The evolution of Penn State

1. The evolution of Penn State From the Data Warehouse and EIS to Business Intelligence 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 1

2. Agenda The Data Warehouse The Enterprise Information System Business Intelligence 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 2

3. Yvonne Riley (ymr1@psu.edu)Penn State Information Technology Services Data Warehouse 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 3

4. The Beginning… • Created in 1995. • Started with student data. Quickly grew to include financial, human resources etc. • Was initially designed for “power users”, people who already understood the data. • Users access the data directly by using any tool that is ODBC compliant. • MS Access, Excel for PC Users • FileMaker Pro for Macintosh Users Penn State University

5. Responsibilities • Steward office responsible for developing the extracts sending data to the warehouse. • Business logic is responsibility of the Steward office and is done on the mainframe. • Little to no data cleanup is done, but is slowly changing. • Responsible for actual data training. • No identified governance. Penn State University

6. Data Refresh • Refresh cycles vary by database/table. • Daily • Weekly • Monthly • Yearly • Once a semester/fiscal year • Most databases contain both current information as well as historical information. Penn State University

7. How is the data used? • To develop detailed reports, track trends, data analysis. • To develop Cognos EIS summary level reports. • To provide data for many University wide applications. • Download data from the warehouse, add their own data and use this information internally. Penn State University

8. Advantages • Easy access to data. • Results in minutes. • Interactive approach to creating and customized reports. • Programming ability not required. • Less dependence on the steward office. Penn State University

9. Challenges for Users • Users need to understand the data. • Users must be familiar with query tools. • Can be overwhelming for new users. • Managers don’t understand the complexity of Penn State’s data, and sometimes have unrealistic expectations. Penn State University

10. Training • MS Access Training. • Introduction to the Data Warehouse & EIS. • Specific database training provided each month. • Online tutorials. • Data Warehouse Listserv – users can post questions. • On-line documentation describing each database, table and field. • Data Warehouse web site. • Steward office & BI group offer assistance with a query. Penn State University

11. Statistics • Number of Users: 1,400 • Number of Records: 275 million and growing • Number of subject oriented databases: 28 • Number of subject oriented tables: 400 • Number of queries: 1,000 per day • Most frequently used information: student Penn State University

12. Shelley F. Gette (sfg1@psu.edu)Penn State Information Technology Services Enterprise Information System 11/13/2014 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University Penn State University 12 12

13. History  Procured Cognos client-based software (1996) Impromptu and PowerPlay  Established Executive Information System (1996) Reporting for executives and administrators  Purchased new Cognos Web-based software (1998) PowerPlay Web (2001) Impromptu Web Reports, Cognos Query, Visualizer  Name change - Enterprise Information System (2001) University-wide reporting  Purchased Cognos alert agent - NoticeCast (2004) 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 13

14. Governance/Stewardship  Executive Support and Sponsorship  Planning Committee - comprised of three sponsors along with the chairs of the Coordinating and Review committees; charged with continued system growth. Advocates the purchase of all application software needed to support the system and future applications required to enrich EIS services to the University community.  Coordinating Committee - develops, documents, and enforces established standards. Makes recommendations regarding new/expanded EIS models/reports. Participates in the investigation of new features of the Cognos, Inc. software and recommends implementation strategies.  Review Committee - provides consistency and standardization within EIS by creating rules, standards, and suggestions for development. Approves models/reports prior to publishing to the production environment. Reviews of site content. 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 14

15. Service  Web-based information and reporting tool Summary data – primary usage Multi-dimensional analysis Analytical processing  Detail data Drill through from OLAP cubes Pre-defined reporting  Unrestricted cubes  Restricted cubes and reports  Information delivery 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 15

16. Usage  Widely dispersed Provost down to staff ~ 10,000 site visits per year  ~ 1,800 users  290 OLAP cubes  135 cube views  167 reports 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 16

17. Training  Basic Cube - summary level. This course will provide hands-on experience with the most commonly used features. Topics: Overview of EIS, Personal NewsBox, Customizing Reports, Calculations, Exporting and Saving Reports, Security.  Advanced Cube - summary level. This course will provide hands-on experience with the more advanced features. Topics include: Ranking a Selected Set of Data, Custom Exception Highlighting, Custom Subsets, Charts and Graphs, Creating an Agent.  Impromptu - detail level. The Impromptu training is currently the responsibility of the development office due to the nature of the data. This will change in the near future with a drill through of official data, which is the data utilized for training. 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 17

