Highlights
Quick facts
Customer: Skive College — Danish vocational and technical college
Industry: Education (vocational and technical training)
Surveys consolidated: Student Satisfaction Survey (ETU), Business Satisfaction Survey (VTU), Learning Environment Assessment (UMV)
Previous setup: 3 separate vendors, 3 data processing agreements, 3 setup fees, 3 different report formats
Current setup: 1 platform (Surveyxact), 1 data processing agreement, unified report format
From three providers to one — and from outsourced to owned
When Skive College ran their annual student satisfaction survey through three different vendors, every cycle started with the same friction: data scattered across three systems, three legal agreements to maintain, three setup invoices, and three report formats nobody could compare against each other.
Today, the same surveys run on a single platform. One legal agreement covers all data. Reports follow one visual language. And the work that used to be pushed out to vendors now sits with one staff member who knows the data — and the college — better than any external provider ever could.
What was the challenge — and why did three vendors become a problem?
With three different vendors handling the college's surveys, data flowed across three separate systems — each with its own data processing agreement, its own setup fee, and its own report layout. The administrative cost wasn't dramatic on any single survey, but compounded across three annual measurements it created real friction and reduced leadership's ability to read the data consistently.
Skive College runs three statutory or strategic surveys every year: the Student Satisfaction Survey (ETU), the Business Satisfaction Survey (VTU), and the Learning Environment Assessment (UMV). A year ago, all three lived with different providers who collected the responses, processed the data, and produced the reports. Reports came back in three different formats — making cross-survey insight effectively impossible without manual rework.
"With three data processing agreements, all our data was scattered, and it complicated both the administrative work and the overview of our survey"
— Kathrine Krogh Pedersen, Personal Assistant, Skive College
How did consolidating onto Surveyxact simplify the process?
Skive College moved all three surveys — ETU, VTU and UMV — onto a single Surveyxact instance, which meant one data processing agreement covered everything and the data flowed through one system end-to-end. The financial saving from removing two setup fees was real but not the headline outcome. The headline was administrative simplicity and the staff's renewed ownership of the data.
Before, the annual ETU was an external project the college received results from. Now it's an internal process the college runs, owns and tailors. Reports follow a consistent visual language, recipients only have to learn one format, and the same staff member runs the survey from invitation to final report.
What changed in practice
- One data processing agreement instead of three — simpler legal oversight, single point of GDPR accountability.
- One platform for all surveys — ETU, VTU and UMV in the same environment, with the same controls and the same logins.
- Removed setup fees from the two providers no longer in the picture.
- Unified report format — internally designed and consistent across all three measurement types.
- Survey work moved in-house — one staff member now owns the full cycle, with Surveyxact support available on demand.
Why does owning the report format change how the college uses the data?
When reports came from three different vendors, they came in three different visual languages — and the staff and leadership receiving them had to translate between formats just to compare year-on-year or cross-survey. With one platform, the college now designs reports that look the same across all three surveys, with the graphs and tables that make sense for their specific context.
The annual ETU still follows the mandatory question framework set by the Ministry of Children and Education, but the way results are presented is now entirely the college's own. That has changed how internal recipients respond to the reports — they're no longer reading vendor documents, they're reading their own data.
"We've received a lot of praise for our reports being easy to understand and very clear. And that's precisely because we can make them our own — and add the graphs that make sense for us."
— Kathrine Krogh Pedersen, Personal Assistant, Skive College
What role did consultant support play in the transition?
Bringing survey work in-house can intimidate anyone without previous platform experience — and Skive College's day-to-day owner, Kathrine Krogh Pedersen, was running the ETU for the first time after years of outsourcing. Surveyxact's named-consultant model meant she had one person to call whenever a question came up, not a generic support queue.
That access to qualified help on demand turned out to matter more than any single platform feature. It removed the risk of being stuck, which in turn removed the hesitation to take on more of the work directly. The college didn't just buy software — they got a partner.
"It's been a great comfort that I could always call — especially the first time I sat with it, after years of pushing it out to vendors. I've gotten help whenever I needed it."
— Kathrine Krogh Pedersen, Personal Assistant, Skive College
Results in numbers
- Data processing agreements: reduced from 3 to 1.
- Survey providers: reduced from 3 to 1.
- Setup fees: eliminated for the two replaced vendors.
- Report formats: standardised from 3 different layouts to 1 internally owned format.
- Survey ownership: moved from external vendors to one internal staff member with on-demand consultant support.
What is the long-term value of owning the survey work in-house?
The cost saving from removing two vendors is real, but the harder-to-measure value is data familiarity. When the same person runs the ETU year after year, they build a working memory of trends, anomalies and where to look first when something shifts. That kind of context can't be transferred through a vendor handover report.
Skive College now sits closer to their own data than when external providers handled it for them. Combined with the safety net of on-demand consultant support, this gives the college both ownership and reach — they're not alone, but they're in charge.
FAQ
Why did Skive College switch to Surveyxact?
Skive College switched to Surveyxact to consolidate three separate survey providers and three data processing agreements into a single platform. The previous setup created administrative friction, multiple setup fees, and inconsistent report formats that made cross-survey comparison difficult. Surveyxact gave them one system, one legal agreement, and full ownership of the report format.
What surveys does Skive College run on Surveyxact?
Skive College runs three core surveys on Surveyxact: the annual Student Satisfaction Survey (ETU), the Business Satisfaction Survey (VTU) for partner companies, and the Learning Environment Assessment (UMV). All three previously lived with separate vendors and are now consolidated on one platform.
Can a non-technical staff member run surveys without prior platform experience?
Yes. Skive College's surveys are now run in-house by a Personal Assistant who had no prior experience with survey software. Surveyxact's named-consultant support model means there is always someone to call when questions arise, which removes the technical barrier to bringing survey work in-house.
What savings did Skive College achieve?
Skive College reduced their data processing agreements from three to one, eliminated setup fees from two providers, and removed the administrative overhead of running surveys across three separate systems. The headline saving was not financial but administrative — simpler operations and stronger internal ownership of the data.
Key takeaways
