In attendance:
Terri Shelton, Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement
Bob Shea, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer
Tina McEntire, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management
Donna Heath, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer
Julia Jackson-Newsom, Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategy and Policy
Joe Ames, Director of Administrative Technologies and ITS Strategic Alignment Officer
Greg Hodges, Associate Vice Chancellor for Planning Performance and Emerging Technology, Finance and Administration
Valerie Giroux, Enterprise Data Manager, ITS
Paul Lester, Chief of Police
Zachary Smith, Director of Emergency Management
Topic: Demo of Finance & Administration Power BI Dashboards.
Context: As we think about selection of visualization and reporting tools, there are several key strategic considerations:
- First – Do the toolsets under consideration meet our well-defined functional requirements? If we move forward with engaging EAB to build a comprehensive needs assessment, we will have the full campus management and operational functional requirements against which to evaluate the toolsets.
- Second – What is the right balance of desired functionality and cost that lets our campus achieve its goals sustainably? Is 80 – 90% functionality at reasonable cost good enough?
- Third – Can we successfully implement the toolset with our faculty and staff? Is there a clear path for getting the majority of our campus stakeholders expediently proficient in leveraging the toolset to help themselves meet their ad hoc data reporting and visualization needs? Is it easy to use and intuitive? Can we effectively build standardized, robust, campus wide end user training?
Bob Shea, Greg Hodges, Zach Smith, and Paul Lester presented three Finance and Administration dashboards that were developed in Power BI.
Decision: Power BI was selected as the centrally supported tool for dashboard development at UNCG.
Topic: UNCG Data Strategy
Context: A data strategy establishes common methods, practices and processes to manage, manipulate and share data across the enterprise in a repeatable manner. We have multiple data management initiatives underway (data quality, data governance, data integration, functional data needs assessment, development of dashboards, discussion of reporting and visualization tool selection and standardization), but these efforts are focused on point solutions that address specific project or organizational needs. A data strategy establishes a road map for aligning these activities across divisions in such a way that they complement and build on one another to deliver greater benefits.
Without this roadmap, UNCG will continue to operate as an organization with many data silos, each of which define and use data differently, none of which are standardized on processes and tools. All of the critical work that we have instinctively pushed so hard to get underway must be guided by a common institutional data vision and strategy or we will find ourselves grappling with these same issues another 5 years from now.
Decision: The ESC adopted the proposed UNCG 2021 – 2022 Data Strategy for Institutional Data.