Selecting a Business Intelligence Standard for Higher Education Mid Atlantic Educause Conference Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore, Maryland January 10, 2006 Carol Rylee, Director of Budget University of Delaware Copyright Carol Rylee This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permissions is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced material And notice is give that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate Otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author. Richard Rosen Cognos for Higher Education. Brian Tinkler, Solutions Architect Cognos for Higher Education Brian

Summary of Presentation UD General information UD Reporting History Reporting Tool Selection Process Cognos Implementation at UD Table Access and Row Level Security TrainingDemoQuestions

UD General Information 21,200 enrollment 2006 budget = $668 million Externally sponsored activities in excess of $140 million 3,700 employees (1,100 faculty) Located between New York/Philadelphia and Baltimore/Washington on 1-95

UD Reporting History User ad-hoc reporting since mid-1970’s 70’s - In-house reporting tool –No row-level security –No user defined table joins 80’s - Software AG SuperNatural –No user defined table joins –No row-level security

UD Reporting History 90’s - Data Warehouse (student, HR and Fin) –Row-level security –Used with Microsoft Access –User defined table joins –Required nightly oracle table refreshes –Interface was not user-friendly to the more casual user. –Campus-wide deployment of reports problematic

UD Reporting History Current - PeopleSoft Query, Crystal, NVision –HR – row level security limited users –Financials – row level security 1200 users –Student – still in implementation –Heavy Query use, limited Crystal use, no NVision use –User Defined Table Joins –Users responsible for knowing data –Some pre-written reports for users

Reporting Tool Selection Process Why new reporting tool? –Wanted one standard for all campus reporting (HR, Fin, Student AND Development/Alumni) -Only one tool to train on –Deploy reports to web –Additional flexibility in report-writing –Ease of formatting deployed reports

Reporting Tool Selection Process Convened multi-dept group –Human Resources –Management Information Systems –Registrar –Development/Alumni –Network and System Services

Reporting Tool Selection Process Set Criteria for new tool –Must be able to connect directly to Oracle tables, no nightly refresh for reporting tool database; no duplication of data within reporting tool database –Must be able to deploy to web –Must allow for user-defined joins and complex report- writing –Ability to “piggyback” on existing row-level security –Product must serve a wide range of user abilities –Product users in the region –NOT require centrally joined tables –Report interface designed for end-users, NOT IT

Reporting Tool Selection Process Reviewed available reporting packages Invited limited number of vendors to demo their reporting tools Group debated each vendors ability to meet the criteria set forth at the beginning of the process Selected Cognos as the reporting tool that best met our criteria

Cognos Implementation Environment – Know thy Data IT to have role in table and system availability Small number of users (NOT IT) to set up packages in Framework Manager. Financials and HR – Users to do table joins when they write reports. No joins in Framework Manager. Will use Framework Manager to replace views currently in place in PS Financials.

Cognos Implementation Using Query Studio, Report Studio and Framework Manager May expand later to other Cognos tools.

Cognos Implementation Table Access Security –How many data sources for two different sets of table access? One with multiple packages limiting table access –Error on Validation of expressions and reports –Required logon each time a report is run, not just at initial logon –Could not view SQL, thus could not do outer joins in Report Studio Two separate datasources to limit two different sets of table access. –Solved multiple logons and errors on validation –Can now view SQL –Must duplicate reports for two data sources.

Cognos Implementation Row Level Security –Reporting directly Oracle tables Financials - Using row level security tables established with Financials implementation HR – Plan to use report which will represent trees security data Student – still in implementation Development/Alumni – limited security

Training UD Training Documents Train the trainer – trained core users Target training to various users –Report Viewers –Report “changers” –Major Report writers Make pre-written reports available

DEMONSTRATION OF COGNOS

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