Hello Nathan, all

We are currently in the middle of an ITT process, looking at Cognos, 
CACI (offering a BO/QlikView hybrid), BO only and OBIEE (we're Oracle 
based). At the moment we're looking to support performance tracking 
specifically around students, courses and applications: we will be 
widening that later to cover e.g. Finance, CRM, etc., but probably 
always within performance tracking , not considering operational at the 
moment so I can't help you there. We are also a long way away from  One 
Size fits All with a number of different reporting systems attached to 
different databases. We would hope to end up with either one tool or a 
suite of seamlessly connected tools backed up by a 'single version of 
the truth' data warehouse.

I hope that helps. On a related point, I recently put together a mini 
survey to see if other HEs wanted to share information on where they are 
at with reporting and data warehousing etc., and see whether people 
might be interested in a specialist group (see below). To date I've had 
28 responses from a range of HE institutions, 25 of them interested in 
joining a group.

I think some people on ADMIN-PLANNING@JISCMAIL have already been sent 
the survey - if so, apologies, please ignpre. If not, do have a look 
through the email below and see if you or an appropriate colleague would 
be interested in the survey and/or the group. If you complete the survey 
I'll share results so that you can see what the other HEs are doing. 
Unfortunately the end date is this Friday so you don't have much time to 
complete it, sorry.

Regards

Georgina
-- 
Georgina Spary
Business Intelligence Manager
SBPO, Corporate Affairs
Oxford Brookes University
+ 1865 484887


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MINI  QUESTIONNAIRE

I'm finding it really useful talking to people to get an idea of where 
the HE market is going with data warehousing and business intelligence, 
and I thought I'd get in touch to see if anyone is interested in sharing 
information around this. I've put together a very short list of 
questions: do reply if you can, I will share my answers with you. Some 
further points:

- If we've already spoken on this I'm including you for information 
(don't worry about the survey).
- If you would rather do this sort of thing anonymously, I could find a 
reliable neutral contact (e.g. from UCISA) to collect and anonymise 
responses.
- If you don't wish to take part in this sort of thing at all, 
apologies,  I won't contact you again - I really really don't want to be 
down there with the junk mail, that is not at all the idea.
- Note that you have all been bccd, please let me know if you want to 
share details.
- And finally, please pass this on if this is more appropriate for a 
colleague.



1. Are you a member of an active online group or forum specifically for 
Business Intelligence and data warehousing in the HE sector?
If yes - is it possible/appropriate for others to join? If no - would 
you be interested in joining one?

2. If you had to categorise your BI strategy, where would you put 
yourself? I've had a go at defining categories
1 - not started anything yet, looking around
2 - in the middle of putting some technology/processes together, got a 
plan but nothing rolled out yet
3 - completed a system  relatively recently, it's bedding down and we 
are looking to see benefits soon
4 - a well established system (...of course BI is never 'finished' so we 
are aiming to grow in new areas/ add new technology etc.)
but please feel free to put yourself in a new category if this is too 
constraining

3. BI or data warehousing project
a) What department is initiating the strategy e.g. Finance, Planning, 
IT, from the VC?
bi) What tools / suppliers have you picked, for Data Warehouse?
bii) What tools / suppliers have you picked, for reporting?
c) Who have you rolled the system out to - just a reporting team, or 
more widely?

4. Resourcing (staff & money):
a) How many internal staff did you have/are you using to set up the BI 
system? How many ongoing?
b) It would also be interesting to know if you decided to start smaller 
in terms of financial investment (e.g. a five figure sum) or larger 
(e.g. six figure sum)

5. Benefits & Business Case: Any thoughts and/or examples on the 
financial benefits of a BI system you could share, at the highest level? 
Was there a particular requirement or need which drove the business case?

I've kept this very short, do feel free to add any other comments, e.g. 
any pitfalls or gems of genius you would like to share? Any question you 
would like to ask?