18. Benefits / Rewards  Mode of delivery - Web interface Ease of use Freedom from client based PC Provides a personal storage folder Central offices serve information Data is managed and standardized Reduces chance of errors Provides for consistency in reporting  Unlimited user licenses No cost to departments 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 18

19. Lessons Learned / Challenges  Commitment from middle management - Sought high level sponsorship and neglected unit commitment, which is where resources are monitored and distributed. Failed to promote the system features adequately to these units.  Marketing to users - Incorrect to assume development units will publicize their reports to the end-users.  Keep it simple - OLAP cubes and reports can easily become too complex for the end-user. Better to separate data by theme or subject than to provide too much information.  Limited resources - Central BI group committed one FTE to system.  Lack of data integration - Discovered the importance of the meta data layer. Majority of time in development is spent preparing the data, which at times is difficult. 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 19

20. Marta Miguel (mmiguel@psu.edu)Penn State Information Technology Services Business Intelligence 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 20

21. The Beginning 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. However, both systems are now more than ten years old, and Penn State’s information needs as well as technology have changed significantly since they were first 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 was 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 in the right delivery media. 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 21

22. The Interview Process 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 23

23. Findings Existing information systems are used extensively. Penn State has a large based of knowledgeable information users. Information is not easily available to all Penn State constituencies and significant number of academic leaders and administrators have very limited access to information. There is a widespread need for improved access to information on both students and overall teaching and learning activities Increased demand and pressure for accountability coming from public policy makers as well as the educational community. Changing internal operational environment and increased pressure for financial accountability. 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 24

24. Current Environment Data are collected and stored in disconnected silos. Current systems focus on capturing data and not on creating information. Information inequality. Information inconsistency. Timeliness of information. Inconsistent security. 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 25

25. Proposed Approach Governance and Policy (Orchestration of people, process and technology as to allow Penn State to manage data as an Institution Asset) Organizational Structures (Central unit that will support the proposed infrastructure and lead effort to implement a university-wide view of data and information) Software, Hardware, and Data Infrastructure (Centrally supported Institution Insight infrastructure) 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 26

26. Value Proposition • Improve Penn State’s ability to support students by: • Improving Advisors and Faculty’s ability to identify at-risk first-year students and to assess which proactive interventions have the best influence on their academic success and retention. • Improve ability to identify those programs or services that need to be protected at all costs and thus focus on the programs that matter the most. • Improve availability of the information required to support overall accountability and assessment requirements. • Foster evidence-based decision making. • Improve data security as a common, centrally supported security model will be available to all constituencies. • Eventually reduce the number of local data repositories maintained throughout Penn State. • Improve Penn State’s ability to manage risk and compliance requirements • Improve productivity of Campuses’ and Colleges’ staff 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 27

27. The Institution InsightSystem 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 28

28. A Central BusinessIntelligence Unit? Cross-functional perspective that spans units to build a shared infrastructure, that addresses the needs of the institution as a whole. Will ensure that data and information delivery activities are closely aligned with Penn State’s core strategic objectives. Will facilitate priorities management for diverse (and sometimes conflicting) information needs. Will ensure that key core Penn State Data are available to all constituencies that need it. Will Define standards to be used across the institution (for example, dimensional model, business rules, tools and platforms). Capture and maintain the institution’s data intellectual capital. Coordinating use and reuse of business metadata in the institution, and helping to define and integrate definitions of the relevant attributes. .... 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 29

29. Data Governance Organizational Awareness Data Quality Audit & Reporting Security, Privacy & Compliance Data Architecture Metadata/Glossary Risk Management Policy Stewardship 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 30

30. Web Information Business Intelligence http://ais.its.psu.edu/bus_intelligence/index.html Data Warehouse http://ais.its.psu.edu/data_warehouse/index.html Enterprise Information System http://ais.its.psu.edu/eis/index.html 11/13/2014 Penn State University Penn State University 31