University Business - November/December 2011 - (Page 50)

Business Intelligence Gets Smarter allowing you to staff campus security accordingly,” Cupach says. Usability is the killer feature, according to Intelliworks CEO Todd Gibby. “The best business intelligence solutions are those that make data actionable and accessible to end users. Business intelligence technology should not get in the way of you understanding your data and knowing the benefit that you want to derive from it.” Data visualization capabilities are improving rapidly, according to Daryl Orts, vice president of engineering technologies at BI provider Noetix. “This trend, sparked in some ways by Google Analytics, allows users to explore their data interactively and dynamically, without the need for lots of complex configuration,” Orts says. Selim Burduroglu, industry architect at Oracle Education & Research, suggests three core principles for successful BI in higher education. “Start simple and evolve, minimize variables, and link insight to action to provide continuous institutional effectiveness.” Despite the impact business intelligence tools are having on higher education, Melanie Strodtman, business intelligence industry expert at Jenzabar, says she believes BI is in its infancy in higher ed. “Most of the concepts, from balanced scorecards to predictive modeling, are still out of the reach of most.” Industry Leaders’ Advice on Using BI Tools Effectively Institutions should invest as much effort in “getting to their data” as they do in choosing and installing a business intelligence tool, says Daryl Orts, vice president of engineering technologies at Noetix. “Good data models are essential, whether you’re doing real-time operational reporting, building a data warehouse, or both,” Orts relates. But BI tools are not enough on their own to solve the problems of access to data and decision making. While no one would argue that institutions have a wealth of data, many struggle with turning that data into meaningful information to impact performance. “Institutions need to first turn raw data into actionable information so BI tools can be effective,” says Jim Hermens, general manager for Blackboard Analytics. Scott Cupach, senior strategic consultant, SunGard Higher Education, suggests choosing a BI tool with end user ease-of-use top-of-mind. “The majority of decision makers managing the resources of the university do not work in IT,” he says. “If it is not easy for them to use, they will not get the information they need for decision making.” Intelliworks CEO Todd Gibby agrees. “Having the ability to measure anything and everything under the sun can sometimes lead to analysis paralysis,” he relates. “Know what your key performance indicators are before you set out to measure them and concentrate on those areas first.” Cupach also suggests that higher ed leaders implement a BI maturity timeline. “You want your organization to mature from one that just runs and uses reports, to one that leverages dashboards and scorecards, begins to run multi-dimensional analysis, predictive modeling, continuing through to a mature, performance management-driven organization that uses information as an asset.” Ample training and support from the top are critical to BI success in higher ed, says Emily Baranello, sales director of SAS Education Practice. “The most successful BI implementations, both short and long-term, have been in organizations that have been dedicated to training their employees to enable self-sufficiency with the new technology.” Looking to the Future The influence of social media is growing as folks watch breaking news unfold on Twitter and share memories on Facebook. Hope College added the social media module as just one of many to its BI toolkit. Intelliworks can track interaction when students and prospects communicate with Hope College via its Facebook page. “Facebook is not a large part of interaction with students at this point,” Hopkins relates. “I’ll be curious to see if Facebook will be more about catching up with friends versus seeking out information, so that remains to be seen.” Wells believes that social media is not as advanced and strong as it needs to be in the BI world. “The purpose of analysis is to create conversation, which drives organizations to the right kinds of actions,” Wells says. “Very few vendors understand the social networking aspect and need for conversation. Data only tells me ‘what’; it doesn’t tell me ‘why.’ That’s where the whole social networking thing ought to come into play: drawing conversations and collective interpretation of what the data has to say.” Tarleton State University is now beta testing SunGard’s Student Retention Performance tool, which reports data related to class rank, class trends, class load, and how class rank applies to student success. “Strategic enrollment management is strongly supported by data-driven decisions. Efficiency can’t happen if you don’t base decisions on your data,” Groves relates. “It’s critical to have some tool to be more purposeful in your decision making and in resource allocation.” Vicki Powers is a Houston-based freelance writer. 50 | November/December 2011 Resources Blackboard Analytics, www.blackboard.com Campus Management, www.campusmgmt.com IBM, www.ibm.com Information Builders, www.informationbuilders.com Intelliworks, www.intelliworks.com Jaspersoft, www.jaspersoft.com Jenzabar, www.jenzabar.com MicroStrategy, www.microstrategy.com Noetix, www.noetix.com Oracle, www.oracle.com Pentaho, www.pentaho.com SAP, www.sap.com/usa SAS, www.sas.com SunGard Higher Education, www.sungardhe.com TopSchool, www.topschoolinc.com universitybusiness.com http://www.blackboard.com http://www.campusmgmt.com http://www.ibm.com http://www.informationbuilders.com http://www.intelliworks.com http://www.jaspersoft.com http://www.jenzabar.com http://www.microstrategy.com http://www.noetix.com http://www.oracle.com http://www.pentaho.com http://www.sap.com/usa http://www.sas.com http://www.sungardhe.com http://www.topschoolinc.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - November/December 2011

University Business - November/December 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Financial Aid
Viewpoint
Education Gateways
Models of Efficiency
Business Intelligence Gets Smarter
Internet Technology
Independent Outlook
End Note

University Business - November/December 2011