Case Studies

BI COE team members have worked with various departments and stakeholders across the University to research and build custom solutions for their business intelligence requirements. These are a few examples of how we addressed their needs with our services.

Alumni Relations and Development (ARD)

Services Provided

• Custom Reporting and Dashboards
• Business-Friendly Data Access
• Self-Service Analytics Support
• Data Collection, Scoping, and Inegration
• Data Modeling and Architecture

Problem

ARD used a reporting platform, Griffin, that only had access to current data, but staff needed historical data, which was stored in a data warehouse, for additional insights and better decision-making.

Actions

• Built a new multi-dimensional data model and created a semantic layer of business terms to help ARD users interpret data
• Created reports and dashboards in Business Objects
• Provided user training

Result

ARD staff were able to access both current and historical data and integrate them into their reports.

Automating University-wide Research Administration (AURA)

Services Provided

• Custom Reporting and Dashboards
• Business-Friendly Data Access
• Self-Service Analytics Support
• Data Collection, Scoping, and Integration
• Data Modeling and Architecture
• Engaging Data Visualization

Problem

AURA is an electronic research administrative system that facilitates research administration activities at the University of Chicago. As an out-of-the-box solution, it offered very limited reporting capabilities. Users wanted the ability to generate additional and more relevant reporting.

Actions

• Built a new data model for reporting and a semantic layer aligned with business terms and needs
• Built reports and dashboards in Tableau
• Provided user training

Result

A new front end for a data warehouse enabled access to a wider range of data, providing more robust reporting. 

“Project Cowbell,” Facilities Services, Office of Sustainability

Services Provided

Problem

As part of UChicago’s goal to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, Facilities Services Office of Sustainability needed more timely and more frequent updates to the UChicago greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Reporting required a time-consuming and labor-intensive manual process that could only be completed once a year.

Actions

Result

Processing time for reports has been reduced to three-to-six months, with some informal reporting available on a quarterly basis.