Southern Illinois University

Profile:
Easy accEss to timEly Data FostErs
BEttEr DEcision making
Within a 24-hour period at the beginning of each
semester, it is likely that a professor at Southern Illinois
University Carbondale will have at least one student
add or drop the class. However, because of the
complexity of reporting, the department would receive
weekly rather than daily updates of the class list. This
was just one example of outdated data impacting daily
operations at the university.
Now that the institution is using Banner® Operational
Data Store (ODS), information that impacts class
registration, admissions and many other areas of the
university is updated daily.
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enrollment: 19,817
www.siuc.edu
Challenges:
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Complexity of reporting environment limited
access to select group of programmers
information delivered to users in reports was
quickly outdated
solution:
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Banner® operational Data store
Banner® enterprise Data Warehouse
results:
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“With ODS, data is more timely and easily accessible to
our users, and that fosters better and quicker decision
making,” said Scott Bridges, assistant director for
the Student Information System at the university. “It
has allowed us to be better in a lot of ways with our
decision making. We are very satisied with ODS and
what it allows us to do.”
Carbondale, il
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information is updated daily versus weekly or
semi-weekly
users have easy access to information they
need to make better decisions
users access shared, consistent and accurate
data
The university rolled out a Banner Operational Data
Store for each of its inancial aid, student, and accounts
receivable modules as it implemented Banner® by
Ellucian. Each data store provides a consistent view of
the institutional data for users across the campus and,
fully integrated with Banner, enables users to leverage
institutional data more quickly, sparing the institution
costs and time spent building its own data store.
Before the ODS was implemented, reporting was
done against data extracts from the university’s legacy
system. The two most used extracts were updated
weekly and semi-weekly, then archived twice a
semester: after the 10th day of enrollment and after
grades were published.
“We have staff throughout the institution who need
daily updates,” emphasized Bridges. “Instructors want
to know who is in their class, and who dropped and
added it. At registration time, staff needs an updated
accounting of who has not registered, new admits,
and who to contact because they are missing data in
the admissions process. Access to data impacts every
department and college.”
Today, more than 500 staff across campus easily
access the data and run reports against the Banner
Operational Data Store using the integrated, easyto-use Argos reporting tool. There are more than
500 Argos users throughout campus running reports
against ODS. Through Argos, users can view a variety
of prepared reports such as class and registration lists
and enrollment reports.
Users select their required parameters and the report
is presented to them. Data is presented using familiar
business terms and deinitions so that departmental
users can easily access the information they need
to manage operational reporting, perform ad hoc
queries, and make better decisions about their daily
responsibilities. In the past, the users would have to
contact staff in enrollment management, the registrar’s
ofice, or institutional research and request the reports.
“The real bang for the buck is providing access, and
access to current data,” said Bridges. “We update ODS
daily versus weekly. So when people pull reports, they
are looking at timely information. And ODS is designed
to be easier for staff to pull reports. Its ease of use and
access to more timely information are the big beneits.”
Core developers in information technology, enrollment
management, institutional research, and various
colleges and departments across campus can access
the Banner Operational Data Store directly for more indepth and customized reporting. Before, the reporting
language used against the extracts was familiar only to
a smaller group of people because of its complexity.
“With ODS, data is more timely and easily
accessible to our users, and that fosters better and
quicker decision making.”
Scott Bridges
Assistant Director for SIS
“Users who have some programming knowledge can
enter ODS directly to access whatever information they
need. Overall, the implementation of ODS has provided
more timely data, more breadth and depth of data, and
easier access to writing reports via SQL,” said Bridges.
Staff without programming knowledge who need more
data can request a report from their colleagues who are
more familiar with the Banner Operational Data Store.
When they do make a request, the response time is
much shorter than before because of the ease of use.
When the institution irst implemented Banner
Operational Data Store, it turned to Ellucian for
guidance on best practices.
“Because the solution provides such a vast data
model, it was important to have the experience of
the consultants to help us focus our efforts initially.
They understood the business questions we wanted
answered and guided us to the appropriate reporting
views and explained how to tie everything together,”
recalled Bridges.
BannEr EntErprisE Data WarEhousE
proviDEs historical viEW
To strengthen its reporting environment further, the
university also is using the Banner Enterprise Data
Warehouse (EDW). Also fully integrated with Banner,
the Banner Enterprise Data Warehouse provides
the foundation that users need to understand
organizational performance, manage the dynamic
environment in which they operate and use data
more effectively to achieve their goals. The university
is just beginning to explore the historical snapshots
available in the Banner Enterprise Data Warehouse. For
example, it is tracking enrollment from year to year and
week to week.
“We plan to strategically increase our use of EDW,”
explained Bridges. “We want to use it to gain a better
understanding of our admissions cycle from year to
year. With the EDW, we can see how many applicants
we had at the same time a year ago, how many were
admitted, how many were from high school and how
many were transfers. The business analytics can tell us
what we are doing right, our strengths and where we
are missing the mark. They give us the background we
need to make business decisions.”
“The business analytics can tell us what we are
doing right, our strengths and where we are
missing the mark. They give us the background we
need to make business decisions.”
Scott Bridges
Assistant Director for SIS
aBout Ellucian
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