Synch-Solutions’ Campus Accelerator delivers rapid implementations of Oracle PeopleSoft ERP using our proven experience, methodology and toolset developed specifically for Higher Education institutions. We applied the Campus Accelerator model at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, enabling full implementation of each of three enterprise suites – Campus Solutions, Human Capital Management (HCM) and Financials – within 12 months. Compare that to a traditional implementation, which can take 2 years or more.

Although in UAM’s case, implementation of the three suites was staggered to adjust for the already busy schedules of the institution’s internal IT resources, the success of the project moved the solution from theoretical model to proven reality. Synch-Solutions is excited to have Oracle recognize this offering as a first-to-market solution and to partner with us to promote it.

Campus Accelerator is offered at competitive fixed-fee pricing, and the compressed timeline reduces implementation costs and shortens time-to-value for client institutions. It thus gives small and midsize institutions an affordable means to gain a world-class Oracle PeopleSoft ERP system that can enable a competitive operating advantage in the marketplace.

Synch-Solutions has also applied aggressive timelines to upgrades for PeopleSoft and Oracle E-Business ERP systems. And we can deliver “a la carte” rapid implementations and upgrades of individual suites. All of these services are designed to deliver faster ROI than traditional solutions.

Is it any wonder Synch-Solutions is excited about this offering?

Now let us look at a real-life scenario demonstrating this process. Let us say that in looking at your enrollment trend data displayed in the dashboard, you find that the Total Students count for African-American students has decreased for three consecutive terms. This is clearly an indication that you need to take certain actions to increase the African-American student enrollment in future terms. Having identified a problem, you can now take the precise action to fix it. In this case, your action might be to increase Financial Aid to African-American students in need, thus attracting more African-American candidates. This is what we call making an informed decision and taking effective action!

These are some key pointers that you need to take into consideration when defining KPIs, measures and dimensions:

1. Ensure that your KPIs are directly tied to your vision and mission statements
2. Ensure that you have set target goals
3. Ensure that the identified KPIs and measures are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound
4. Ensure that you have clearly defined each KPI and the benefits each can bring in managing institutional or campus performance
5. Ensure that the outlined KPIs, measures and dimensions are correctly mapped to business requirements

Over the last four blog entries, we have covered a strategic plan for defining KPIs, measures and dimensions for institutions of higher education. We have explored how to outline the KPIs tied to the institution’s vision and mission statements, how to measure the indicators and, finally, how to view the data elements related to measures. We hope these last few blog entries have provided you with the knowledge to begin designing your performance digital dashboard by identifying KPIs, measures and dimensions.

To help you define the dimensions associated with the measures identified above, you need to ask more questions! How do you want to view the enrollment trend? By Gender? Ethnicity? Academic Program? Term? Academic Year?

Here are some sample Dimensions you may use to view your data:

1. Gender – enables you to view enrollment by Female or Male head count
2. Ethnicity – enables you to view enrollment by ethnic group (African-American, Asian, Hispanic, etc.)
3. Academic Program – enables you to view enrollment by programs in which students are enrolled
4. Term – enables you to view enrollment by summer, fall and spring terms

Through our exercises, you have definitely laid the groundwork for identifying KPIs, measures and dimensions associated with your institution’s strategic goals.

The table below shows the high-level matrix of KPIs, measures and dimensions:

In our next blog entry, we will explain the use of digital dashboards to display the data represented in the tabular graphic above.

Let’s assume that your institution’s officers clearly understand all of the relevant external and internal environmental factors that impact the strategic goals, vision and mission directly. How must you then proceed to identify the indicators for measuring your institution’s position relative to its stated goals and objectives? What decisions must be made? What actions must be taken?

At this point, you may be overwhelmed with many unanswered questions. However, finding the right answers to these questions will guide you in defining the relevant KPIs, measures and dimensions accurately.

