As the scope of institutional research continues to increase, so does its contribution. As a key player in accreditation, IR needs to go beyond crunching numbers. This demands a customer orientation that may include continuous environmental scans, identification of best practices and local environmental trends, enhancement of management's adaptability to a changing environment, sensitizing key stakeholders, and collaboration at the grassroots. This larger role also requires that IR function at multiple levels, including not only data collection and management, but also data restructure and reporting and special research. Special research moves from raw data - "what" questions -- to "why" questions. It is a more sophisticated function of IR that addresses, for example, academic policy, retention and graduation problems and student academic performance. In this session learn more about IR and how it can support your institution's work.