Delivering Decision Support Information to Departmental Units through a Management

Portal

2004 AIR Forum

4:20-5:00 p.m.June 1, 2004

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Presenter

Ryan Cherland, Ph.D.:

Director of University Management Information and Associate Director of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning at the University of Kansas. He has 19 years of experience in institutional research, with the last 11 years at the University of Kansas-Lawrence.

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Synopsis of Presentation•What is DEMIS?

•Development of DEMIS

•The place of DEMIS in KU’s Information Architecture

•How data is gathered

•Staff resources related to DEMIS

•Future directions and goals

•Live Demo of DEMIS

•Questions?

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• History - The University of Kansas opened its doors in 1866.

• Academics - The university offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate majors and programs including allied health, architecture, business, education, engineering, fine arts, journalism, law, liberal arts and sciences, nursing, pharmacy, and social welfare.

• Lawrence Campus Enrollment – 19,651 undergraduates and 6,131 graduate students from every state in the nation and more than 100 countries around the world.

About the University of Kansas

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What is DEMIS?Departmental Executive Management

Information System

• Campus Intranet system for the University of Kansas

• Developed gradually over the past decade from a few static web pages to a campus management ‘portal’

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What is DEMIS?

• Uses a password protected web-site that allows customization of the links for a user

• 5 broad areas of information from DEMIS: General, Academic, Student Administration, HR/Pay, Financial, and User

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What is DEMIS?

“A decision support system is an interactive system that provides the user with easy access to decision models and data in order to support semistructured and unstructured decision-making tasks.”

(Watson, Houdeshel, & Rainer, 1997, p.265)

DEMIS as a decision support system, which can be defined in many ways. The definition that I think fits DEMIS the best is:

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What is DEMIS?

Key parts for a decision support system are:

• It is easy to use

• It contains models or analytical aids used to analyze the data

• Data are maintained to be used in the analysis

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Development of DEMIS• Phase 1: Initial phase was to provide academic department trend

information and major counts on a password protected web site – 1995

• Phase 2: Second phase was the development of ad hoc queries on student credit hours because of a change in business practices – 1996

• Phase 3: Third phase focused on academic department management information – 1997 to 1998

• Phase 4: Inclusion of academic/nonacademic departmental reporting from PeopleSoft systems data – 1999 to present

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DEMIS in KU’s Information Architecture

DEMIS is one part of a larger architecture for data warehousing / information delivery proposed by the Office of the Vice Provost for Information Services

Link to KU’s Technical Infrastructure Task Force Report:

www.vpinfo.ku.edu/warner/itarchitecture/index.shtml

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KU Enterprise Data Architecture

Knowledge Management Infrastructure Definition Task Force 06/2000 Adapted from Ken Orr’s Enterprise Data Architecture, 1998

Data Feed / Data Mining / Indexing Layer

Da

ta A

cqu

isiti

on

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SA

S/

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B /

De

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Str

ea

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Data Staging and Quality Layer Operational

