Business Intelligence (BI) Project

About Business Intelligence (BI)

 BI collects, integrates, analyses and presents business information to support better business decision making.  It extracts data from systems such as SITS, transforms it into a suitable reporting format and then stores the transformed data in a large data warehouse.  This data can be combined with information from other internal sources such as financial planning data as well as externally sourced files such as HESA data.

This standardised dataset provides a consistent, accurate, single source of data that everyone understands, upon which business decisions can be made with confidence.

Reports can be produced from the data warehouse straight to the desk tops of managers in Schools and Services. 

BI at the University of Exeter

IBM's Cognos is used to provide Financial Planning and BI reporting.

The Cognos system comprises of two separate functions: Cognos Financial Planning and Cognos Business Intelligence Reporting.  Each system can be used independently of the other.

 

 Data warehouse .

 

About BI reporting

 Currently BI reporting supports the University's six student experience KPIs which are described below:

 

Report title

Description

Graduate destinations

The Graduate Destinations report shows the results of the "Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education" survey, approximately 6 months after graduation.

International population

The International Population KPI report provides the number of full-time international students (those eligible to pay home fees) as a proportion of the total full-time student population at Institution, College and Discipline level.  Comparisons against other HEIs are also shown.

National Student Survey

The National Student Survey (NSS) report shows the last 5 years results of student satisfaction.  Results are available at Institution, College and Discipline level (campus comparisons are also shown).

PGT population

The PGT Population report shows the proportions of postgraduate students at the University and in Colleges and Disciplines with comparisons against other HEIs.

Progression and achievement

The report provides the average score of progression and achievement.  Analyses are provided at Institution, College and Discipline level (external comparison of progression is not available at College and discipline level).

UG entry tariff

The report provides analyses of the average tariff scores at Institution, College and Discipline level (campus comparisons also available).

 

The data is updated to a regular schedule, outlined here:

Data Source

KPI Reports Affected

Update Schedule

HESA

Graduate Destinations

International Student Pop’n

PGT Population

Progression and Achievement

UG Entry Tariff

HESA data is loaded three times per year when each new data set is released by HESA.  The first tranche comprises two files and arrives in March/April; the second tranche includes DLHE (Graduate destinations) data and arrives in late June/early July and comprises one file.

NSS

NSS

NSS data arrives and is loaded annually in September

SITS

Graduate Destinations

International Student Pop’n

PGT Population

Progression and Achievement

UG Entry Tariff

The SITS data reported is based on the student population at the time of the December census.  This census is a method of ensuring that a static student base is reported upon.  This is a requirement by HESA and is necessary for all data that is sent to the agency.  The SITS data used by the student experience KPIs uses this same population.  Details may be changed, but no students may be added or removed from the population.  SITS data is loaded by the BI technical team on demand.

Master mapping data

All KPIs

Master mapping data such as the mapping of JACS subject codes to Colleges and Disciplines are kept up to date with any changes as they occur, approximately once per term.

Planning Data

International Student Population

PGT Population

5yrs planning data from the Teaching module in Excel format, loaded 2 to 3 times per year when the plan has been signed off by Council.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benefits

The project delivers the following benefits;

  • Reports on demand - KPI reports at your desktop, no need to ask someone else for some information, you will be able to access it easily and promptly.
  • Clean and accurate data – all data in the reports will have been cleansed and checked for accuracy.
  • Consistent definitions – reports available across Schools and Services will ensure all users have access to the same information, using the same definitions and are comparing like with like.
  • Flexible reports – Dashboards will give an overview of the Key Performance Indicators, whilst it will be possible to drill down to increased levels of detail.
  • Cross system analysis – holding data from a variety of systems in one place will mean analysis can take place on information that is originally input into a variety of systems.

BI Glossary

Not sure what the technical terms mean?  The BI glossary should help:

Business Intelligence: A system that collects, integrates, analyses and presents business information to support better business decision making.

Dashboard: Presents the Key Performance Indicators in simple visual graphics, such as gauges, charts and tables.  This will be available through the web.

KPI: Key Performance Indicator. The University’s top 10 key performance indicators are;

  • National Student Survey
  • Research Income per Staff fte
  • Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
  • PGR per staff fte
  • International Student Population
  • % of PGT student population
  • Undergraduate Entry Tariffs
  • Progression and Achievement
  • Graduate Level Destinations
  • Earned Income

Data Mart: A subset of the data warehouse, a data mart is a repository of data that holds information on a specific business area, like for example Admissions. The data warehouse will be made up of a number of data marts.

Data Warehouse: A data warehouse combines data from multiple and varied sources into one comprehensive and easily manipulated database. It does not replace existing systems, but draws information from the systems that are currently in place and facilitates reporting and analysis of this data.

Metadata: Data that describes other data and in doing so gives context to the source data. One recognisable form of metadata is the card index catalogues in the library; the information on that card is metadata about a book.