The very first step in identifying KPIs, measures and dimensions is meeting with the business users to understand their requirements for measuring institutional or campus performance. We’d suggest beginning with one functional area and then moving on to another. For example, Student Enrollment and Retention are two equally important indicators in the Student Administration functional area that all institutions want to measure. You can begin your requirements gathering in this area first. The business requirements will help you to identify the exact data elements needed for tracking performance in the Student Administration area. So in this case, your first KPI can be defined as Student Enrollment, and your second as Student Retention. Very good! You have successfully defined your first two KPIs!

Now, how will you track your student enrollment and retention? By head count? By percentage? By FTE? I apologize for throwing more questions your way, but, again, answering these questions will give you a clear picture of how to measure the critical indicators you defined earlier. Many colleges prefer to gauge enrollment trends based on these measures given below:

• Total Students – a head count of all students enrolled at the college.
• Developmental Students – a head count of developmental students only. Developmental students are those who have enrolled in developmental academic programs based on the Program Classification System (PCS) Code as defined by Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).
• Full Time Equivalent (FTE) – computed based on students’ course credits.
• Student Status – examples would be new students (new to college without prior enrollment in any other colleges) and returning students (students who had dropped out earlier but have returned to the same campus).

These are just some sample measures that could help you to plan your work in identifying the measures related to the indicators defined earlier. Again, remember that these measures help you to track your progress and performance trends toward the predefined goals and objectives in your vision statement, while also meeting the business users’ requirements.

In our next blog entry, we will discuss how to define dimensions.

In a series of four blog entries, We’ll be discussing the best-known methods and best practices in identifying and defining the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), measures and dimensions used when building a digital dashboard that aligns with a higher education institution’s strategic goals and performance measurement plans.

In working with various institutions of higher education to implement Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence projects, Synch-Solutions’ professionals have gained a first-hand understanding of their organizational strategies, goals, visions, missions, plans and objectives. In order to stay competitive in this ever-changing and challenging socio-economy, many colleges are embracing new technologies to manage performance and enable informed decision-making. Business Intelligence applications such as dashboards are becoming popular performance management tools among institutions of higher education.

Before diving into the details, let us briefly explain the three key terms we will be using frequently in this discussion.

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), also known as Key Success Indicators or Metrics, help an organization define and evaluate how it is progressing toward its long-term organizational goals

• Measures refer to direct numerical variables that represent pieces of business data in relationship with one or more dimensions associated with a KPI

• Dimensions provide the means to view data elements that categorize measures

The aforementioned keywords are the foundations in developing a digital dashboard.

The biggest challenges are where to begin and how to plan.

We will begin to address these two issues in our next blog entry.

• - Related content
• - Integration technology
• - End-user productivity
• - Supported platforms

The biggest change is in supported platforms. While earlier versions of PeopleTools had run on 32-bit machines, PeopleTools 8.50 will run only on 64-bit machines.

To give you a quick comparison of 32-bit vs. 64-bit processing:

• - 32-bit systems can reference 2 to the power of 32 addresses, or 4 GB of RAM
• - 64-bit systems can reference 2 to the power of 64 addresses, or approximately 17.2 billion GB, 16.8 million terabytes, or 16 exabytes of RAM

In essence, the 64-bit computers will be processing about ten billion times more information than their now nearly-insignificant 32-bit cousins.

What does this mean to a business? Several requirements go along with PeopleTools 8.50:

• - New 64-bit servers
• - New operating systems
• - New 64-bit support software
• - New installations or upgrades
• - Integration and support for the new equipment

Here are the answers to a couple of very obvious FAQs:

• - No, you cannot run a 64-bit emulation on a 32-bit machine.
• - Yes, you can run a 32-bit emulation on a 64-bit machine, but it’s like making an F-15 Eagle travel at the same speed as a tricycle, just to be in a tricycle race.

The majority of businesses run on 32-bit machines, and these have proven adequate, given the quantities of commercial data most organizations use (an exception would be statistical market analysis firms), and the PeopleSoft product suite does run on the 32-bit supported PeopleTools 8.49. The key for business owners considering an upgrade will be how much longer PeopleTools 8.49 will be supported.

