The BI Roadmap Project: The Path to Better Analysis and Reporting

In October 2010, the University's IT Governance Council authorized the creation of the Business Intelligence (BI) Roadmap Project, the purpose of which is to upgrade tools and technology to support business intelligence needs throughout the University, and lay the foundation to provide more robust reporting and data analysis solutions to the community.

Project Background

What is "Business Intelligence"? Though a walk through business literature provides many definitions, the origin of the term can be drawn back to 1996, when a Gartner Report stated the following:

Making sound business decisions based on accurate and current information takes more than intuition. Data analysis, reporting, and query tools can help business users wade through a sea of data to synthesize valuable information from it - today these tools collectively fall into a category called "Business Intelligence".

Harvard's current reporting and data analysis environment demonstrates a dynamic commitment and effort:

The University staff make use of over 1,500,000 report requests per year in support of Financial, Human Resources, Alumni and Development operations
~3,000 staff make these requests
The central staff builds and maintains a broad library of pre-defined reports and queries

Harvard's current state Analysis and Reporting is a collection of various tools and databases across the University's administrative functional areas, including:
CREW Standard Reports

Human Resources
Financials
Sponsored Research
CAPS
Student Financial Reporting

Ad Hoc Reporting tools (BRIO and the Hyperion Performance Suite (AHE) serving

Alumni Affairs community
Human Resources

Initial Goals of the Project

The initial work of the BI Roadmap Project is to upgrade the reporting tools, the current versions of which are currently no longer supported by the vendor; an upgraded, re-branded version of the product has been acquired by the University and will be made available to users in the near future.

CREW
While the tools are being upgraded, the Project Team is working to convert all of the existing reports into supported formats. This conversion work will have no impact on the CREW end user; all existing reports are expected to work normally.

Interactive Reporting (BRIO and Hyperion)
For those working with Brio or Hyperion 8, ad hoc queries will need minor work, in fact, users will be able to open an existing query in the new tool, save it, and work as usual. Some minor changes in how some reports are published may need to be employed by the user; job aids will be available to affected users. For users using other tools that connect directly to the reporting databases, no changes will be required.

This project will provide a supported platform to support future consideration of advanced reporting needs.

Anticipated Project Timeline

The project is moving along a System Development Life Cycle:

Project Updates and Questions

Users of the current reporting and analytics will be kept up to date with periodic updates in e-News. A project iSite will soon be made available, and documents, training aids and other information will be available on Eureka. When you land at the Eureka page, click on the drop down arrow next to PeopleSoft and select Analysis and Reporting.

Questions about the BI Roadmap Project can be sent to the UIS Helpdesk at (617) 496-2001 or via email . Ask the attendant to log a Remedy support ticket with the Assigned to Group = Harvard Data Warehouse. A member from the HDW team will get back to you to assist.

Tag; Business Intelligence Roadmap

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Human Resources Reporting News

CREW Report Spotlight - HRACCDP229 Departmental - HU Confidentiality Agreements

A new sub report has been added to HRACCDP229 which displays only the most recent signed confidentiality agreement by employee within a department
You can now easily see who by department has an outstanding confidentiality agreement, as well plan for those whose agreements have upcoming renewals

CREW Report listing on Eureka

A PDF containing a listing with details of HR CREW Reports (as of 1/28/2011) can be found at: Eureka > Peoplesoft > Job Aids > HR Reporting > Additional Resources

CREW HR Report Changes

Category	Production Date	Report Name	Description
Human Resources	Rel 7.2 (2/22/11)	HRACCDP229 - Departmental - HU Confidentiality Agreements	Added new sub report which returns only the most recent signed Confidentiality Agreement by employee within a department. Security Roles: HDW^PUB^TUB^Reports User, HDW^HR^TUB^Reports User
Human Resources	Rel 6.12 (12/20/10)	HRJOBDP233 - Departmental Job Profile with Costing	Business Purpose and Detailed Description updated in the report catalog: click on the report code (HRJOBDP233) to open the metadata for the report. Security Roles: HDW^PUB^TUB^Reports User, HDW^HR^TUB^Reports User

CREW HR REL 28.0 Database Changes

Production Date: 12/4/2010

Database Objects	Change Type	Notes	Zone
SHR_PS_DISABILITY_V	Update	Added three fields: aps_dsb_nds_aus, lastupddttm, lastupdoprid	HDW^BEN^CTR^Reports User
DEPT_R_V	Update	REMOVED two obsolete fields deleted from PS as of HR28: bud_rep_id, loc_spa_rep_id	HDW^PUB^TUB^Reports User
SHR_PS_DEPT_TBL_V	Update	Added four new fields: hu_dean_rollup_id, hu_dept_funcdir_id, hu_dept_adm_id2, hu_manager_id2; REMOVED two obsolete fields deleted from PS as of HR28: hu_bud_rep_id, hu_loc_spa_rep_id	HDW^PUB^TUB^Reports User

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UIS Helpdesk at 496-2001 or via email.

