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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

  • Self-Service Analytics Support
  • Data Collection, Scoping, and Integration
  • Data Operations and Monitoring
  • Data Repository and Data Catalog Services

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

  • Developed and automated data pipelines and processes to integrate with various systems of record such as EnergyCAP and ARCHIBUS, and migrate it to a centralized depository
  • Automated calculations and data refresh processes
  • Built Tableau data sources to refresh the data periodically

Result

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

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