring tasks.

“We took away the manual process of monitoring websites. Now we can focus more of our time on strategic questions like: Do students actually need this? How should we position this? When should we strategize?”

Setup Made Easily with User-Friendly Interface

One of the standout features for Kinshuk is its user-friendly interface. Unlike other website monitoring tools, entering the web pages you care about, and selecting the specific parts of the page you want to track, is easy.

The user-friendly setup has encouraged additional team members to adopt it, further increasing efficiency in the department.

“In terms of setting alerts, it’s super easy for me; it’s very intuitive for our team members, too."

More Time for Value-Adding Strategizing

With less time spent on manually checking competitors’ websites and recording findings, Kinshuk and his team have more time to engage in deeper analysis and strategic planning.

“This has saved us weeks of time in strategic planning every couple of months.”

As a result, the team can invest their efforts into understanding the evolving needs of students and adapting their offerings accordingly.

The Bottom Line

With Visualping in his toolkit, Kinshuk is better equipped to inform the career services strategy at The University of Berkeley. The insights gained from competitor monitoring guide decisions on new features and offerings, ensuring that Berkeley remains competitive and relevant in the educational landscape.

By automating the competitor monitoring process, Visualping increased Kinshuk’s efficiency, enabling his team to focus on more value-adding strategizing: how Berkley can deliver exceptional student services.

Interested in finding out more? Contact our team – we’d be happy to tailor Visualping to your competitor monitoring needs.