Technical Discussion on Delivering 120,000 Reports Each Month at the University of Florida May 8, 2007 4 th Annual Higher Education Data Warehousing Forum

Technical Discussion on Delivering 120,000 Reports Each Month at the

University of Florida

May 8, 2007

4th Annual Higher Education Data Warehousing Forum

Austin, Texas

Presenters

• Bryan CookeIT Senior, BI Architecture Lead

[email protected]

• Lee StevensIT Senior, BI Developer

[email protected]


• Approximately 52,000 Students– Undergraduate 34,699– Graduate 10,828– Professional 4,529– Unclassified 1,464

(source UF Factbook – Office of Institutional Research)

• Approximately 35,000 Employees– Faculty 4,559– Staff 8,223– Temp 22,000

• 16 Colleges• 150 Centers and Institutes• 26 Component Units (including Shands

Teaching Hospitals in Gainesville and Jacksonville)

Century Tower


Revenue (Millions)

State Appropriations $557

Student Tuition & Fees $157

Auxiliary Sales & Services $163

Contracts & Grants $790

Direct Service Organizations $200

Health Science Center $439

Shands Hospital $1408

J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center

University of Florida - Gators

UF Bridges

• Mission– Collaborate with the university community to

support and improve UF business via integrated information services.

• Responsible for all UF Enterprise Applications

• Team of approximately 130

Overview

• We will discuss how the University of Florida provided a financial reporting solution to allow fiscal administrators and staff across campus to understand their balances and reconcile associated financial transactions for each budgetary cost center every month.

Agenda

• Discuss the Past, Present, and Future of UF’s financial reporting solutions.

Present

Past

Future

Agenda

• Past – An early attempt at delivering a financial reporting solution.– Background– Lessons Learned

• Present – A reporting solution is developed with the help of an initiative and task force.– Role of the task force– Reporting Solution– Development Approach– Technologies Involved

• Future – Delivering a robust solution that will allow users to explore (slice-and-dice) their financial position.– Analytic Solution (OLAP)– Oracle / PeopleSoft Technologies (EPM / OBIEE)

Background

• State of Florida “Devolution” – State Financials System (SAMAS)– All state universities “unplugged” July 1, 2004

• University of Florida “Evolution”– myUFL Systems

• HR, Finance, Portal

– Enterprise Reporting / EPM• Business Intelligence

The Past

• Initial financial reporting solution rolled out.– OLAP (Cube) based solution.– Delivered summary data for each ledger

group.– Users would “slice-and-dice” and save views

of the cubes in their personal folders in ReportNet.

– Drill-through to detail from the summary cubes.

The Past• Issues

– Lack of Understanding• Large cultural change• Tool mismatch with expectations

– Data Issues• PeopleSoft KK (Commitment Control) data was used – GL

data was desired for expenditures (actuals)• Very little sponsored program (grant) reporting

– Communication• Very little communication to campus and lack of UAT• Lack of sponsorship• Little training offered

The Past - BI Maturity Model

• Initial financial reporting solution was a mismatch for our reporting users.• Data warehouse concepts / principles were not accepted by campus.• Confidence in BI tools decreases.

Source: TDWI Report Series – August 2005Strategies and Technologies for Deploying BI on an Enterprise Scaleby Wayne W. Eckerson with Cindi Howson

The Present – Report Initiative

• Task force assembled to resolve financial reporting issues.

• Objectives– Engage campus in financial reporting solution– Understand fundamental reporting needs– Document report uses– Determine sources of record / data

requirements– Deliver fundamental financial reporting

solution

The Present – Report Initiative• Task Force Organization

Sponsors

Core Offices UF BridgesFiscal

Administrators & Staff

Chairs


• Task Force Approach– Interview / Gather Requirements– Present Drafts / Mock ups– Design / Development– UF wide QAT / UAT– Training– Communication


• Business Requirements– Provide monthly Summary “Available

Balance” reporting.• Budget / Revenue• Actual GL Expenditures• Commitments• Balances (YTD / LTD / MTD)

– Provide Transaction Level Detail to quickly assess “reasonableness”


• Facilitate Reconciliation– Monthly Activity– PS Commitment Control to GL reconciliation– Eliminate / reduce the need for shadow

system dependency

The Present – Report Initiative• Reporting Solution

– Develop “delivered” monthly and prompted reports for organizational units and budgetary cost centers.

