Alliance for Strategic Technology (AST)

SUNY Business Intelligence Initiative

January 8, 2009

The Issues:

Information in SUNY that is critical to strategic and operational decision-makers (on campuses and System Office) exists in multiple, disparate campus and University-wide locations.

This information is accessed and presented in differing ways, and, often, is not readily accessible.

Many campuses have not taken full advantage of some investments (e.g., Banner ODS) made previously.

Decisions are being made without sufficient supporting information. (Gut feeling decisions are being made.)

The resolution:

Initiate the SUNY Business Intelligence Initiative (SBII) with the following characteristics:

• Incorporates the needs and involvement of campus and System Office constituencies

• Follows a project structure and process in phases with timelines

• Partnership with major vendors - Oracle and SunGard initially

• Builds on existing investments

• Makes Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) the cornerstone of information access and presentation

• Makes targeted new investments as necessary

• Positions SUNY as a leader in business intelligence in higher education

Senior Mgt.Middle Mgt.Dept. Mgt.

Faculty/Staff

Cam

pus

SU

NY

S

yste

m

Sta

te

Fed

eral

StudentsCourses

FinancesGrants

Human ResourcesFacilities

Information “Perspectives”

StudentsCommunity

The Vision

• The SUNY Business Intelligence Initiative (SBII) will help create a atmosphere where decision makers at all levels, including front-line academic units to senior management, are empowered with the information they need to analyze and manage their administrative tasks related to information.

• The SUNY Business Intelligence Initiative (SBII) will serve as a knowledge resource in the areas of data warehousing and business intelligence for the University. We will maintain our knowledge of trends and new techniques to adapt the best of these for the University environment

The Goals

The fundamental goal of the SUNY Business Intelligence Initiative (SBII) is to:

• Integrate administrative data into a accurate, consistent, and reliable information resource

• Support planning, forecasting, and decision-making processes at campuses and System Administration

SBII Mission Statement

The SUNY Business Intelligence Initiative will facilitate strategic and operational decision-making at the campuses and System Administration by making information available in a timely, consistent and mission-driven manner. This is accomplished through excellence in business intelligence practices, striving to be a leader among higher education institutions. Our specialty is information integration. Integration means:

• Integration of delivery Creating solutions for customers that are appropriate to their needs and skill levels

• Integration of requirements Understanding diverse customer needs

and driving all activities in those terms

• Integration of subject expertise Partnering with functional experts to understand data in many subject areas

• Integration of data Understanding, gathering and relating data from disparate technical systems

Steering

Committee

Project Director

Technical Teams Functional Groups

Steering

Committee

Project Director

Infrastructure

and

Architecture

User Support

Technical Teams

Data

And

Presentation

Steering

Committee

Project Director

University-Wide

Community College

Finances

Library

University-Wide

Institutional

Research

Functional Groups – Phase I

BannerStudent andFinancial Aid

Steering

Committee

Project Director

Technical Teams

Infrastructure and Architecture

Data and Presentation

User Support

Functional Groups

Banner – Student and Financial Aid

Library

University-Wide Institutional Research

University-Wide Community College

Finances

Steering Committee:

• provide oversight of the SBII• market / communicate the value and status of the SBII • ensure proper implementation of the overall strategy• establish priorities for project phases• nominate and monitor implementation groups and teams

• review development, implementation, and support plans• resolve or elevate policy issues• manage project scope• resolve problems and issues

• manage project budget• recommend / identify resource support as necessary• make policy recommendations regarding data access, security, and

confidentiality• promote partnerships with SUNY’s Preferred Vendors

Functional Groups

• Banner ODS• Student• Financial Aid

• University-Wide Institutional Research• Library Services• Community College Financial• RF – POC Phase

Functional Groups

• Lead• responsible for the overall project management, direction, planning,

documenting, etc. of the Functional Group they are assigned.• Functional Data Expert

• are experts in knowing the data relative to the Functional Group's assignment.

Functional Groups

• communications / marketing to the constituency functional staff• data specifications, analytics, and modeling requirements• dashboards development, data analysis, and report specification and

development • testing of dashboards and analytics - regression testing• development of standards and best practices with respect to use and

interruption of results• providing training recommendations for the constituency functional users• on coordinating shared reporting across SUNY

Infrastructure and Architecture Team

• communications / marketing to the constituency technical staff • establish policies and standards relating to the technical aspects of SBII• develop and implement standards and best practices related to technical

infrastructure• provide technical support and services for other groups and teams• develop a common source to maintain metadata and documentation• implement SUNY's Identity Management framework• implement SUNY's Security framework • recommend architecture options for local campus implementations• recommend architecture options for hosted campus implementations• establish standards and processes for documentation, sharing of

resources, etc.

Data and Presentation Team

•Communications / marketing to the constituency technical staff •Recommend University-wide policies relating to data• Front End Development

establish best practices and standards for presentation/dashboard development

coordinate dashboard/report development with the functional groups develop and administer the OBIEE Plus front-end data analysis tools

• Data Structures / Warehousing establish SUNY-wide data warehouse vision allowing for the integration of

campus-based and University-wide data sources manage design & development of University-wide data warehouses oversee data design and modeling by functional groups identify opportunities for relating data across sources establish processes to ensure data quality, retention, and archiving

• Repository Development coordinate design, modeling, and development of common OBIEE Plus

repositories

User Support Team

•Training•communications / marketing to the constituency technical staff •establish framework for delivering training and documentation•identify / coordinate training / educational needs with Functional Groups and Technical Teams•administer training related to the project•assess effectiveness of training

•Help Desk•communications / marketing to the constituency technical staff •TBD•coordinate help desk services for various user communities

•Documentation•communications / marketing to the constituency technical staff •TBD•coordinate appropriate documentation

Phase I

• Deliver initial reports/dashboards for: Banner Student and Financial Aid Library (Target date TBD) University-wide Institutional Research University-wide Community College Finances

• Target date of January, 2009• Rollout reports and analytics as available• Partner with Oracle and SunGard

Student and Financial Aid sub-project will rely on SunGard’s Operational Data Store (ODS) – 18 campuses currently own this product

Oracle provides technical support on the OBIEE software and underlying technologies

SunGard provides expertise on Banner and the ODS product Encourage partners to make investments Identify campus participants for Banner Student and Financial Aid data

• Targeted investments by SUNY will be necessary• Establish technical infrastructure to support future phases• Develop dashboards / reports with OBIEE• Significant data modeling / design for library data will most likely be necessary• Promote Phase I deliverables to the campuses to reinforce support for future phases

Possible Functional Areas for Future Phases

• Banner

Finance

Human Resources

Advancement

• University-wide

Finance

Human Resources

Application Services

• Research Foundation

• On-line Learning (course management systems)

• Other Campus systems

PeopleSoft, Datatel, etc.

Related Entities (foundations, ASCs, etc.)

Parking, housing, etc.

Sample Presentations/Dashboards

Developed During the Proof of Concept