Data Stores

Inte

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Co

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P

roce

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Core DW Layer

Central DW

Fe

ed

/ M

inin

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Ind

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Pro

cess

Space Inventory

Non-operational

Data Sources

IPEDS

External Data

AMCAS AAU

HRSA

SRIS

FSKU

MCHR

Source Data

Layer

KUMC Fin

SAKU

KUFS Detail

SRIS Legacy

data

CRINC FS Detail

Other Subject

Area Applications

Subject Areas

: - Students - Financial - Human

Resources - Facilities /

Equipment - Research

KUFS

CRINCFS

KUMCFS

SCH MART

Data Mart Layer

Others

Presentation / Desktop Access Layer Downloads Spreadsheets Business

Analysis Tools

DEMIS / Web

Interfaces

Metadata Repository Layer Warehouse Management

Layer Application Messaging Transport Layer

Operational Data Sources

SA RDS

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DEMIS Menu Architecture

User database

User ID Key User + Menu database

User ID Key + Menu Key

Menu Links database

Menu Code Key

User Id Authentication via

Web server

User web menu created based on role at KU

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DEMIS Query Architecture

CGI

Functional Subject Area

Data mart

A DEMIS Query web form

Filters + Rpt Breaks

SAS report program

User receives output in HTML,

RTF, PDF, or Excel-ready

format

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Advantages of DEMIS Reports

• Replace hard copy reports with web reporting options

•HTML, Word, PDF, CSV

• Allows user access to anytime / anywhere information

• Provides semi-flexibility in the user creating the report they want

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DEMIS Data Sources

• Selected PeopleSoft (Oracle) tables and legacy system flat-file extracts and IR Analytical data marts

• Data marts Financials datamarts updated twice daily

Payroll and other datamarts updated once daily

• Data warehouse

Frequency of updates determined by business need

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DEMIS Extraction and Data Transformation

• Use SAS with Access to Oracle• Data is “transformed” and manipulated for the

report model.• Data marts are saved as SAS datasets and

indexed for reporting• “Power users” use desktop SAS and

SAS/Connect to access the operational daily stores on the DEMIS Unix Server

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Staff Resources in Support of DEMIS

• Total of 6 to 7 FTE– Department of University Management Information

3 FTE (+1 FTE next fiscal year)– Office of Institutional Research and Planning – 1

to 1.5 FTE (contributed by multiple analyst) in support of various analytical systems

– Office of Data Services – 1 FTE in maintenance of users and interface with production control and technical support

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How has DEMIS Impacted KU?

• The Institutional Research Office– Who am I today???

• The University Overall

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More IR Offices developing Dual Personalities??

Institutional ResearchUniversity Management

Information•Census extracts of operational data•Analytical Skills•Applies context to data•Brings data from multiple systems together•Creates “value added” data fields

•Day-to-day operational data marts and reports•Involved in meeting the business needs of the campus•Involved in developing a core group of knowledge workers in the major functional areas

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Benefits of the IR Duality

• Depth and knowledge of current and future operational data systems which is accessed often in IR “quick-and-clean” analyses

• Invited to meetings which can impact approaches to the setup of systems

• Acts as a “bridge” between the needs of the operational systems and the needs of the decision-makers – we walk and talk in both worlds

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DEMIS Benefits to the University Community

• One version of the truth – with audits• A one-stop shop for information• High level of executive support on

campus– We will use the data from the operational

systems – not from departmental shadow systems

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How DEMIS is Guided & Developed

• Provost• Directors Group

– Assc Vice Provost– Budget– Comptroller– Human Resources– Institutional Research

• System Administrators• Student Reporting Team

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Live DEMIS Demo

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Coming Systems to DEMIS

• Develop an Academic performance metric query system – in prototype

• Develop a Grant Overview query – in prototype• Deploy a Space Usage collection system – in

prototype• Develop a “pick-a-peer” comparative analysis

query – in prototype• Develop a Financial EIS “dashboard”

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Immediate Technical Goals for DEMIS / Decision-making at KU

• Enhance the DEMIS interface with more of a portal look and feel

• Bring other data server(s) online in support of administrative decision-making and data collection needs

• Integration of the ETL and data warehouse meta-data with the reporting tools and web query systems

• Purchase data-mining/text-mining tools to apply to university data stores in support of decision-making and data discovery

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Contact Information:

Ryan Cherland, Office of Institutional Research and Planning

University of Kansas(785) 864-4412

ryan-cherland@ku.eduwww.ku.edu/~oirp

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Hardware & Software resources in support of DEMIS

• Software– SAS Modules (V8.2)

• SAS/Base; SAS/IntrNet; SAS/MDDB; SAS/Access to Oracle; SAS/Warehouse Administrator

– Apache Web Server software

• Hardware– SUN 3500E– 6 Processors– SAN Storage (when more is needed it is allocated

within a few days

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General Subject Area

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Academic Subject Area

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Student Admin. Subject Area

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HR/Payroll Subject Area

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Financials Subject Area

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Developer/TS Subject Area

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My Data Subject Area

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.

