At Glamorgan we use Campus IT's Quercus Plus student admin record system and Oracle Discoverer as a reporting tool, this was fine for operational reporting but the Oracle reporting tool was not able to meet our MI demands.  We ended up de-normalising our record system into 10 sql tables, which are updated overnight from the student record system.  In addition we upload other data sets from other university systems, including our planning targets and Students Achievement PI's.  We then use COGNOS 8 reporting to sit on top of these tables.
 
Our faculties and departments all have view access to look at the standard reports created from the reporting unit (and agreed with senior management) with a number of end users having access to query studio and by having a reduced data set and a powerful reporting tool this enables the end users to produce those quick ad-hoc information reports.  We keep in close contact with these end users to ensure the appropriate use of data.
 
COGNOS 8 also enables for multi tables to be displayed on one page and we have created some very impressive reports, such as subject boards where data which used to be pulled from 4 or more reports can now be produced from one, in an emailable PDF file.
 
We developed the warehouse in-house, with about 2 months FTE from the reporting unit (within Academic Registry) and 2 months from the IS department.  Key to the success of this has been the push from the faculties to have their own reporting ability and by having an in-depth knowledge of the data structure with the reporting unit - this was crucial in writing the extract reports for the sql tables.  We have recently reviewed the initial warehouse and added in some new datasets to further expand reporting and include PI targets.
 
We have found data issues especially when we reduced the 150+ data tables into ten tables and 'lost' records, this was mainly due to 'outer joins' from missing data.  We work closely with the data quality strategy and focus attention on cleaning up the data.  We have set up a number of reports that validate the data where there is a potential for missing records. 
 
If anyone would like to discuss the work we have completed at Glamorgan please contact me,
 
regards
 
Liam Bryson
Manager, Planning & Reporting Unit
Academic Registry
01443 483670

________________________________

From: Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities on behalf of Andrea Cheshire
Sent: Fri 03/04/2009 09:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Business intelligence tools



Alistair

We have implemented a data warehouse with Business Objects as the reporting front end. We had consultants in to help us with the warehouse built, which is the key to any BI project. The reporting tools available are not too dissimilar from each other. It took as about 6 months to complete the first phase which was to bring in selected fields from our student records system and the general ledger from the Finance system. Working closely with the consultants to ensure knowledge transfer is key in this phase, but it would be too optimistic to assume that any further phase of data warehouse building can be delivered completely in house. The "real" work for the users of the system  starts after the warehouse is built. We have come across loads of data issues which were invisible before. To come to a position where we use the system with confidence has taken at least one year and we are still finding issues along the way.

Our plan is to roll the system out across the institution to include further source systems.

Key factors of success:
- data ware house structure
- a dedicated team in IT to work alongside the consultants to take on further development and maintenance afterwards (we have 2 fte)
- a full time project manager
- access to people with excellent knowledge of the source systems during the development phase and afterwards
- capacity on the user side to develop standard reports. Although the BO reporting front end is easy to use you still need real data knowledge to write the reports (this is our current bottle neck)

Best wishes
Andrea

Andrea Cheshire
Director Planning and Business Intelligence
VC's Office
University of the West of England
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol BS16 1QY
Tel: 0117-32-82817



-----Original Message-----
From: Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities on behalf of Clerkin Dawn
Sent: Thu 02/04/2009 4:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Business intelligence tools

Alistair,
Here at Ulster we have recently purchased Cognos 8 and Cogno Planning
tools - we have a Business Intelligence Project underway to install and
implement this to replace Impromptu reporting. We have had a lengthy
period of research and investigation and are now eventually starting to
move toward Cognos reporting. The key here is getting our data tables
built in such a way that we may fully utilise the new reporting tool
rather than replicating the weaknesses of our old model. This is a long
and painful process that forces us to look at our internal processes as
well as raw data.
Our current timeframe is to have Cognos reporting in place in all areas
by Sept 2010. 
I hope this is of some use to you - preferably not to be circulated.
Laura

-----Original Message-----
From: Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alistair Knock
Sent: 02 April 2009 16:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Business intelligence tools

Dear all,

I know this will be a perennial topic on this list, and I see from the
list archives there has been some discussion recently but the question
was slightly different and the response unconclusive.

I'm interested to hear what (if any) business intelligence tools other
institutions use, how you found the implementation process, and how
satisfied you are with the results.  By business intelligence I mean any
technology by which you derive meaning and trends from your
student/applicant, financial, HR and estate data - the types of tools I
mean include Business Objects, Cognos, Tableau, Spotfire, Hyperion.

I'm happy to collate responses both on and off list and recirculate
(will also include information I've gathered to date from web research);
if you don't wish your response to be recirculated please let me know.

Thanks,

--
Alistair Knock
Information Systems Project Officer (Corporate Planning) Registrar's
Department, University of York [log in to unmask]
+44 (0)1904 434607


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