– Delivered and Prompted Reports• Delivered

– Available for all previous periods– Run each month after GL closes– Official departmental reports– Standard reconciliation tool

• Prompted– Available for current and prior periods only– Allow for weekly reconciliations– Assist with interim fiscal planning

The Present – Report Initiative• Development Approach

– Development Team• 1 Project Manager

– Managed scope, timelines, and resources• 2 Business Analysts

– Gathered requirements and managed deliverables via design, development, testing, and training

• 1 Data Warehouse Architect– Developed technical concepts and designs from requirement

specifications.• 3 ETL Developers

– Developed custom data mappings between PeopleSoft source system and warehouse

• 3 Report Developers– Developed reports and report views to satisfy requirements

• 1 Navigation and Automation Developer– Developed Batch processes to facilitate monthly burst

processing. Developed custom navigation and report management interface (My Reports)


• Summary Reports– Appropriations / Cash Summary

• Display “Available Balance / Check Book” look and feel.• Summarized around Cost Center / Account• Include Payroll (Projected) Encumbrances• Summarized by YTD / LTD / MTD

– PI (Principal Investigator) Summary• Display Budget / Available Balance components.• Summarize around Grant Budget Categories• Summarized Grant LTD• Projected Payroll Detail• Components of GM module

– KK – GL Summary Comparison• Identify YTD variances between KK and GL by account.


Appropriations Summary


PI (Principal Investigator) Summary


KK to GL Summary Comparison


• Detail Reports– Transaction Detail

• Display detail transactions and subsystem references for reconciliation.

• Should tie out to summary reports.

– Open Encumbrance• Detailed listing of encumbrance spending. Original and open

balances per encumbrance.

– Payroll Cost Distribution• Detailed analysis of employee payroll costs.

– Projected Payroll• Detailed analysis of projected payroll costs.


Transaction Detail


Open Encumbrance Summary


Payroll Cost Distribution


Projected Payroll Cost Distribution

The Present – Report Initiative• Technologies Involved in the Report Initiative Solution

– PeopleSoft Transactional Systems (ERP)• PeopleSoft Financials 8.4• PeopleSoft HRMS 8.8• PeopleSoft Portal 8.8 (myUFL)

– Informatica (ETL)• Custom Warehouse• Built on PS “Jumpstart” foundation• Not Incremental

– Cognos ReportNet (BI Solution)• Reporting Tool• Burst Engine• SDK

– Appworx (Enterprise Scheduler)• Batch Processing - Automation

– LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)• My Reports• Report Portfolio Creation / Management, Report Consolidation


Report Initiative Technical Overview

PeopleSoftFinance

PeopleSoftHCM

ETL

Ledger / Summary Reporting Star

Subsystem / Detail Reporting Star

HR / Payroll Reporting Star

ReportNet

ModeledData

SDKBurst

Reports

Data Warehouse

AppWorx

Reports

Report Views

ReportToolset

SDKExtract Output

Filesystem LAMPStack

Client Workstation

ReportsCataloged

ReportOutput

Warehouse Data is modeled in Framework Manager and exposed to the ReportNet toolset.

ReportStudio is used to develop reports

Custom ETLs (marts) were developed to create reporting structures specifically for Report Imitative reports.

Report output is extracted to NAS

AppWorx is our enterprise scheduler.It is used to automate the monthly report burst and extract processes.

ReportNet Framework

The Present – Report Initiative• Report Initiative Solution – ETL Development

LedgersPS_LEDGER

PS_LEDGERKKPS_LEDGER_BUDG

Subsystem TransactionsPS_EX_ACCTG_LINE

PS_VCHR_ACCTG_LINE. . .

HR Payroll PS_UF_CA_ACCTG_LN

ETLSetup Tables

PS_DEPT_TBLPS_PROJECT_TBL

(Tree Tables)

Ledger Summary Fact

DimensionsDEPT_DM

PROJECT_DM. . .

Source Line Detail Fact

Payroll Cost Distribution Fact

Hierarchies(Flattened Trees)

Encumbrance Detail Fact


ReportNetApplication and Web

Servers

Data Modeled

SDKBurst

Reports

Report Views

SDKExtract Output

NAS FilesystemReportNet

Content Store

Ledger / Summary Reporting Star

Subsystem / Detail Reporting Star

HR / Payroll Reporting Star

Data Warehouse

PackagesPackagePublished

Development

Reports

1. Custom RI data structures are modeled.2. Data packages published to ReportNet3. Reports and report views are developed.4. SDK code is used to burst reports.5. SDK code is used to extract reports from the

content store.

Report Initiative Process Overview


• How are Reports Delivered?– Delivered Reports Website.

