Inside Iowa State

Aug. 24, 2007

Participants sought to hear software proposals

by Anne Krapfl

The campus community is invited to attend presentations by three software vendors on their proposals for Web-based querying, reporting and presentation tools for institutional data. Institutional data, the kind of information collected in the annual Fact Book, applies to the whole university, such as staffing, enrollment or space use data.

A university committee has been looking at assembling the software tools and infrastructure to build a data warehouse for more than a year. However, the planned university-wide use of a new budget model next fiscal year has accelerated the need for a solution.

"It's not typical to invite a group of people to presentations that respond to an RFP (Request for Proposal)," noted IT Services' Lynn Miller, who heads the group studying options for data tools. "But we want people who will use this involved in the selection process.

"We'd like people to tell us if these products strike them as intuitive, how integrated the tools are, how much training it would require to use them."

He said anyone with an interest is invited to the presentations. Those whose jobs involve hands-on work with the budget model especially are encouraged to attend, he said.

Demos

Each vendor will be available for one session, during which the team will demonstrate its solution, including how the user would access data, run reports, view static reports and work with OLAP cubes, pivot tables or other multidimensional data.

The sessions will be held in 206 Durham from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. on Aug. 28, Aug. 31 and Sept. 5. RSVPs are requested to Siti Sabtu-Schaper, 4-7845, or smsabtu@iastate.edu. Let her know which sessions you plan to attend.

The campus community is invited to all three sessions to help assess the functionality, look and feel of each proposed solution. To assist in the selection process, participants will be asked to complete an evaluation form.

Questions about the sessions can be directed to Darin Wohlgemuth, 4-3592, darinw@iastate.edu; or Miller, 4-4552, lynnmil@iastate.edu.

"It's not typical to invite a group of people to presentations that respond to an RFP (Request for Proposal), but we want people who will use this involved in the selection process."

Lynn Miller, IT Services