ASG-Safari™ Streamlines the Reporting Process for Sinclair Community College

Industry: Higher Education
Location: Ohio, USA

Located in Dayton, OH, Sinclair Community College grants associate degrees in arts, sciences, applied science, and individualized and technical study. Fully accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and a member of the Ohio Association of Colleges, Sinclair currently has over 20,000 students.

The Challenge
In 1998, Sinclair upgraded to version R13 of Datatel's Colleague application. All reporting in the R13 environment was developed via UniQuery. Although the reports were functional, they were so complex that only an individual with specific programming skills could work with them. Two years later, Sinclair decided to upgrade to Colleague version R16. This upgrade resulted in a change to the underlying data structure, and ensured that Sinclair would have to recreate all of its reports.

“We did not have the internal resources to rewrite a large number of reports,” said Steve Trissell, Manager of Customer Support Services for Sinclair. “We needed tools that our users could understand and a professional organization to help with a smooth, fast implementation.”

The Solution
Sinclair wished to streamline the report-creation process, empower a greater number of users, and off-load some of the report-development responsibilities. Sinclair began to investigate various reporting alternatives, and decided that the ASG-Safari InfoTools™ suite of products was the solution they needed. Team members from ASG and Sinclair met to discuss the requirements for ASG-Safari InfoTools implementation. After discussing the scope and scale of the project, the joint ASG-Sinclair project team developed a process flow, tentative schedule, and a list of action items for the proof-of-concept. It was decided that the project would be conducted in three phases: a proof-of-concept phase, a prioritization phase, and a report-development phase.

The proof-of-concept phase was conducted during a three-week period. The primary objective of this phase was to validate the assumptions made regarding the development time required for each report. Using the existing R13 UniQueries as templates, an ASG-Safari consultant wrote each of the reports and worked with members of the Sinclair project team to validate the accuracy of each report as it was completed. The proof-of-concept confirmed that the project team had correctly estimated the amount of work required for each report.

During the prioritization phase, the Sinclair team members reevaluated the list of outstanding UniQueries. Certain reports were combined, while others were dropped from the list altogether. After prioritizing the remaining UniQueries, the Sinclair staff provided them to the ASG-Safari team for the final phase of the project.

Three ASG-Safari consultants completed the final report-development phase in a two-month period. As each report was developed, it was submitted for testing and validation. After each report was validated, the ASG-Safari consultant completed the report by creating work instructions and thoroughly documenting any additional processes and procedures required by the report's owner. At the end of the project, this comprehensive documentation was compiled into a project book to provide Sinclair users with detailed information about each report in the project. All reports were written, validated, and placed onto the production server.

As a final step, an ASG-Safari consultant conducted a comprehensive knowledge transfer session at Sinclair. This additional training ensured that each member of the Sinclair project team knew how to maintain these critical reports, how to modify the reports based on user feedback, and how to create new reports for future requests.

Measurable Results
Members of the Sinclair project team are now completely self-sufficient. The new reports provide end-users with greater, more flexible access to the data they require, making them more productive and reducing demands on the IT department. ASG-Safari InfoTools and ASG-Safari Professional Services have ensured that Sinclair truly receives the maximum benefits from its investment.

“ASG was there for us at every step,” said Trissell. “Their project leader did an outstanding job of resolving every issue and providing support above and beyond what was expected. ASG is truly a professional organization.”