Visualize data better with dashboards and business intelligence
Make manual data crunching a thing of the past with a dynamic business intelligence solution!
THE CLIENT
Our client is a network of public schools with the aim of improving college graduation rates for underprivileged kids, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
THE PROBLEM
In order to assess how prepared their students are for college at various grade levels, our client leverages numerous different data sources. Their main student system only tracked state tests, however, and they wanted to be able to associate other test scores, like ACT or SAT. All of this data also had to be manipulated in Excel, which was cumbersome, error-prone and did not offer visibility into the data.
THE SOLUTION
The client had previously engaged Entrance to create a single repository for student data. We did this by creating a data cube, into which all of their student data is fed. Data cubes store data in a multidimensional format, which allows both the aggregation of data from multiple sources and the pre-computation of complex and time-intensive queries in advance. This allows our client’s employees to get answers to critical questions very quickly.
The data cube then feeds into software called Tableau, which is an intuitive product that enables visualization of data through rich, dynamic reports. Tableau reports were designed to surface visual indicators of students’ college readiness, and the reports were then published onto the client’s SharePoint site. The data cube and its related extract-transform-load process ensure that student test data is loaded from a variety of sources and properly tied into their existing data warehouse.
Our client loves how easy to use Tableau is, as they can rapidly drag and drop data to change how their dashboard presents information. In addition, it is very easy for the client to use this business intelligence to make relations between data points, like age, test scores, or a specific neighborhood that might play a part in college readiness. This allows them to tailor specific education plans for high-risk students.
The addition of standardized test scores to their data cube means that all relevant data for college readiness has been centralized. Even better, since the data cube now does the number crunching for them, the client has also freed up several employees, who used to manage spreadsheets all day, for more high value tasks.
For more on how Tableau enables awesome business intelligence, watch this demo!