A new way of reporting – information over intuition
29 May 2018
The University’s Analytics project is delivering enhanced ways of data reporting; bringing more sophisticated information to colleagues’ fingertips
Driven by a strategic vision to enable better decision making through insightful data analysis, plus a need to replace some old technology, the University has been working on an Analytics project to look at how we can better report on our Business and Management Information (also referred to as BI/MI).
The Analytics project has several aims, among these being to introduce the capability to analyse data in more flexible and complex ways, allowing for the first time, insights which will be used to better manage the University and support students and staff.
Among the new technologies being introduced is the functionally rich reporting tool ‘PowerBI’, which will allow staff to produce sophisticated reports and dashboards for themselves, simply and easily.
Power BI will replace our current Discoverer reporting tool, which is now out of support. In addition, the project will also be replacing the University’s current Data Warehouse with a new ‘Data Lake’ which will house our information in raw state that can be accessed in a variety of ways, for more fluid and agile reporting.
As IT Services introduce this new technology, some 6,000 existing Discoverer reports will be converted to PowerBI and approx. 900 staff will be trained in the new tool. It is envisaged that Discoverer will be decommissioned by the end of the year.
For more information or if you have questions about the project, please contact Simon Eley, Data Services and Integration Team Lead: