The Pennsylvania State University - Administrative Information Services, a unit of Information Technology Services

History

In 1994, Penn State embarked on a project to make ad hoc access to institutional data easier, more flexible, and more widely available to the University community. The Data Warehouse—with its original aim to unlock the data from the mainframe environment, making it accessible from the desktop—has now become the source for a system of “data marts," or subsets of data directed toward various business areas. Also in the early 1990s, the University created the Enterprise Information System (EIS), which is a tool for answering questions about enrollments, admissions, and other Penn State-related information. EIS allows for the convenient viewing of summary-level data through a Web browser, where it can instantly be presented in a spreadsheet, chart, or graph.

The Data Warehouse and EIS have proven to be extremely valuable to the Penn State community. Both systems have a wide user base and play a key role at making institutional information more easily available to the University Community. However, both systems are now more than ten years old, and Penn State’s information needs and technology have changed significantly since EIS and the Data Warehouse were developed. Even though EIS and the Data Warehouse continue to fulfill their purpose, Penn State’s needs for information have expanded to include capabilities not supported by either of the tools.

The purpose of the Business Intelligence initiative is to re-assess Penn State’s current information needs and then to work cooperatively with the University Community to plan, design, develop, and implement an infrastructure that will transform administrative data into information and that will make the right information available to right Penn State stakeholder at the right time and through the right delivery media.

Business Intelligence Report

As the initial step of the Business Intelligence (BI) initiative, Penn State commissioned Software AG's Business Solution Consulting Group to perform an assessment of Penn State's Business Intelligence capabilities. During the assessment process, the Software AG (SAG) team evaluated Penn State's current business intelligence effectiveness by conducting stakeholder interviews, analyzing data repositories, data usage, and user needs to recommend potential steps and solutions that will enhance Penn State's business intelligence capabilities.

During the assessment process, the SAG assessment team interviewed a cross section of functional departments, users, stakeholders, and committees to determine the current state of the University's business intelligence capabilities. Additionally, surveys were distributed to a variety of end users and functional stakeholders to determine their needs, limitations, capabilities, and experiences with the University's current business intelligence tools and databases.

Upon completing the interview cycle, the SAG team compiled and analyzed the results and prepared a recommendation.

SoftwareAG's Business Intelligence Report

This report is Software AG's summary of their findings and is not necessarily endorsed by AIS. Although the information might be useful in helping us to define our business intelligence strategy, it does not outline that strategy.

File Size: 560.22 KB

Last Updated: 5/9/2005

Content Questions: Business Intelligence | Support Questions: AIS Support