JISC

In recent years, UCLAN has recognised the importance of using internal and external data to inform strategic decision making. The institution has moved through the BI maturity model, to level four, where a BI system has been developed, data definitions agreed and a data warehouse established. However, UCLAN recognises that the work done to date needs enhancement if it is to reach the latter stages of the BI model. In particular, we wish to relocate the current BI system (from Mood) to SharePoint in order that greater integration can be achieved with our student and staff records systems and our newly purchased CRM system. This will enable us to perform greater predictive analysis, model outcomes and understand the factors that affect each of these scenarios, using reports from our data warehouse and SPSS. We wish to extend the level of BI available to our business units; e.g. to enable a Head of School to confirm his position against strategic targets, but also to understand what makes up that headline figure, using programme and module level data to identify areas that performed poorly/well in order to identify best practice.

Using the JISC InfoNet BI Resource for guidance, this project will work with key stakeholders to re-define the processes that deliver the evidence base to the right users at the right time and will subsequently develop the BI system using Microsoft SharePoint to deliver the user interface (linked to appropriate data sets through the data warehouse). We will use this interface to simplify the process for requesting data/analysis and will provide personalisation facilities to enable individuals to create an interface that provides the data most appropriate to their needs. As part of the project we will review the JISC InfoNet BI resource, providing recommendations to support the evaluation of the product.