UTS proves BI theory is more than just academics

University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) is delivering information faster to students by using an IBM business intelligence system, Cognos 8.3, as its new student management reporting tool.

UTS is transforming the way it uses information, allowing the university to gain valuable insight into what is happening across their organisation to help drive smarter decisions. UTS Student Administration is responsible for managing information for around 33,000 students via the Student Management portal - from student applications and enrolments through to curriculum documents, examination results and alumni data.

To support this flow of data, UTS Student Centre staff process an average of 15 student enquiries per minute. The new business intelligence tool leverages the Student Management source system for reporting, in turn providing greater flexibility of report format and prompting, audit capability to better understand usage, as well as integration with the Student Management portal application.

“Making IBM Cognos the common reporting platform across the university offers savings in licence costs, savings in software administration and maintenance, and capitalises on the existing IBM Cognos skills within the university. It also offers the future potential for a consolidated portal for all strategic university information,” said Miranda Brookes, Student Systems Implementation Project Manager, University of Technology, Sydney.

The ability to generate customised reports and automate standard processes makes it possible for UTS staff to conduct in-depth analysis versus manual report production, helping the university stay on top of critical daily operations.

The new reporting solution includes web services for greater flexibility in the delivery of reports to staff and improved auditing capabilities through recording of information such as who is using the system, which reports and queries are being run, and the cost of queries to system resources.

A major factor in the selection of IBM Cognos was UTS’s extensive and successful experience with Cognos over several years. At the same time, IBM Cognos Software Group Services demonstrated a successful prototype of converting reports using IBM Cognos 8.3.

“Using the IBM Cognos Services team in a quality assurance role has been a major help to the project. They’ve been here in our offices every week giving fast responses to any queries or issues and helping us to understand best practices,” Brookes added.