During these tough economic times, few organizations will be willing to justify any significant additional cost without a serious look at all of the benefits – not just the speed.

The recession is raising consciousness, for example, about just how much money is being spent on IT maintenance and support.  As the role of IT has expanded within organizations, starting with pure data management, then moving on to information management, and then strategic knowledge management, maintenance and support costs have also expanded to consume a staggering 70% to 80% of IT budgets, according to Forrester Research.  It’s not uncommon for companies to own a multitude of data centers and hundreds of servers. 

One way to look at this problem is to simply acknowledge that this is the inevitable trend. But, the other way to look at it is that the cost-saving opportunity here is huge.  There is no question about the fact that adopting a managed services approach can save the organization significant amounts of money, because you are giving over day-to-day maintenance and support responsibilities to a firm that can take advantage of the economies of scale that come with being in the business of managing technology for a multitude of organizations.

The transition to managed services has been understandably difficult for many organizations to embrace.  First of all, it is big change, and change brings up the very natural and appropriate attention to risks.  Are there security or privacy risks, for example?   

As it goes with technology, however, continuous improvements have been made to ensure that the organization is not putting itself at risk with the transfer of IT maintenance and support to an outside partner.  The solutions have been baked in to ensure that your data is perhaps even more secure with an outside vendor that provides managed services for a living.  The risks have been addressed…and managed services should enable you to provide even more proactive and preventive support than can be provided internally.  This is because, to be a player in the managed services business, a vendor must have state-of-the-art equipment, processes and practices, all across the board.

And think what you could do with the budget freed up for more strategic work.  Your organization definitely needs to make the best use of the “I” in your “T,” but it does not need to have the “T” maintained and supported internally, at a cost that, almost invariably, far surpasses what can be provided by an external vendor. It’s the 21st century, and you now have a higher strategic calling.  Your organization needs you to free up dollars to invest in strategic innovations that improve the financial position of your organization, better serve your customers and, if yours is a commercial enterprise, give you a differential advantage.

Institutional Researchers are the key drivers of new analytical strategies for reducing time, effort and redundant work. Some institutions maintain this group as a standalone unit, while others include Institutional Research in the Department of Information Technology. Research staff may be called Institutional Researchers, or may be assigned titles according to the nature of their work, such as Information Analyst or Management Analyst.

Our Vendor Presentation

On the second day of the conference, the Synch-Solutions team presented on “Institutional Performance Visibility Through Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence.” In this presentation, we put forth insights on DW concepts, BI tools, project initiation and the real power of Institutional Intelligence available to those who employ the tools and processes with the proper mindset. Many Institutional Researchers attended Synch’s presentation and participated in the Q&A session. The interactive nature of the presentation enabled Institutional Researchers to share their current challenges and expectations with Synch team. DW concepts and BI tools can give institutions the edge to stay competitive in an increasingly demanding and challenging field.

At the Exhibit Hall

In addition to making the presentation, Synch-Solutions’ DW and BI team also exhibited at the conference expo. We managed an exhibitor booth to share Synch’s profile and service offerings. The highlight at our booth was our Student Administration Dashboard Demo. The Institutional Researchers were intensely interested in understanding the functionality, technology and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are essential for developing a Digital Dashboard for an institution.

The demo of Synch-Solutions’ Student Administration Dashboard for Higher Education illustrated how, using only 2 significant KPIs, along with more than 15 measures and 9 dimensions with drill-through capability, the dashboard was capable of providing up to 4,000 static reports. The Institutional Researchers liked the multidimensional design and slice-and-dice functionality, and made such comments as, “This is a perfect solutions for improving the efficiency of my department and its capacity to meet the needs of all of our stakeholders.

Institutional Research + Business Intelligence = Institutional Intelligence

Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence can no longer be framed as “long-term goals” for institutions of Higher Education. They are widely embraced technologies that are highly valued for institutions that have implemented them. Such institutions stand as living proof of the effectiveness of DW and BI. 