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Electronic Check Deposit Procedures and Guidelines

The Cash Receipts Office has been depositing U.S. checks electronically since September. This has resulted in some process changes and the office would like to update departments on new and existing guidelines on the preparation and submission of deposits.

There are different processing requirements for currency categories and each should be put on a separate credit voucher. The office will be revamping the credit voucher within the next couple of months to match the categories below. If you are unsure which category an item falls into, put the deposit on a separate credit voucher and the Cash Receipts Office will determine how to process it.
There are 7 categories of deposit:
U.S. cash
U.S. checks
Canadian checks in U.S. dollars
Canadian checks in Canadian currency
"Note Checks" - foreign currency drawn on a U.S. bank but check has no account or routing number
Foreign checks in U.S. dollars
Foreign checks in foreign currency
Handwritten credit vouchers are often difficult to read. The preference is for users to type the data; this will help to insure that your data is correctly recorded in the general ledger. You can download an Excel version of the current credit voucher from Able/Forms.
Populating the "Explanation of Credit" box or recording on separate lines checks that all have the same GL coding is not a requirement of the Cash Receipts Office. If you need to have an explanation in the GL for your own internal purposes, please keep it short. If you have multiple checks with the same GL coding, the preference is that you add them up and put the total on one line. This will save data entry time for the Cash Receipts staff and space in the GL.
Please do not send backup with your deposit (i.e. check stub, invoice, letters, envelope that the check came in); this information is not needed by Cash Receipts. It should be kept in your facility. All that is needed by Cash Receipts with the credit voucher is the tape.
Please do not staple or tape checks or currency. Attach your check(s) to the credit voucher with a paper clip.
Cash Receipts prefers to receive your credit vouchers as soon as you receive the checks/currency. The office often receives an uptick in vouchers on the last day of the month and Cash Receipts cannot guarantee that those end of month deposits will be processed for that same month. If you meet the closing dates below, barring any snow day closures, the office will process your deposit within the same month. If your deposit is received after the guarantee date, the office will try to process it within the same month but cannot guarantee that it will happen.

For regular deposits - the guarantee date is 5:00 p.m. 2 business days before the last business day of the month (i.e., 5 p.m. Wednesday if Friday is the last business day of the month).
For Departmentals or Taxable Sales deposits - the guarantee date is 5:00 p.m. on the last business day of the month.

If you have any questions, please contact the Cash Receipts Office at 6-8332.

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Upcoming Releases

FINDINI Release Schedule

A software release to the Oracle Financial Applications, known as a "FINDINI release", is done every two to four months. Each upgrade introduces needed bug fixes, enhancements, and technical upgrades into Harvard's financial systems. Generally, releases are performed on weekends to assure maximum availability during the business week. Most outages occur from 6 pm Friday evening-6 am Monday morning.

The next FINDINI release, 3.2.14, is tentatively scheduled for the June 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

The Oracle Financial Applications are:

-General Ledger & ADI

-Sponsored Budget Tool

-Accounts Receivable

-Web Voucher

-Procurement Card (Pcard)

-Applications Administration

-Cash Management Reconcilation Application (CMRA)

-General Ledger (GL) Validator

-Electronic Shop and Pay (ESP)

-Harvard Crimson Online Marketplace (HCOM)

-Capital Project System (CAPS)

-Web Reimbursement

-Online Vendor Request Form

-Accounts Payables

-Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA)

-Chart of Accounts (CoA) Validator

CREW FIN Releases

The Common Reporting Environment for the Warehouse (CREW) is a reporting system that draws data from a variety of sources which are updated on a nightly basis. Users can submit report requests for immediate processing or schedule reports to automatically run on a recurring basis. Types of CREW reports include financial, budget, receivables, HR management, benefits, costing, payroll, pension, security, grants management, and sponsored reports.

The next CREW FIN release, 3.2.14, is tenatively scheduled for June 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

HR (PeopleSoft) and CREW HR Release 29

The next PeopleSoft Release (HR 29) is scheduled for May 20-23, 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

The CREW HR 29.0 Release is scheduled for May 20-23, 2011. Details will be available in an upcoming e-News.

CREW Reports

In addition to the CREW Financial and CREW HR releases which correspond with the FINDINI and HR releases listed above, changes and enhancements to new and existing CREW reports are also released the 3rd weekend of each month.

Release Number	Dates	Notes
7.3	3/18/11
7.4	4/15/11
7.5	5/20/11
7.6	6/17/11
7.7	7/15/11
7.8	8/19/11
7.9	9/16/11
7.10	10/14/11
7.11	11/18/11
7.12	12/16/11