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DEMIS Query Activity over timeAs of 08AUG2003

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Year2002 2003

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6

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DEMIS Average Daily User Activity over timeAs of 08AUG2003

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67

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7476

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6669 69 68

65 64

74 75

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79 79

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Screen snapshots

• What follows are screen snapshots of what is anticipated to be shown during the ‘live’ demo of the presentation for those who were not able to attend…

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Academic Program Review Statistical Overview

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Additional trend Information on various categories

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Overviews contain links to drill-down information

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Detail of Faculty Workload

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Student Information in the Major

Drill-downs to additional statistics.

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General Statistical Analyses on the students in the major

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A continuation of the statistical analyses the ability to map data

Click on anchor to map

the distributions

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Resulting map

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Web form to create report selections

Filters selections to restrict what’s included in the query

4 report breaks available for the query

Selection of semesters to compareAnd the ‘census’ point withinThe semester

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Output of resulting query

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Classroom management report

Course excluded from analysisBecause it is cross-listed

Course that is under-enrolled

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Space Utilization menu

English department has 77%Of the space it needs basedOn current resources

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Drill-downs to Space detail

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Staffing detail from HRMS PeopleSoft data

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Opening menu of a user’s DEMIS screen – with General Links

Password protected system allows customization for user and security checks and restrictions.

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Academic / Instructional Links

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HR/Payroll links

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Financial Reporting Links

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Individual User’s area

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Financial Reports Menu of links

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Web form for creation and submission of financial report

Date/Time Stamp of last refresh

Link to an overview of the system

Main campus analyses has fiscal years stored in separate tablesBudget year filter can be

entered, otherwise all budget years are provided for a given fiscal year

Organizational Unit drop down menu

DEPTID values can also be entered freehand

Project ID values can be entered free hand as well

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Additional aspects of the financials report form

Fund numbers can be selected from a drop down or entered directly

The user can restrict the analyses to broad areas of account types

A beginning and ending date for the financial report can be entered, otherwise it is as-of-today

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Available report breaks for the DEMIS financial web reports

Up to 4 nested report breaks are allowed, with the default break at the budget category. All 4 break drop-downs contain the same options.

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Financial output using default settings for a given department

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A report with ‘details’ checked and a beginning date provided

Date range provided is included in output

Detailed info include an ID#, the Source, the date, and descriptions of the transaction

Pending transactions are highlighted by using RED with the Source

Organizational reporting structure is included in the report.

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An example of using the extract option

Detail on the transaction is being requested

Checkbox for sending back a tab-delimited file instead of html

User can keep or exclude subtotals based on their selected report breaks

Additional columns of the organizational structure can be requested in the extract file

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Results of query as it looks in Excel

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Gross and Fringe Reporting web form

Date stamp of last refresh (nightly extract)

Fiscal Year filter

Check box to summarize across payroll vouchers

Or select individual vouchers to analyze

Budgetary unit or area of responsibility

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Continuation of Gross & Fringe reporting options

Filters for sources of funding

Filters for person and/or position and/or job types

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Report break options for Gross and Fringe reportAdditional columns of salary/fringe detail can be included as desired

Up to 4 nested report breaks are available

A tab-delimited extract file can be requested instead of html output

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Output of a default Gross and Fringe report

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A report requesting all the additional columns of detail

All additional salary and fringe columns are selected

‘True’ pay end date is the requested report break

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Report generated from previous selections

‘True’ pay end dates are the grouping variable

Various salary and fringe columns provided as separate analysis columns

Feedback to the user on the number of total records involved from the query

Total time elapsed to subset the data and create the report

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Employment Cessation report web form

The user can subset the data based on EFFDT ranges or ACTION_DT ranges.

Types of staff can be selected; so that if someone was just interested in faculty they wouldn’t have to look through all the students, etc.

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Output of the Employee Cessation report

If no date ranges are requested then the last 30 days are used.

Report layout is as requested by the HR department

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Admissions Reporting

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Admissions Reporting Form

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Admissions Sample Output