Benefit from the Data Warehouse > Using Data for Decision Making
The use of data for strategic decision making is referred to as Business Intelligence. Business Intelligence includes providing decision makers with intuitive methods for monitoring and analyzing data on an ongoing basis. This data relates to assets of an organization, for example, students, classrooms, faculty, staff, alumni, and the key performance indicators (KPI's) that show the impact of decisions on these assets. The KPI's measure progress on strategic initiatives defined by the organization, allowing decision makers to adjust tactics as needed.
Current Business Intelligence Methods
Currently, reports are the primary method for receiving, monitoring and analyzing data. These reports are created to monitor the outcome of a process, usually for a defined period of time. Examples include:
- Number of acceptances by college to anticipate yield
- Percent of web applications vs. total applications by graduate, undergraduate and ethnicity to determine how the web application process can be managed to reach targets
- Classroom utilization to forecast capacity and usage by building
Future Business Intelligence Capabilities
Working with academic and service units at the campuses, Decision Support is researching more intuitive ways to provide summarized data and trend analysis. This includes exploring definition of KPI's and dashboard presentation of data. Check back to this page for updates and examples as progress is made.
Useful Web References
