Interview
Higher Ed Growing into BI, Data Warehousing
As a long-time expert in data warehousing and business intelligence (BI), David Wells has seen the technologies gradually come into their own in higher education. Now a consultant--Wells was formerly director of education for The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), a sister institution of Campus Technology--he continues to advise colleges and universities on data warehousing and BI issues.
Two years ago,
we spoke with Wells
about the slow progress colleges and universities were making in BI and data warehousing, the reasons behind the measured pace, and about a few superstar schools that were setting great examples.
When we re-visited those topics with him recently, Wells said he sees higher ed making progress in BI, especially in the area of predictive analytics, in which data is analyzed to predict future trends. BI and data warehousing leaders that Wells cited two years ago, including the University of Illinois and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, are still setting the standard, but have been joined, he said, by schools such as the University of Texas at Austin and New Mexico State University.
Campus Technology: Two years ago, we talked about the relatively slow advances being made in BI and data warehousing in higher ed. What has changed since then?
David Wells
: In general, in the industry, there is a much stronger focus on the analytics aspect of BI and data warehousing. In corporate America, the attention is on business analytics, which increases the challenge [for higher ed].
Higher ed is a business, yes, but it is more complex than a business, and it is not always about the bottom line. So, as BI grows more toward a heavy business focus, it becomes more challenging for higher ed to find where they fit into it.
If we don't want to talk about it as Business Intelligence in higher ed, we can call it Institutional Intelligence. The same technology applies, and the same need for analytics and measures of metrics. We just think about the driving forces in an institutional culture....