Business Intelligence


Business Intelligence is an entirely new way or accessing your information, compared to traditional reporting. Previously, you could run a report, and if the information you needed was not available, you were either out  of luck or had to wait while a new report was developed. In traditional reporting, the progression to informational enlightenment is linear – effort must be invested for every realization.  Business intelligence is not this way. The heavy time investment is on the front end, modeling data to encompass all the systems which provide information. Once that data is modeled, validated, and certified, an end user is capable of either consuming a real-time dashboard that changes as the source data changes, or (with a little training) creating drag and drop reports on the fly – a ‘data mashup’ if you will. Business Intelligence requires and investment early on, but the possibilities once the time has been expended are endless, and continue to evolve as more data enters the system. The goal behind business intelligence, then, is to prepare ourselves not just for the reports we know we need, but for the possibilities we can dream up in the future.

The KU Financial Systems Transformation project team originally planned to implement Oracle's Business Intelligence Cloud Services (BICS) solution. In spring 2017, the FST Leadership Team determined that Oracle Analytics Cloud would better meet the needs of the KU community.

 

6/1/2017

The KU Financial Systems Transformation project team originally planned to implement Oracle's Business Intelligence Cloud Services (BICS) solution. In spring 2017, the FST Leadership Team determined that Oracle Analytics Cloud would better meet the needs of the KU community. The difference between BICS and Oracle Analytics Cloud is in how the platforms are licensed. BICS is a named license, meaning only specific individuals at KU would be licensed to use BICS. Oracle Analytics Cloud provides an enterprise license, which means any employee at KU can use the platform for business intelligence analysis and reporting.

Benefits of Oracle Analytics Cloud:

  • Any employee who needs to can use the platform
  • No need to request reports from licensed users
  • Faster and easier access for new employees (no waiting on licensing purchase)
  • No need to restrict allocation of licenses