UNISA, SA's distance learning university, is one of the largest universities in the world today. Classified as a Mega University, one with more than 100 000 students, it is run as a business in terms of how it uses the information in its databases to drive its planning, marketing, performance management and costing activities.
According to Herman Visser, Director Bureau of Management Information at UNISA, the organisation has a vast data warehouse of information relating to a current registered student population in excess of 200 000, including certificate students and access students, as well as student data going back to1984. It also contains other subject areas.
"Being able to access this information and generate appropriate reports is proving invaluable in planning and supporting all aspects of the university's operations," he says.
"For example, we produce several critical reports to support the international accreditation of our degree modules. Being awarded this accreditation - the only university in Africa to have all its modules internationally accredited - is proof of our quality products. This quality is also reflected in the growth of our student numbers The Cognos software enables us to keep our fingers on the pulse.
"Being accredited means that the university can attract essential international funding to help build capacity in developing countries in Africa. Because of extended wars and other factors, there is a desperate need for quality and affordable tertiary education in a large number of developing countries in Africa and UNISA play an important role in this regard."
The bureau's Information Analysis Division uses Cognos' PowerPlay and Impromptu business intelligence tools to produce a large number of regular reports, and to service numerous ad hoc requests in a number of areas such as student statistics, human resource, building space and financial information.
The bureau's 18-man team has been using Cognos tools, supplied and supported by data warehousing and business intelligence specialist, Synergy Computing, since 1998. In that time it has developed more than 100 Cognos data cubes on top of its Oracle-based data warehouse. A number of data cubes also work directly from the transactional systems.
"We use Impromptu for queries against the data warehouse and in the process of creating cubes.
"Because Cognos is so easy to use and is very user friendly, we're now planning to use Cognos' Web functionality to allow staff to access the information themselves via our intranet and to a large extent customise their own reports. This, in addition to slicing and dicing the data or drilling down into more detail, as necessary, will enable staff to do some analysis on their own, while allowing the Bureau for Management Information Analysts to focus on more complex work."
Reports are already being published on the intranet using Cognos Web technology. In addition, to ensure senior management are able to get quick, high level graphical overviews of relevant reports, the bureau is also investigating the use of Cognos Visualizer.
Analysis tools are used to build up student profiles for each module. In this way lecturers know their target groups and this assists them when preparing and designing subject material. On the other hand, the analysis of student information is also key in the optimal location of the tutorial centres that are now deemed a crucial component of modern distance education.
Being able to interrogate nearly 20 years of data, is helping UNISA better target its marketing campaigns to optimise the use of its resources, as well as to hone its employment equity planning.
"We've been producing employment equity reports since 1993/94 - long before the EE Act - so we have a very good picture and control of our equity position in terms of race, qualifications and gender," he adds.
PowerPlay, being an integrated component of the activity-based costing solution, Flex ABC used by UNISA, is also used extensively in identifying and managing costs. In UNISA's case, this is right down to module level, which Visser says is unique in this type of environment.
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Synergy Computing was founded in 1978, and is today one of SA's foremost providers of end-to-end business intelligence (BI) solutions. These include the design, development and implementation of data warehouses, data mart, and data analysis solutions based on best-of-breed products including Cognos, Oracle, Microsoft and NetTracker. It has a client base in excess of 300 customers.
With offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, Synergy Computing serves the needs of customers across Africa. It provides a comprehensive range of professional services, including on-site project consulting, outsourcing, technical support, maintenance and customised training.
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