Two years ago, Laura Landpair, director of CRM strategy and IT strategic initiatives (now executive director of information technology) at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, had just completed a six-month discovery process. Her team concluded that the data analytics environment was not providing university leaders with the timely, comprehensive data they needed to make informed, strategic business decisions. .
In response, the team at Landphair launched “Connect360” to target graduate school admissions data. Their goal was to extract, organize, analyze, and present data from multiple source systems in a unified dashboard.
Landfer turned to peer schools for advice.Their recommendation was solid.,”Please do it yourself. Central IT is not flexible enough for the unique needs of business schools. ”
However, analytical projects require a broad skill set. It is impossible for him to hire just one person with all the skills needed for such a business. Fortunately, the university's innovation orientation has provided leadership opportunities for IT leader and his S.C. Johnson College of Business Dean Charles Field Knight and Harold Biermann Jr. Distinguished Professor of Management Andrew Karroly .
They reached out to CIT to explore a partnership.
SC Johnson University's IT department brings business expertise, project management, UX experience, and data analysis skills to the team. The Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) staff brought data modeling, infrastructure and validation expertise, Tableau knowledge, and her more than 20 years of combined experience building the types of solutions universities needed. They began a pilot project with the hope of leveraging the skills of both teams.
CIT's Tony Damiani's analytics and reporting team and Jeff Christen's data warehousing and integration team are experienced problem solvers. They built the “plumbing” necessary to bring in data for modeling, reconstruction, and optimization. We then restructured that data into a reportable format. We also created visualizations to facilitate interpretation.
Together, they moved their proof-of-concept solution into production within a year.
The dashboard is now live. Previously, that information was only available on a weekly or monthly basis. Reports were created manually in various formats. The admissions team needed to manipulate and explain the data before the report could be useful across the program. Now, university admissions directors and senior leaders are releasing timely results. This improves communication between all parties involved.
Phase 1 of the Faculty and Education Dashboard will debut at the end of February
The following collaborations have significant financial and administrative implications. The resource planning dashboard shows course demand and faculty availability. The number of teachers needed to fill the “gap” will be determined. This addresses the difficult problem of supply and demand in university operations.
The promise of daily dashboards that allow visualization, drill-down, and transparent decision-making inspired the university. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the MPS and MBA programs,” said Henrietta Johnson Lewis Professor of Management Glen Dowell, senior director of the MPS and MBA programs and a member of the Connect360 Steering Committee. It happened in the past too. ”
Reflecting on the partnership, Damiani said: “This is a good model for future efforts. When the university was here all along, it would have been difficult to find and recruit the talent we needed. By working together, we can all develop new systems, technologies and approaches. I had the opportunity to learn and form new friendships.”
Both groups believe that the partnership will grow even stronger as demand for the results of this collaboration increases. There is no shortage of ideas and ways for universities and her CIT to bring their expertise together to create a solution that is greater than the sum of its parts.