The Synch team gained valuable experience and knowledge at the INAIR conference, and we are looking forward to attending the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) 49th Annual Forum in Atlanta from May 30 to June 3. We hope to see you there!

To meet these challenges, educational institutions are faced with a dilemma. They must either (A) continuously modify their current Student Administration systems to address the new requirements, or (B) upgrade their current Student Administration systems to incorporate new requirements.

At the HEUG (Higher Education User Group) Alliance 2009 conference in Anaheim, California, Oracle addressed the educational challenges by stating the following commitments, relative to its PeopleSoft Campus Solutions product:
- Minimize operational disruption and the capital costs that have often been experienced with major upgrades
- Deliver Campus Solutions as a stand-alone instance
- Give customers options for HCM (Human Capital Management) integration

The release of Campus Solutions 9.0 achieves these goals by offering the following for upgrade customers:
- Campus Solutions 9.0 (CS 9.0) will be the base foundation application being supported.
- CS 9.0 will be independent of HCM 9.1 (CS 9.0 remains connected to HCM 9.0).
- Additional changes will be implemented using feature packs. A feature pack is one or more enhancements and/or one or more new features that can be applied directly to the current release, without an upgrade event.
- Campus Solutions products will be migrated to service-enabled technology over time.
- CS 9.0 includes enhancements and features that were originally targeted for CS 9.1.
- HCM 9.1 and CRM 9.1 integration are included.
- Service-enabled core product modules (Admissions, Enrollment, etc.) are included.

For those who choose the Oracle legacy path (option A), the caveats are as follows:
- If you are on Campus Solutions 8.9 or earlier, support will last only the next few years and will vary by support contract.
- Any future government-mandated changes will require software customizations.
- Maintenance to legacy systems will need to address both new requirements and modifications to old requirements.

The key benefit in the upgrade option is no further upgrade events. Anyone who has gone through an upgrade realizes the resources, expenses and time needed for such an endeavor. Limiting that impact by using service-enabled (e.g, Oracle Fusion or Java-based) modules is clearly a step in the right direction, and minimizes the impact on costs and resources.

The Oracle Solutions Fair took place on January 29. As we were headlong into what was projected to be a very long-term recession, the question in both the customer’s and vendor‘s mind was: Why should I spend money or resources on Oracle products?

Mark Stevens, Vice President of Industry Strategy & Insight from Oracle, gave an excellent opening presentation, Building the Business Case for the New Technology Stack, arguing on that very subject. Several well-documented studies have made compelling arguments about the importance of making the right investment decisions during a recession (e.g., cash investments vs. cash hoarding and IT budget cuts vs.other departmental cuts).

Stevens indicated that the longer a recession lasts, the greater the post-recession growth prospects – and companies that invest during the recession are far better positioned to take advantage of that growth…a ray of hope during these dark financial times. Stevens cited Wal-Mart, Abbott Laboratories, Walgreens and Arrow Electronics as companies that are continuing to invest and execute growth strategies as we move deeper into recession, which should serve them very well when we come out on the other side.

Synch-Solutions reps attending the event looked at the following Oracle solutions:
Identity Management – a security manager to control all application security
Business Intelligence – the collected information from a data warehouse that enables informed decision-making
SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) – Web-enabled connections creating a kind of 21st-century EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
Beehive – a collaborative software similar to the Facebook model

Any organization considering these products must answer to the question: How can these products help our business? In order to answer this question properly, the organization must first answer another question: How do we want to achieve our business goals?

In general, the application of technology as a speculative investment, rather than a strategic investment as part of a unified overall plan, produces the same results as a bad stock pick. Case in point: there are no mass-produced 5-wheeled cars out there, or GPS wedding rings!

But an investment in technology that improves a task, fulfills a goal or rolls up to a mission statement is a wise choice in any economic climate.