Introducing Visualization to a Static Reporting Culture

Presentation Summary

Jeffrey Meteyer, University of Rochester

The University of Rochester has been using a single BI tool ( IBM Cognos) for over 7 seven years to support the reporting requirements of the data warehouse, reaching over 7 data marts. The report development cycle and the static appearance of data has reached a point where the audience now wants to "see" the data and its surrounding effects in order to foster better decision making. What started out as proof of concept and has eventually morphed to production readiness is repurposing the existing data sources and enabling visualization tools to be introduced. The goal of dashboards to help explain what trends are being seen in short and long term periods is being realized. the back end changes needed to complete this transformation include the re-purposing of data elements and development of views that lend to easier development of visualizations. I will discuss how we have leveraged the existing Cognos data models and how the Tableau visualizations are being used to support new reporting requests and how Institutional Research is taking advantage of a rapid development environment, while still benefiting from existing reporting structures.