In our last blog entry, we worked through the identification of a pair of KPIs (Student Enrollment and Student Retention) and a set of measures related to Student Enrollment. The next step is identifying the dimensions. As we mentioned earlier, a dimension provides a means to view data elements that categorize the measures. In Data Warehousing design, dimensions contribute to a multidimensional view. The more dimensions, the greater the degree of data complexity. A multidimensional view enables you to slice and dice the data in many 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.

On March 26 and 27, the Synch-Solutions Data Warehousing (DW) and Business Intelligence (BI) team participated in the INAIR (Indiana Association for Institutional Research) 23rd Annual Conference in Indianapolis. INAIR is composed of faculty and staff at Indiana’s public and private, two- and four-year colleges and universities, and others who are interested in the study of postsecondary education. It provides a platform for the dissemination of information and interchange of ideas on problems of common interest in the field of Institutional Research. INAIR is dedicated to fostering unity and cooperation among Institutional Researchers at Indiana colleges and universities. It is a regional affiliate of the international Association for Institutional Research (AIR). Institutional Research is crucial to institutions of Higher Education for its role in mining and analyzing data.

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!

In this new era of modern technology, Higher Education is in the midst of rapid change in response to environmental, social, economic, technological and political transformations occurring worldwide. As a result, institutions of Higher Education are facing ever more numerous operational challenges. In order to survive these challenges, Higher Education needs new institutional strategies and decision-making processes. For a Higher Education institution to prosper and perform efficiently, all levels of campus staff and administration must collaborate to create a wave of change by implementing Business Intelligence to manage and monitor campus performance. Going one step higher, a digital dashboard provides a view of campus performance that can be directly mapped to campus vision and mission.

So to all Higher Education institutions out there, please take this opportunity to re-strategize your campus performance management in order to gain or maintain a competitive edge!

In our last entry, we discussed the data warehouse’s role in the digital dashboard for Higher Education. In parallel to the data warehousing technology, Business Intelligence (BI) is a system of reports, metrics and dashboards designed to drive decisions that optimize an organization’s performance. Reports, scorecards and digital dashboards are some BI applications that could be designed using data warehousing technology. Business Intelligence components reside on the data warehousing platform to enable end users to access them more efficiently.

BI performance management software for Higher Education enables you to:
• Calculate curriculum costs
• Identify good fundraising programs and sources (e.g., Alumni)
• Monitor student headcount and performance, program outcomes, school reputation, national agendas and other KPIs
• Share secure Web-based information with all stakeholders
• Manage endowments and recruitment through driver-based planning
• Spot high- and low-performance schools or programs
• Map enrollment to attendance and attendance to performance
• Speed compliance reporting

We’ll wrap up with our conclusions regarding the digital dashboard for Higher Education in our next entry.

Data warehouse and Business Intelligence go hand-in-hand with the design requirements of a digital dashboard for Higher Education. The data warehouse provides a platform to store campus-wide information from multiple operational datamarts. In this entry, we’ll discuss the role of the data warehouse in developing the digital dashboard for Higher Education. In our next entry, we’ll cover how to improve performance using Business Intelligence.

Executives at Higher Education institutions are increasingly in need of timely and accurate information to make critical business decisions, assess risks against benchmarks and respond quickly to market changes. Like growing commercial industries, Higher Education is in need of accurate, timely and relevant information on which to base decisions, not only for long-term planning, but also to address day-to-day developments. In order to store vast amounts of historical data electronically and to facilitate reporting and analysis work, Higher Education needs to develop the proper data warehousing architecture.

Business Intelligence applications rely on Data Warehouses, as they function as database repositories designed to support a company’s decision-making process. Information populated on digital dashboards are extracted and transformed from Data Warehouses. For bloggers, a digital dashboard is an aggregation of different types of information accessible from a single Web page.

Data warehouses are assuming a more strategic role in making these business decisions, addressing these three challenges:
1.        Delivering near real-time data
2.        Integrating the applications that make the best use of the data
3.        Providing transparent access to systems that contain business-critical data

Solving these challenges typically requires retrieving and analyzing data; extracting, transforming and loading data; and managing the elements of the data dictionary. Data warehouses are optimized for speed of data retrieval, so even for the largest databases, retrieval speed is not a major concern. Multi-dimensional modeling and denormalized data are key factors that contribute to the fast and efficient performance of a data warehouse that directly expedites the data population on a digital dashboard.

Again, we will cover the Business Intelligence end of the Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence equation in our next blog entry.