CIO Monthly Note 12/18/15

Data, Data and More Data!

This month I wanted to spend some time talking about the new and important data work the college is engaged in.  Along with most companies in the 90’s the college adopted an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) model when we adopted Banner as our Student Information System in 1997.  The beauty of an ERP is that multiple areas such as Enrollment, Facilities, Finance, Financial Aid etc. utilize a single software package (Banner) and the data from each of these areas is contained in one database.  Banner and other ERP systems provide the necessary reporting for each functional department to perform their duties but they lack cross-department reporting.  After a few years it became apparent that these ERP systems needed a new product that could look at all of this data and analyze it together.  Even better there was a need to pull in data from systems outside of the ERP as well so that all data related to a college could be analyzed more fully and with greater meaning.

The Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence was Born!

A date warehouse is a large store of data accumulated from multiple sources, preserved in a format that allows for longitudinal (multiple years) data to be stored and analyzed ultimately allowing for greater data-driven decisions.  So in simple terms a data warehouse can combine data from almost any system into a single database and allow a college to look at various metrics over multiple years.  Haven’t we been doing this for years?  Yes we have but without an actual tool like a data warehouse we have to build these reports from scratch and store them in various ways.  Our current methods are very time consuming and challenging to report off of over multiple years.

So what about Business Intelligence (BI)?  Business Intelligence/Data Analytics – These are two umbrella terms which refer to the data warehouse combined with powerful reporting and analysis tools as well as visual tools that produce dashboard views of metrics.  There are many terms to refer to this package of tools and the two umbrella terms themselves are often mixed (Business Analytics for example.)

A Quick Analogy

In the middle of working with the team this past year I was sharing my experience of building a tree house for my kids.  My father kept offering to lend me his power nailer but I was stubborn and kept working with my hammer.  The hammer wasn’t wrong and gets the job done but when my father showed up with the nailer I never looked back!  I could get a lot more work done, much faster and it gave me extra time to pay more attention to other details.  This is much like our reporting efforts at the college now and what it will be like when we have Business Intelligence.  What we are doing now is right but very hard work for multiple areas.  Reporting will be much faster and easier with Business Intelligence and give us all more time to reflect on the data.

What Does Business Intelligence Mean to Me?

The Business Intelligence tools will allow ITS and IRP to provide many new capabilities to the college community on a self-service basis.  Think of it has having the ease of a Google search engine sitting on top of all of the college data you are interested in.  You will be able to access analytics through a web browser and run your own searches quickly and easily.  The data warehouse will also help ITS and IRP formalize data definitions and both areas will be available as always to assist with questions and interpreting reports.  Business Intelligence will also provide the capabilities for simple, visualizations to be included in reports, the portal and even our website.

So How Did We Get to ZogoTech?

It all started on February 9, 2012 when the college looked at an on-campus demonstration of Blackboard Analytics from iStrategy.  Over the next three years we brought seven more demonstrations to campus and included SAS as well as ZogoTech.

ZogoTech is a complete Business Intelligence package and is the only solution designed specifically for community colleges.  ZogoTech is also a partner of Achieving the Dream.  ZogoTech has four major parts of their solution and are described as follows:

Research Intelligence.

“I was immediately impressed by the speed of ZogoTech’s software. The ability to drill down on the data and get the answers we need is now available with the click of a button,” explains Cindy Ullrich, a Research Analyst at Brazosport College.

Research Intelligence gives institutional researchers the ability to quickly answer ad hoc requests, put data directly in the hands of end users, and drill down on data for a deeper understanding of  performance, goals, and outcomes. Brazosport College, recently named a finalist for the Aspen Prize, and other institutions are using these tools to create a culture of evidence  on campus.

Student Engagement.

Built-in alerts and early notification systems deliver data from student and class records, cohort demographics, and testing scores, giving student services personnel the ability to assess and proactively react to student performance. As the most comprehensive student tracking and interventions tool available to higher education, ZogoTech’s Student Engagement enables the whole department to share notes, communicate directly with students, and take action when needed.

Executive Intelligence.

“The scorecard puts our leadership team on the same page. It streamlines the process and guides us to where we need to be, relating our progress to the strategic plan,” says David Brown, Director of Institutional Research at North Central Texas College.

Executives can now make timely, data-driven decisions with real-time tracking of strategic goals and benchmarks. ZogoTech’s Executive Intelligence enables colleges to work collectively towards common objectives — a capability that has allowed North Central Texas College, along with others, to measure success and make necessary changes.

Grant Management.

Quickly retrieve the data you need to qualify for Achieving the Dream, Title III, Title V, and other grants. Use data to unmask potential and maximize the reach of your funds.

Create a culture of evidence between departments and stakeholders with shared reports and visually compelling dashboards. Make data-driven decisions with ZogoTech by tracking the success of students and programs.

Thanks to a new iPASS grant we have $60k of this project funded and the funding is currently allowing the ZIP Team to work with AgilePath this year to prepare for new data governance and the implementation of ZogoTech in FY17.  If you would  like to learn more or get directly involved in this work please respond with an email.  We are scheduling three more demonstrations of ZogoTech in January and invites will go out to everyone shortly.

ZogoTech Demonstrations

Thursday, January 28^th 10:00 am – 12:00 pm at NECC

Thursday, January 28^th 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm at NECC

Friday, January 29^th 10:00 am – 12:00 pm at UMass Shrewsbury

NOTE: An Outlook invite will be coming out to you all soo