• Provides navigation, searching and organizational tools to help find reports.

• Provides tools to bundle reports for easy delivery and organization.

• Each monthly batch is archived and easily accessible.• Built on simple, reliable web architecture.


• Burst, Extract and Publish– Burst the reports.

• Pre-run all of the reports and save them within the Cognos Product.

– Extract the reports.• Use custom software to extract the report files from the

Cognos product and organize them in our network file system.

– Publish the reports.• Use custom software to index new cost centers and report

types to our website database.

The Present – Report InitiativeDelivered Reports Website• General Features

– Utilizes the PeopleSoft portal for single sign on.– Archive of pre-run Monthly Financial Reports.– Information Warehousing.– Needed because ReportNet output management interface was not adequate for UF’s

requirements.• Cost Center Navigation

– Click-based hierarchical navigation to desired ‘Burst Cost Center’.– Add favorite reports / cost centers to My Reports portfolio.

• My Reports– Provides content management “portfolio” interface for organizing user reports.– Quick links to users favorite cost centers and report types.

• Report Search– Quick access to known cost centers.– Add favorite reports / cost centers to My Reports portfolio.

• Report Bundling– Combine many PDF reports into one PDF file with table of contents.– Combine Excel reports into one zip file.– Available from Drill-thru, My Reports and Search Results interfaces

• Other Features– Auto-feeding of cost center prompt information into a prompted version of any report.– Simple, lightweight, dependable design.– Built on the LAMP architecture stack.


Cost Center Navigation

• Hierarchical drill-thru to your desired cost center.

• Can add some or all reports to your My Reports page.

• Can bundle PDF or Excel output.

• Select desired accounting period.

• Link directly to an on-demand prompted report, auto-feeding cost center

prompts.


Cost Center Navigation

• Hierarchical drill-thru to your desired cost center.

• Can add some or all reports to your My Reports page.



• Link directly to an on-demand prompted report, auto-feeding cost center

prompts.


My Reports

• Provides content management “portfolio” interface for organizing user reports.

• Quick links to users favorite cost centers and report types.


• Link directly to an on demand prompted report, auto-feeding cost center prompts.


Report Search

• PeopleSoft like interface.

• Allow users to find cost centers without knowing cost center hierarchy.

• Search criteria look-ups.


Search Results

• You may add some or all reports to your My Reports page.


• Can select accounting period.

• Can link directly to an on demand prompted report, auto-feeding cost center prompts.


Report Bundling

• Create one PDF file containing many reports.

• Table of Contents with hyperlinks to each report.

• Can be created via 3 separate interfaces: My Reports, Cost Center Navigation and Search Results.


My Reports Architecture• Enterprise products coupled with custom software.

Report Views

NAS Filesystem

Data Warehouse

Cognos ReportNetBurst Process

Extract Process

ReportFiles

BinaryOutput

Linux

Apache Web Server

MySQL

PHP

Custom Web Application

Publish Process

Client Workstation

Delivered “By The Numbers”

Raw hit counts for April 2007Website

My Reports 75136

Cost Center Navigation 232187

Search Page 16062

Search Results 158852

Bundled Reports

PDF Bundles 9367

Excel Zip 127

Specific Monthly Financial Reports

Cash Summary PDF 4830

Cash Summary Excel 113

Transaction Detail PDF 10164

Transaction Detail Excel 887

Appropriations Summary PDF 1568

Appropriations Summary Excel 43

Cost Distribution Detail PDF 4002

Cost Distribution Detail Excel 463

Projected Payroll PDF 982

Projected Payroll Excel 123

Grant Summary PDF 6325

Grant Summary Excel 52

Construction Summary PDF 203

Construction Summary Excel 2

KK to GL Summary Comparison PDF 1475

KK to GL Summary Comparison Excel 25

Open Encumbrance Summary 1589

The Future

• Back to the past . . . exciting times lie ahead!– Moving to OLAP summary solution with drill-down to RI detail reports.

– Deliver solution that will allow users to “slice-and-dice” and derive their own financial statements.

– Empower the users to create custom reports that are not possible with the RI reports

– Peoplesoft Upgrades / Student Implementation

– Heavier involvement with Institutional Research

– PeopleSoft EPM / OBIEE

– Ad-hoc Reporting

– BPMF – IT Governance

Questions

Documents

Technical Discussion on Delivering 120,000 Reports Each Month at the University of Florida May 8, 2007 4 th Annual Higher Education Data Warehousing Forum