University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

UB2020 Projects Update Newsletter

September 21, 2007

• Phase II of the project is on track for beginning rollout in February 2008

Strategic Information Reporting Initiative

The topics that generated the most discussion at the SIRI project table of the recent Town Hall (held on September 14, 2007) were: the current status of the project, who is involved in the planning and building of SIRI, how will security be handled in SIRI, what data and information is included and how will it be pulled into SIRI, and what will be the impact of SIRI on current university transactional systems and departmental databases. Currently the SIRI project is in the second phase which is focused on financial and human resource data as well as on the building the foundation of the system, including procurement of hardware, software, data modeling and creation of reports. Phase II of the project is on track for beginning rollout in February 2008. There are discussions on Phase III of the project and what the data source should be incorporated next. While student data is the next logical choice there are concerns considering the university is launching a major project to replace the current student systems. In addition to student data, the other data sources under consideration include research, philanthropy, and space. During the round table there was discussion about the need to incorporate capital facility rehab expenditures as well as how and when that data could be included in Infosource.

The planning and building of SIRI is a collaborative effort which is necessary considering the number of large IT projects on campus and the need to really reach out across campus and leverage resources. Since a lot of SIRI is new and uncharted territory there has also been the need to work with outside IT consultants such as Business Intelligence Consulting Group (BICG) and LPA, Inc. Working with those from outside UB presents the challenge of educating those from outside UB and higher education on the unique business intelligence and logic in regards to reporting, data, systems and process needs for a project of this scale, while they work with us to teach us about the new technology and solution. See the membership list of the wide array of university staff who are invested in making SIRI happen.

Based on current system usage, it is anticipated that there will be roughly 1,200 users of SIRI, including senior campus leadership, administrative and financial officers and front end users. While the current plan looks to simplify access and security as much as possible there is also the goal of using mechanisms that exist for Infosource while addressing the need to incorporate access that crosses multiple data sources which hasn’t existed in the past. One of the great benefits of SIRI is that users will now have the capability to analyze issues that cross a number of data sources to a greater level of efficiency, accuracy and consistency than has been possible in the past. For example, a Dean will be able to generate a report that will allow him/her the ability to quickly review the impact of his faculty on campus by pulling financial, space and research data into one analysis.

For the current phase II, the focus is on incorporating financial and human resource data into SIRI with later phases including research, space, philanthropy and student data. Data will be acquired from a variety of operational sources (including Infosource) and run through a transformation process to prepare it in the format defined by SIRI.

One of the objectives of SIRI is to serve as the single authoritative data source for information on campus with a goal of eliminating and/or reducing the need for BARS Campus Inquiry, People and Money, UB First, Infosource Online and other campus shadow systems. With this said, there is an understanding that these systems need to continue to be accessible to campus users until there is agreement that the necessary functionality and information exists in SIRI. Additionally, there is agreement that SIRI should provide any needed reporting within the system so as to avoid maintaining multiple systems and reducing the risk of “breaking” a link that is required for a particular system on campus.

There were specific discussions that arose regarding capital rehab expenditures and the interest of University Facilities to provide this data for SIRI as soon as possible by working now to ensure the proper data elements needed for SIRI are included in the base system and then are transferred to Infosource. There was additional conversation on differing procedures and policies for various data sources and how this plays a significant role sometimes in the business intelligence and logic that needs to be built into SIRI. One example given was with regard to use of encumbrances in some financial systems on campus.

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UB2020 Transformation Project Communication Team