Case Studies > Hampshire College Empowers End-users with an Ad-hoc, Integrated Reporting and Dashboard Environment

Hampshire College Empowers End-users with an Ad-hoc, Integrated Reporting and Dashboard Environment

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Entrinsik Informer
Rocket wIntegrate

Tech Stack

UniData
SQL
MySQL

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Customer Satisfaction
Digital Expertise

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Education

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Services

System Integration
Training

About The Customer

Hampshire College is an innovative liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts. Known for its unique approach to education, Hampshire emphasizes student-driven learning and interdisciplinary study. The college has a strong commitment to social justice, sustainability, and community engagement. With a diverse student body and a faculty dedicated to fostering critical thinking and creativity, Hampshire College aims to prepare students for meaningful careers and lives of purpose. The college's emphasis on individualized education and its flexible curriculum make it a distinctive institution in the landscape of higher education.

The Challenge

Before implementing Entrinsik Informer, staff and faculty at Hampshire College were relying on Rocket wIntegrate’s native Query Builder for report generation. This system only allowed for daily operational reporting without the ability to perform in-depth analytics. Users found it awkward and challenging to share reports with others, and IT staff were often required to write or edit reports for users who felt uncomfortable using the complicated interface. This system also prevented users from being able to report simultaneously from multiple data sources, limiting access to only the school’s production database. Hampshire College needed a full BI & reporting solution that would be easy to use so that end-users could access the reports they needed without assistance from IT. Users also needed the ability to view more in-depth analytics in order to make better informed, important data-driven decisions within the College. Lastly, Hampshire needed to be able to report off of multiple databases at once using one simple tool.

The Solution

With Informer, Hampshire College found a web-based reporting solution that was user-friendly, natively integrated with UniData, and seamlessly integrated with SQL. After a straightforward implementation, Hampshire set up their own unique mappings from their various datasources and worked with staff to define security and setup access for end users. Users were now able to leverage Informer against their production database and datamarts without needing assistance from IT or going through a lengthy training process. In less than two years since implementing Informer, Hampshire College has more than 3,000 reports created across the college. The Admissions and Advancement departments are particularly heavy users, each with over 300 created reports. A major factor of the college’s success was Informer’s ability to connect to multiple databases simultaneously, including UniData and MySQL. This allowed users to access just one tool to connect to all of the various databases used throughout the campus, and run customized, real-time reports from multiple datasources at once.

Operational Impact

Enrollment reports in admissions keep administration up to date on targets, goals, and opportunities.
Registrar reports can track students who may be missing course requirements needed for their academic program.
Advising Department can use reports to identify students at risk and shorten the turn-around time to contact them.
Advancement Department can look at real-time data to track fund-raising figures and progress made throughout the fiscal year.
Adding Informer Dashboards has also been a huge success on campus, especially in the Admissions area which offers all users, from Admissions Counselors up to the Director, an instant “bird’s eye view” of important data, including how each staff member is progressing towards goals in their target territories.

Quantitative Benefit