Data is an asset whose full value often goes unrealized, but at NC State, the SAS Visual Analytics Hub can help remedy that.
A part of the SAS Visual Analytics Platform, the hub can be used to retrieve data in different formats from separate locations, process it and present it at a secure central location, allowing its customers — data managers in various campus departments — to easily visualize data interrelationships and trends that might go unnoticed in a different setting. Then those customers use the results to build custom reports for their end users — various campus administrative decision makers.
“The data hub partnership with EIMA has helped streamline our data process tremendously,” stated Steven White, associate vice provost of Enrollment Systems and Operations, in the video. “It is very important for us to have that source of data to help us evaluate our performance and to move the institution forward.”
Caroline Ortiz-Deaton, director of Resource Analysis in Institutional Strategy and Analysis, is also an enthusiastic customer of the SAS Visual Analytics hub. She is impressed with its speed and flexibility in extracting the value in data, which then becomes visible in a variety of reports that can be created for campus administrative decision makers.
This hub has a big cost advantage over commercial products that have previously been purchased in attempts to produce similar results on campus. The hub software was made available through a grant from SAS, so a department’s cost for using the hub is limited to the time and training of personnel in its use.
Campus departments that have used the SAS Visual Analytics hub during fiscal year 2020-21 include:
- Institutional Strategy and Analysis
- Graduate School
- Enrollment Management and Services
- Advancement
- Athletics
- Finance
- University Human Resources
- Mendix – Lab Management
- Purchasing
- Transportation
- Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Innovation and Research
- Enterprise Research Administration
- Provost Office
The Enterprise Information Management and Analytics (EIMA) team in OIT’s Enterprise Application Services is the backbone for SAS visual analytics resources on campus. This three-person team provides back-end support and guidance on how to use the hub. The team can be contacted at group-oit-eima-team@ncsu.edu.