Business Intelligence FAQs
| Mosaic Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence Transition Frequently Asked Questions |
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| The questions have been answered based on current knowledge and may change as we gain more specific information. As we gain clearer understanding of the mechanics of the transition and define the process, we will update the information here. |
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| QuickLinks: |
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| What is going to happen to UIS (University Information System)? |
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| What data will be in UIS and what data will be in EPM? |
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| What about the data that isn’t being replaced by the Mosaic project? |
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| What if I need to join data between systems while one is still updating to UIS and the other has been implemented in Mosaic? |
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| Will the data structures change? |
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| What impact will EDS have on what I do? |
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| I maintain a department management system as I need data that I create/gather because it isn’t currently in the systems, so I don’t know if a provided reporting solution will meet my needs. Are there any other solutions that would allow me to combine my data with system data? |
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| How will I be able to access/query the new EPM environment? |
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| How will I know what I’m looking at with the new data structures? |
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| What does this mean for the IIW (Integrated Information Warehouse)? |
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| What is the timeline for activities in the pipeline? |
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| What if I have more questions? |
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| What is going to happen to UIS (University Information System)? |
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As the initiatives of the Mosaic project go live (Financial System, Research Administration, Human Resources System, Student Administration), UIS will be phased into the new warehouse environment, PeopleSoft’s EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) Warehouse. |
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As the old source systems are turned off (FRS, SPINS, PSOS, SIS), the data feed from that system into UIS will also cease. At that time, the UIS data will be marked as ‘History’ and moved from UIS to the new environment. |
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Once all source system transitions are complete, and all data from UIS has been migrated to EPM, UIS will also be turned off. |
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| What data will be in UIS and what data will be in EPM? |
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The data that is currently in UIS will continue to exist there and continue to be updated until the source system that feeds that data is shut off. |
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At that time the UIS data for that system will be marked as static history and moved into EPM. |
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The new data from the Mosaic project will only exist in EPM; it will not be fed backwards into UIS. |
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| What about the data that isn’t being replaced by the Mosaic project? |
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For data feeds not being replaced in the Mosaic project (Real Estate/Space, CatCard, etc.), the processes for intake of that data will be updated to the new EPM environment, and the data will be updated there in the same manner it was updated in UIS. |
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| What if I need to join data between systems while one is still updating to UIS and the other has been implemented in Mosaic? |
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Before the first system implemented by Mosaic goes live, UIS in its entirety will be replicated into EPM on a daily basis. Once UIS has received the daily data feeds and those have been processed, the database will be copied into EPM, enabling cross system joins regardless of whether it is UIS or EPM the source is feeding. |
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| Will the data structures change? |
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All data structures for data being replaced by Mosaic will change. It is unavoidable that most reporting/programs that have been built from UIS will require department recoding to utilize the new data structures. We will provide access to EPM with those structures and non-production data at least 3 months before any system go-live. However, we strongly encourage you attend training for the OBIEE (Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition) tool to determine if it can replace most reporting needs. Information on that training can be found at http://uits.arizona.edu/workshops. |
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| What impact will EDS have on what I do? |
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If you use UIS data to authenticate/authorize users to access your local application, then EDS (Enterprise Directory Service) will replace that functionality. If you authenticate people based on department, major, level, or other group identifiers, it is likely that will be served by EDS. It is also a change that you can begin to implement immediately. Please see the information at http://iia.arizona.edu/eds to determine where EDS can be incorporated with your system. |
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| I maintain a department management system as I need data that I create/gather because it isn’t currently in the systems, so I don’t know if a provided reporting solution will meet my needs. Are there any other solutions that would allow me to combine my data with system data? |
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First, we recommend an examination of the new source systems, as many people have found their needs met with new capabilities, one example being the sub-account, sub-object code and project code fields in Kuali. If the systems do not meet your needs, then we will be offering a new feature with EPM. |
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There will be a department specific area of EPM, where departments can upload their collected/derived data to join it with warehouse data. Departments can then query the data without the need for a time-consuming, local download of data. |
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If the collected/derived data serves institutional value, there will be a process to request it be added to the OBIEE environment that will be evaluated and prioritized by a governing body like the Business Intelligence Advisory Council. |
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| How will I be able to access/query the new EPM environment? |
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The OBIEE web interface is only one method of obtaining data from EPM. Also part of the Mosaic project is a university-wide license of the web client of Hyperion (formerly BrioQuery) that will provide direct query access, as well as web-based query sharing capability |
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Most tools currently used across campus (MS Access, SAS, DB Visualizer, SPSS) can continue to be used with a secured JDBC/ODBC connection. |
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| How will I know what I’m looking at with the new data structures? |
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We will make all the tools we have available to increase understanding of the new data in EPM. We will supply ERDs (Entity Relationship Diagrams) for the new warehouse which will graphically illustrate the new tables and the connections between them |
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We will also populate metadata wherever possible to show the data transformations between the old system and the new. We will update the locations of this information as it becomes available. |
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| What does this mean for the IIW (Integrated Information Warehouse)? |
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This is a much harder question to answer. Like UIS, it will continue to operate in its current structure until the source systems that feed it go away (FRS, SPINS, PSOS, SIS via UIS). |
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Also like UIS, none of the data will go away once it is in the IIW, and will be moved to EPM and kept as history. |
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What we don’t know is how many processes will no longer be needed due to the Mosaic implementation, how many will have to be updated and continue in the Mosaic structure, or how many will simply be cut from the old structure and continue in Mosaic only. |
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These are things we won’t know until the systems get closer to going live and we know for sure what they do, how they do it, how much history they plan to incorporate and how large of a gap that leaves in trend reporting. |
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| What is the timeline for activities in the pipeline? |
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OBIEE Demonstrations – In Process |
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Open Office Hours – In Process |
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OBIEE Training – Beginning March 2009 - http://uits.arizona.edu/workshops |
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Financial & HR Test Data populated into the EPM - Expected Completion May 2009 UIS data replicated to Oracle 10g and loaded daily into EPM - Expected Completion May 2009 |
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UIS User Engagement – Beginning February 2009 |
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UIS data replicated to Oracle 10g and loaded daily into EPM – Beginning January 2009 |
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| What if I have more questions? |
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We welcome all your questions. The best way to ensure that we understand your concerns is to contact us. |
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Open Office Hours: Monday-Thursday from 4:00-5:00 p.m., in the Computer Center Building (Bldg 73), Room 122. If you let us know that you plan to attend and your general area of question/concern, we can be sure to have a staff member available that will be most suited to answer your questions. Please feel free to contact us: |
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| Please feel free to contact us: |
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Susan Richards, Campus Leader, Business Intelligence – ser2@email.arizona.edu |
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Rachel Serrano, Manager, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Services –rstclair@email.arizona.edu |
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