An Architecture for
Institutional Advancement
Reporting
Thomas A. Slobko
CIO
Occidental College
Adages
• Banner has perfect security. No one can get
information out of Banner.
• Reporting tools make programmers more efficient.
They do not make users into programmers.
Occidental College - ITS
The Zero Architecture
Banner
Reporting
Tool
Occidental College - ITS
reports
Symptoms of the problem in IA
• Reports were not robust
• Reports were late
• 80% of their “programming” staff time was spent
doing routine, similar, one-off reports.
Occidental College - ITS
The IA reporting problem - causes
•
•
•
•
Their data is complex.
Their business rules are incredibly complex.
The scope of their needs continues to expand
All of their personnel now have numerous ad hoc
reporting needs
• Most of their personnel are non technical
• Even “standard” reports change regularly
Occidental College - ITS
The First Architecture
Banner
Sqlplus
Datamart
Occidental College - ITS
Reporting
Tool
Reports
Implementing a datamart
• The SCT “solution”
• The Vassar/Wellesley solution
– Plan for datamart design process
– Much data, few changes
• Mary Carole Stark consulted on banner data,
design process, datamart design
• Consultant verified design
• Computing and IA staff produced datamart
Occidental College - ITS
The Pink Sheet
Occidental College - ITS
The Pink Sheet - functions
• Eliminate costly miscommunication between non
technical users and IA operations “programmers”
• Force non technical users to include all of their
“parameters”
• Can we do all of this and deliver reports directly
with the web?
Occidental College - ITS
The Pink Sheet Platform
Banner
Datamart
Middleware
Server
Occidental College - ITS
Web
Server
Web Client
Demonstrations
• IA Web Reporting
• Admission Dashboard
Occidental College - ITS
The Pink Sheet Architecture
• A complete datamart
• Web Reports whose content and logic is dynamic
• Have the datamart do the “Heavy Lifting”
– Makes web development easier (and faster)
– Makes web reports much faster
• Future directions?
Occidental College - ITS