The application of a Business Intelligence tool for strategic planning in a higher education institution: a case study of the University of the Witwatersrand

Abstract

This article presents a discussion on the importance of business intelligence (BI) and the role that a specific BI tool, Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, plays in the strategic decision-making processes in an organisation. The University of the Witwatersrand, often referred to as Wits, was used as a case study. The main objective of a business intelligence tool is to improve the quality and timeliness of the input of data to the organisational decision-making process. The quality of the data, which is an organisational asset, is therefore of the utmost importance. Approaches for the identification of business intelligence from corporate information and knowledge management were also assessed. A questionnaire was administered among key informants within the university in order to address some of the pertinent issues at higher education institutions. In addition, the role of a data warehouse within the business intelligence framework was presented. The paper itself covers a wide range of disciplines from information technology, knowledge management to decision sciences. The article also presents a proposed framework to be used in line with the best practices in the implementation of business intelligence solutions.

Dashboard Framework. A Tool for Threat Monitoring on the Example of Covid-19

“…(1) decision makingthey provide opportunities to support decision-makers at all stages of the decisionmaking process, (2) knowledge managementthey provide up-to-date and aggregated information, as well as information on emerging trends and anomalies, (3) data visualizationthey present extensive data sets in an intuitive and graphical form, (4) strategic managementthey are a useful tool for managerial staff at all levels of management, especially in making strategic decisions, (5) supporting business processes they clearly illustrate the implementation of many management and administrative processes, e.g., documentation circulation, financial flows [12,33,35,37] (Figure 1). [12,32,35,36] As stated before, dashboards are tools that use a very large amount of data. This fact implies the need to automate the process of data acquisition, processing, analysis, and visualization.…”

“…The theory and practice shows that Business Intelligence (BI) systems have repeatedly proven themselves in multidimensional data analysis and data mining, as well as in presenting large volumes of data in the form of dashboards [32]. For many years, the beneficiaries of BI systems have been industry, trade, energy, transport, finance, and many other sectors.…”

Business Intelligence Dashboard for Academic Program Management

“…The University of Witwatersrand (UW) in Africa needed a method to communicate complex financial information from a number of sources to its executives thus dashboards were chosen as the solution. A survey of the executives using any form of dashboard for their operations found that more than 70 percent agreed dashboards had a positive impact on their decision making process, largely due to the efficient access of information 14 . …”