BI/MI at the University of Manchester
The Situation
The University of Manchester had not invested in its BI/MI capability for a very long time. As a result, information for staff – both academic and operational, was of very poor quality, despite there being over 2000 reports in existence .
In addition, the existing technology was incapable of any degree of sophisticated analysis or presentation and was no longer supported by the suppliers. A complete Technology re-fresh was needed.
The Task
Much improved BI/MI was needed across the university and a complete, new set of technology tools was required to provide this. The technology had to be as ‘future proof’ as possible to avoid the same situation arising again.
A new, more appropriate, delivery method (Agile) was needed to provide a template for the future.
Of the existing reports a sub-set needed to be retained and converted to the new technology.
A set of exemplar Use Cases needed to be agreed which would be used to prove the capability of the new technology, develop expertise in the methodology and technology, and support a business case for the project.
The Action / Approach
Working with a wide ranging set of stakeholders – academics, students and staff, a Discovery phase was completed. From this a set of requirements was drawn up to both identify the most appropriate new technology and agree the 3 highest priority Use Cases which would be built as examplars. The Business Case identified a benefit of just over £5m over a 3 year period.
A project team was formed, new technology was procured, and staff trained in its use. The new technology included Data Lake software (to be as future proof as possible) and PowerBI for improved analysis and presentation capability.
An offshore company was contracted to convert old (Discoverer) reports to PowerBI.
The Result
The 3 exemplar Use Cases were completed to schedule –
For academics a new system called Student 360 analysed student performance over time.
For Research Management a system was developed which managed research forecasting and actual income.
For Marketing a system was developed to manage and analyse Students Attraction and Recruitment.
Data from the old, Oracle based, Data Warehouse was transferred to the new, Cloud based, Data Lake.
