Any state-level postsecondary education agency could perform its job more effectively through discriminate use of the available technology of informational and analytic planning approaches. The paper attempts to increase an awareness of how data, analytic techniques, and their product information should be used to assist state-level academic planning. An introduction is offered to the available products for collecting and structuring data and to three general levels of analytic capability. Some of the shortcomings of those approaches are also identified, and suggestions for amelioration are made. (MSE)