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| The Batten School is among those leading the way in UBI adoption. |
Known for producing innovative and forward-thinking leaders into the world, the Frank Batten School for Leadership and Public Policy now adds another first to their list as UVA forerunners: the early adoption of UBI, or University Business Intelligence, as an institutional data reporting environment.
Joining the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Batten School is the University of Virginia’s earliest adopting institution of UBI for GA and GL reporting. Charles Rush, Director of Budget and Finance at the Batten School, recalled the strategic vision for planning future progress laid out by the Batten School’s leader.
“The Dean [Allan Stam] had a strategic vision of moving toward more of an analytical role," Rush said.
Rush, along with Katie Winters, Assistant Director for Budget and Finance, and Cindy Moore, Business Services Coordinator, are the Batten School’s early champions of the new reporting tool.
He added the timing of adopting the UBI early in the transition window felt necessary for the Batten School “and very much so critical because a lot of the work that we were doing that is related to analysis was obviously done outside of Discoverer.”
Once Rush spent time settling into UBI, seeing the strength of the reporting first hand and the wealth of data that could be presented within the modules, he quickly realized the invaluable benefit the tool offered for achieving the school’s reporting goals. Rush stated he uses the environment for budgetary information, such as cash balances, budget summaries, as well as details. Looking back at the process, he laughed about the realization once UBI was in place. “Where has this been? Why did it take so long for us to get to this point?"
When overcoming challenges she and other users faced in the previous reporting environment, Winters praised the functionality of the UBI environment in achieving the school’s reporting goals.
Winters admitted she uses UBI on a daily basis for traditional reporting and for answering questions that are upcoming in her role, such as tracking budget, payroll, and human resources-related information.
“I think it goes back to not having standard questions that I'm answering all the time,” Winters said.
“Whatever someone wants me to find, as long as I know what fields to click, I can get an answer for them.
“Maybe it's because of the culture at Batten, but we aren't just looking at the same reports month after month. We're asking it questions all the time and trying to find the different ways that the data are interacting. UBI is just so much a better tool for doing that.”
Rush and Waters both praised UBI for its ability to produce dynamic reports quickly and accurately, from traditional data reporting to ad-hoc, or custom, in design. As the Batten School uses UBI daily, Rush is working with Mark Anderson and the MRP (Managerial Reporting Project) team on expanding the school’s reporting goals.
“[The transition process has] been great. We've had the opportunity to work with Mark, and we're continuing down that path of being able to address and answering some of those questions through some customization of the tool.”
The Batten School is among the first institutions at leading the transition of users into early-adopting UBI (University Business Intelligence), UVA’s new enterprise reporting environment, for reporting financial and non-financial data as well as data stewardship and governance. The Batten School set a goal of February 28, 2017 for its UBI adoption – and for ceasing usage of Discoverer, the University’s previous financial reporting tool. Discoverer will reach its sunset – or ending – period by August 2017.
The transition posed some early obstacles for Rush. While he was excited at the prospect of using UBI for reporting, he’d formed a routine using Discoverer exclusively for the previous 15 years. “[The transition] just took a long time for me to adjust,” Rush said. “I could see what [UBI] could do, so that wasn't the issue. It was just more trying to make that leap in your mind.
“You have to have a different mindset when you're dealing with this tool, because you got used to operating this way for so long; downloading, uploading, doing your own thing - being in control - and now you have something that can actually do that for you.”
Winters admitted her experience creating numerous reports in her previous administrative roles at UVA made her aware of the limitations of the previous reporting tool, and was a likely factor in making an easier switch to UBI. “I found Discoverer very challenging to use to answer ad hoc questions. So when UBI came, I was able to tell it ‘this is the type of information I want.’ I found that much easier.”
“We are happy that this tool is in place now, but there is more that we want it to do,” added Rush.
And words of wisdom for those who may be reluctant of transitioning into the new reporting environment?
Waters offered support for new converts and those who have not yet made the transition to UBI.
“The resistance that I have heard from people has mainly been focused around ‘this doesn't look the way I expect it to. I can't find the columns in the place that I want them to be,’” she explained. “It's just getting over that initial [learning curve]. You can make it look however you want, you just need to spend the time to figure out how to do it.
“Once you get [reports] into that format, it's pretty simple,” Walters concluded. “And then, don't stop there - just have fun with it and see what information you can get out of it. It's hard to find the time just to dedicate just playing around in the system. So when you do have the time, make time to do it because it's worthwhile. You are going to find new things you haven't been able to understand before.”
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