Reporting at Indiana State University:

1
Reporting at Indiana State University A Case
Study The Long and Sordid History of How We
Arrived at Argos 18 March 2007 Cindy
McClain Diana McCleary Stacy Hammond
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About ISU

• Location Terre Haute, Indiana
• Founded 1865
• Enrollment 10,679 (total)
• Type Public-coeducational university
• Team Name Sycamores
• Mascot Sycamore Sam

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About ISU (cont.)
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ISU Reporting Time Line
1986 Purchased IA and Character-based
Focus 1997 Went live with Banner Purchased Focus
for Windows 2001 Purchased SCT Datamarts for use
with MS Access Mass Certification for MS
Access 2002 Task Force formed to select new
Reporting Tool Looked at Cognos, WebFocus,
Crystal 2003 Purchased Cognos Impromptu
PowerPlay Pilot Group formed to create reports
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ISU Reporting Time Line (cont.)
Nov 2004 Cognos ReportNet Released No
Migration Reporting Group Formed May 2005 Visit
from Cognos rep Nov 2005 Considered purchase of
ODS for use with ReportNet decided
against Cognos 8 Released No Migration First
Argos Demo Feb 2006 Purchased Argos! Fall
2006 Began rewriting Cognos managed reports in
Argos Dec 2007 End of Focus
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Reporting at ISU

• Decentralized Reporting
• ICSC Reporting Group
• Sub-committee of Institutional Steering Committee
• Representatives from 13 Administrative areas
• Meets bi-weekly
• Standby Reporting Database Instance
• Copied from Production daily, 6AM 6PM
• Most reporting done against this database
• For Argos, Reporting Group must approve reporting
  against PROD

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Our Argos Setup

• All Argos access is read-only
• All development is done in Argos test server and
  then copied to PROD
• Reporting Group approves dates for Argos upgrades
• Shared folder on Argos test server for idea
  sharing between functional areas

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Our Security Setup

• We use Banner security in Argos
• Argos Security Group for each functional area
• Argos servers locked down to our indstate.edu
  domain
• Argos Test Server will not run against Banner
  Production instance
• Reporting Group reviews and approves all Argos
  user requests

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Training and Documentation

• We rely mainly on the Evisions webex training and
  videos on the support site
• We have Argos work sessions approximately once a
  month
• Created End User and Developer Getting Started
  Guides
• Require End Users to sign an End User Agreement
• Above documents can be found on our website
  http//www.indstate.edu/oit/ics/Argos_Reporting.ht
  m

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Our Future Plans

• We will be replacing ALL Focus reports with Argos
  by December 2007
• Our goal is to replace all Cognos ReportNet
  reports with Argos ASAP
• Would like to replace Cognos PowerPlay cubes with
  Argos OLAP tool
• Waiting on some enhancements to the product

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Our Future Plans (cont.)

• What about replacing MS Access reports with
  Argos?
• Will be done on a case-by-case basis, decided by
  each administrative area
• Argos vs. Access
• Argos is more easily shared
• Argos is more easily integrated with Banner
  security
• Argos can schedule, burst, email reports more
  easily

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Cindy c-mcclain_at_indstate.edu Diana
dmccleary_at_isugw.indstate.edu Stacy
smhammond_at_indstate.edu