Business Intelligence

Purpose of this resource

Photo by wwarby

This freely available online resource is the culmination of a 12 month JISC-funded project to 'Investigate, identify and evaluate what can be derived from the information base of institutions that can be used to improve the decision making process of senior managers' and 'discover which institutions are currently considering or adopting business intelligence and data visualisation systems and their experiences to date.'

It is intended to provide an introduction to the area of Business Intelligence to those working in the UK further and higher education sectors. It attempts to uncover what it is that senior institutional management want to know, which may be answered through improved BI and to provide an overview of some of the stages involved in achieving this. It also explores in some detail some of the many sources of external data which are available to institutions in addition to that created within their own walls and explores some of the benefits and challenges which seem to be emerging thus far from those institutions who are already engaged in this agenda.

It is hoped that it will act as a useful introduction to those new to the area, whilst also providing evidence and fresh perspectives to those already active in pursuing improvements to BI within their institution.

View BI Survey Results »

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Strategy infoKit

This resource was used to enhance the Environment Scanning & Business Intelligence section of the Strategy infoKit.

The infoKit is designed to assist those who play an active role in the formulation or implementation of strategic planning processes within their institution, and directly supports strategic development and operations, either from a project management, quality assurance or innovation angle.

View BI section of Strategy infoKit »

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Pathway to best practice

Business Intelligence: monitoring performance and planning improvement

Briefing Paper

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The concept of 'Business Intelligence' (BI) is steadily rising up the priority list within many institutions. The reasons for this are several-fold and include a growing realisation of the importance of informing institutional strategic planning with evidence-based decisions, a desire to be able to 'benchmark' performance against rival or peer institutions and the ever-increasing need to be able to better target resources in a climate of financial contraction.

Technology in the form of specialist BI systems may be able to help institutions achieve some or all of the above and more besides but, as ever, does not provide all the answers. In fact, a rush to implement technology to address this area without a clear understanding of what it is you are trying to achieve and an existing solid foundation of accurate, comprehensive and up to date sources of data may well end up causing more problems than it solves.

Adding to the complexity of the challenge are the various ways in which 'successful' BI might be realised, plus a lack of clarity regarding what success in this area might even look like.

What does the future hold?

In March 2011 JISC initiated 11 sector-wide projects which aim to 'help senior managers and decision makers make better use of both internal and external data in support of institutional management and decision making'. These projects will run over 18 month duration and are expected to work in conjunction with the JISC infoNet's new online Business Intelligence resource. On completion, in July 2012, this resource will be updated and will capture projects' experiences and lessons learned.

View the 11 Projects »