2 page Case Study - Posted 6/26/2009
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University Moves to Head of the Class with Microsoft Full-Decision Support System
With increasing governances and fiscal demands, Northumbria University needed a way for managers to quickly and easily track critical financial and student data. After implementing its Microsoft® Business Intelligence solution, stakeholders now have access to near real-time, streaming reports to support effective decision making.
Business Needs
Northumbria University attracts high-quality students from around the UK as well as from across the globe. The university is also home to well-respected faculty members who are excellent educators and researchers. In order to keep the university running effectively and efficiently, it employs a number of best of breed systems, including its Student (SITS), Finance (SAP) and HR (HRMS) core systems.
With disparate systems, it was difficult to see the big-picture performance of the university or have the ability to drill-down to see necessary student and financial data. In addition, creating comprehensive, timely reports regarding the student lifecycle was also a tremendous challenge.
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Thanks to our new Microsoft Business Intelligence solution, instead of spending the majority of their time locating and gathering data, our information officers can tackle critical projects that add even more value to our schools, programs and the university.  |
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David Chesser
Deputy Vice Chancellor and Finance Director
Northumbria University |
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“There was no integrated way to create reports,” said Eugene McCrossan, Financial Planning Director for Northumbria. “Each department had their own reports with different rules and data sets. Meetings and internal debates about what set of data was correct was the norm because everyone lobbied for the numbers they wanted.”
Solution
“As we began our research, it was clear that most data warehouse solutions, including SAP’s Business Objects, were too expensive and inflexible. Plus, they were really just a ‘black box’ and couldn’t help with information dissemination,” said McCrossan.
During the research phase, Northumbria was introduced to the Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) solution by UK-based Microsoft Gold partner Waterstons. To the university, the Microsoft BI suite was the most cost-effective, fully integrated and easy to use.
Together, the teams quickly began to put the wheels in motion to build out the solution, leveraging Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 and Microsoft PerformancePoint® Server 2007 (now part of Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007).
Fast, Cost-efficient Deployment
In under six months, the team was able to release the first version of the Microsoft BI solution with a five-person team, who were still doing their day jobs─ all for less than £65,000 GBP. According to McCrossan, the project completely flew under the budget radar.
In addition, within one year the team was able to launch the full decision support system, a user friendly web-based portal, called Northumbria World. It includes dashboards, scorecards, KPIs and advanced drill-down capabilities. “We almost surprised ourselves with the rather quick and smooth implementation process -- it really exceeded expectations every step of the way,” said McCrossan.
Benefits
Today decisions are well informed with relevant management information because there is now a single source of the truth of BI data. The team also has harmonized reporting of student lifecycle data, with straight-forward analysis capabilities of applications vs. enrollments and progressions vs. student targets, for example.
“Northumbria World has enabled confidence to be established between senior management and the schools at Northumbria, which was a point of argument as each preferred their own data set,” said Craig Mahoney, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Learning and Teaching.
Data Accuracy Improves Tremendously
Improvements in data accuracy are another unexpected benefit of Microsoft BI. “It has provided us with certainty around student numbers that was extensively lacking, and it has reduced the myriad of interventions that we had to undertake to put the data right,” said Professor Lynn Dobbs, Dean, School of Arts & Social Science.
Online Portal Increases Transparency
Based on PerformancePoint Server, Northumbria World provides 500 university stakeholders with 24/7 access to accurate data and reports. With one secure log-in, users can access 30-plus SQL reports, and can slice and dice the data to fit their business needs. And because it’s a ‘self-service’ system, employees are empowered to dig deeper and answer their own questions.
In addition, changes can be made immediately for a big impact on the bottom line. For example, users can track a student through their entire college career to see how they are performing or where they might need additional support.
“Because data is collected and shared automatically, action can be taken much earlier to enhance student welfare,” said McCrossan.
Big Picture View
“Northumbria World is a fantastic initiative,” said Professor Dobbs. “It provides me with holistic, up-to-date reliable information in an easily accessible framework. This saves time and gives us confidence in our actions. More importantly it has allowed the School of Arts and Social Sciences’ senior team to respond to the data provided by shaping strategies to achieve future success.”
A Showcase of Success
Northumbria has become a showcase in the industry for deriving strategic value from its BI solution. “Other universities and organizations are amazed that we’re not just talking about how to do it, we’ve actually done it,” said McCrossan. “We couldn’t be more pleased.”
“The provision of real-time information driven from the definitive sources has ensured that all key managers, within the School and wider university, have accurate and consistent information available,” said Professor Alistair Sambell, Dean, School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences. “Hence we no longer start discussions on business critical information such as student numbers or budgets with discussions over the validity data.”
Industry groups agree with Sambell’s positive reviews. In fact, the university team has recently been honored by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education with an award for its outstanding financial initiative.
For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/casestudies
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Document published June 2009
