Biola Loves Vena for Flexibility and Excel
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Vena
- Ellucian Banner
- Cognos BI
Tech Stack
- OLAP database
- Excel
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Education
Services
- System Integration
- Training
About The Customer
Biola University is a private university founded in 1908, located in the United States. It serves approximately 6,200 students and operates within the higher education industry. The university generates revenues of $208 million and utilizes existing software solutions such as Ellucian Banner and Cognos BI. The finance department at Biola University is responsible for various processes including budgeting, planning, forecasting, and salary planning, involving around 240 users. The university sought to improve its financial management processes to ensure data integrity, enhance collaboration, and streamline operations.
The Challenge
Biola University faced significant challenges with their budgeting process, which was performed in Excel workbooks. The process was unwieldy and difficult to manage and control, leading to manual spreadsheet and data collection issues that slowed down the budgeting and planning process. Version control issues resulted in inaccurate numbers, sometimes identified only after the budget was submitted. These challenges necessitated a more efficient and reliable solution to streamline their financial operations.
The Solution
To address these challenges, Biola University implemented Vena, a solution that provided workflow and version control, enabling controlled template sharing across hundreds of academic, administrative, and finance users. The use of a single version of the truth through an OLAP database resolved data integrity and version control issues. Pre-populated templates significantly saved time during budget data entry, review, and approval processes. The Excel interface of Vena led to quick adoption with minimal end-user training. Initially chosen for budgeting, Vena has since been rolled out to salary planning, long and short-term forecasting, with other applications in the works.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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