Leading Universities to Improve Performance

Business intelligence provides colleges, universities with increased visibility into operations, student affairs and admissions process

Business intelligence provides colleges, universities with increased visibility into operations, student affairs and admissions process

San Jose, CA — October 29, 2004 — Business intelligence (BI) solutions are playing an increasingly important role in higher education, helping universities improve performance across a wide range of academic and operational areas.

Business Objects, a provider of BI solutions, said many universities, including Florida State University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Notre Dame and University of Illinois, are using BI from Business Objects to enable better financial management, increased quality of student services and programs, and more efficient operational processes

"Like many universities today, Florida State University uses a collectivist approach to admissions in which many different departments within the university discuss the students they want to recruit and how best to retain them," said Dr. Rick Burnette, director of student information management at Florida State University. "Business Objects gives us the infrastructure we need to communicate collectively. With it we now have a way to consolidate and share data — decisions that used to be based on anecdotal evidence are now based on facts. We're now able to use data strategically to develop marketing plans based on the university's overall business and educational goals."

Universities and colleges are using Business Objects to monitor and evaluate performance data from across multiple areas, including finance, human resources, financial aid, fund raising, donor relations, student demographics and performance, as well as academic programs and research. Additionally, educational institutions are under increasing pressure to improve efficiencies and they use Business Objects for reporting and analysis on operations.

Florida State University said it uses Business Objects across the institution for everything from improving the student admissions process to financial reporting from its ERP system. The provider is also working with FSU to manage ticket distribution for its football games. The university recently relied on Business Objects reports to ensure that thousands of visitors for Parents' Weekend received welcome materials and passes to all the weekend's events.

The University of Notre Dame said it has standardized on Business Objects to access and analyze performance data across finance and human resources, student demographics and performance, financial aid, and fund raising, as well as academic programs and research. The university is also creating customized dashboards to enable top administrators to view relevant performance metrics and receive automatic alerts regarding pre-defined events.

Finally, the University of California at Berkeley uses Business Objects for its campus-wide Museum Informatics Project (MIP). Business Objects provides educators, employees, and students with a more efficient and cost-effective way to access, analyze, and share information about the thousands of research items archived items in Berkeley's vast museum collections.

"Business Objects recognizes that colleges and universities face more pressure and public scrutiny regarding their financial operations, student performance and admissions process," said Greg Lorden, vice president of Government at Business Objects. "That's why it's critical for administrators and faculty members to have immediate access to data that can help them enrich academic programs, improve student retention, gain visibility into their finances, and enhance communication amongst the various university departments."

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