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 Campus SUNY System State Federal Students Courses Finances Grants Human Resources Facilities Information “Perspectives” Students Community

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 TeamsFunctional 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 Banner Student and Financial 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