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Hi Jennifer & all Rebecca Mander passed this email on to me, and I thought I'd let you know where we're at and also ask the group a related question. I joined Brookes in 2009 with the task of developing a data mart plus university wide reporting tool to support our MI for the strategic plan (a subset of our KPIs around students). I started small with a a static prototype based on one source only. I would recommend the prototype route because it allows you to take the time needed to define the fields properly, sorting out user requirements and getting a complete and robust set of requirements and ETL definitions before you invest in external expertise. The prototype was delivered in Nov 2009 and we're now in the middle of an ITT to find a supplier who can a) turn this into a 'live' data warehouse with data validation, automated refresh, slowly changing dimensions etc., using industry recognised ETL tools like BODI, OWB b) provide a universally acceptable (!!!) reporting tool, again we've played it safe, major players (OBIEE, SAP BO, Cognos) only We are also considering an interim stage: buying just the reporting software, and polishing up the prototype so that it's at least auto refreshed. ie we would omit the super duper time trend data warehousing development, and just have something up and running. Bearable in the short term and much much cheaper. It would not be futureproof in the long term as we bring in lots systems, but should be a cheap way to start bringing some of the core systems together in the first year. So. First - my attempts to answer your questions a) What products do you use? --- see above, procurement not yet completed b) What solutions have proven most cost effective? - well a staged approach starting small has worked for us (sort of). Every other person I've talked to who has got the full implementation to work from scratch has spent £100-250K up front + lots ongoing. I do see that your top priority is to bring several systems together (this is our long term priority too) - but I would start getting the thing working just from one system. Also, using a contractor for us was much better value for money than a consultancy - but maybe we were just lucky. In the long term, to have a robust workable system from many sources, you should definitely go the full data warehousing route, but you can get quite far in selling in the idea with something less formal. c) Have there been many non-technical issues to resolve? -- some absolutely key things to get in place, which I have picked up over the years (iused to be a data mart project manager in the private sector): --- commitment at the highest level, an evangelistic VC sorts the whole project --- internal technical resource - 2 seems to be the minimum although possibly can work with 1 FTE, ongoing --- internal business resource - a BI reporting team, strong user representation --- this one's important - get all the requirements &definitions really pinned down to technical detail, as far as you can - this is where many projects fall over because they usually need the busiest people in the organisation to agree them, and no amount of time spent by IT or external people can replace this. --- I know lots of people have had issues with reporting tool licensing structures, may not be relevant for you. d) What would you do differently next time? Um. Demand £250K up front? alternatively write a persuasive business case to ensure sufficient in house IT resourcing for the project. *****************Which leads me to my question to the group:************************ -- I need to write a persuasive business case justifying additional resource in a difficult climate, by demonstrating the direct financial benefits of a Business Intelligence system. Any of you people with existing well established systems have any thoughts and/or examples on their benefits you could share, at the highest level? Anything at all would be appreciated, however vague. and anonymised of course. Thanks - hope the above helps you as well Georgina -- Georgina Spary Business Intelligence Manager SBPO, Corporate Affairs Oxford Brookes University + 1865 484887 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Fwd: Re: Reporting from multiple systems] Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:49:21 +0000 From: Rebecca Mander <[log in to unmask]> Organisation: Oxford Brookes University To: Spary Georgina <[log in to unmask]> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Reporting from multiple systems Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:53:29 +0000 From: Andrea Cheshire <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] References: <[log in to unmask]> Dear Jennifer We have invested in a data warehouse at UWE and have operated the system over the last 2 years. Currently the warehouse holds data from our student record and finance systems but we are expanding to bring in admissions data. The warehouse has opened up completely new avenues for business analyses which single systems can never provide . Although it is quite an investment, it is paying off in terms of efficiency and effectiveness of analysis and reporting. We are currently using it to drive performance improvements across the institution. As the reporting front end we have chosen Business Objects, although there is very little difference to other systems like Cognos. The key factor of success of our project was the quality of the data warehouse design. You really need to get this right, as it determines the avenues for future analysis. We used consultants as we don’t have the knowledge in house. However we ensured significant know how transfer in the first project and are now confident to do more ourselves. The biggest non technical issue is the review of the quality of your data. We have spent months cleaning our records and are still picking up issues. But this is to be expected and I have had similar feedback from other institutions that went down the warehouse route. We are happy to give more in depths informaton if this is helpful. Best wishes Andrea Andrea Cheshire Director Business Intelligence and Planning University of the West of England Bristol [log in to unmask] *From:* Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Arkell J.H. *Sent:* 21 January 2010 12:10 *To:* [log in to unmask] *Subject:* Reporting from multiple systems Dear all, Here at Southampton, we're looking to improve our reporting from multiple corporate systems (rather than the single system reporting which makes up the majority of information at the moment). I would welcome experience and advice from institutions who have been down this route already on issues such as What products do you use? What solutions have proven most cost effective? Have there been many non-technical issues to resolve? What would you do differently next time? We don't have a data warehouse system at the moment, and I would be particularly interested in institutions who have found interim solutions to this problem without investing in a data warehouse. Jennifer ________________ Jennifer Arkell Corporate Planning Manager University of Southampton www.soton.ac.uk 023 80594447 (internal 24447)