What is the SIS Reporting Service Offering

Introduction

What is the SIS Reporting Service Offering?

SIS Reporting offers real-time operational reporting against live data from Campus Solutions (also known as the Student Information System or SIS).  These reports are delivered using Query Viewer in Campus Solutions, and are created and maintained using Query Manager.  These reports are typically available via self-service in Campus Solutions for execution on demand.  Reports can also be scheduled to run automatically on a schedule, with output emailed to designated recipients.  Our team can direct you to existing reports that will meet your needs, adapt or enhance them if needed, or help create new reports if a suitable one doesn’t already exist.

“Operational Reporting” refers to reports that are typically used in a person’s day-to-day job to achieve a specific business purpose.  This type of report often has fine-grained, personally identifiable data about individual people, classes or accounts.  This is contrasted with “analytical reporting,” which is typically used for strategic analysis and decision-making, aggregating data across time or other dimensions to show trends or forecasts, rather than detail-level data about individuals.  SIS Reporting is usually not the best tool for this type of analysis.

Types of data available via SIS Reporting

• Admissions
• Student records
• Courses and class schedule
• Instructors and advisors
• Berkeley employees and job data
• Student accounts
• Financial Aid
• Person bio-demographic data

Explanation

How do I know if the SIS Reporting service offering is right for me?

Ask yourselves these questions:

• Do I need real-time, up-to-the moment data?  Or will reasonably recent information be sufficient, even if not real-time?
  • If real-time data is required, SIS reporting is the best way to get it.  
  • If a snapshot of the data as of yesterday would suffice, SIS reporting may not be needed. (Typically, real-time data is not needed for analytical reporting.)
• Do I need detailed data in a simple row-and-column format that will give me actionable information to do my job today?
  • If yes, SIS reporting is the best way to get it.
  • If you need summary data, or data showing trends over time, or “presentation reporting” with formatting, subtotals, etc., SIS reporting may not be the best way (although it can be the first step toward generating a more analytical or presentation-ready report using a secondary tool such as Excel).
• If you’re not sure where your needs fall within these parameters, reach out and we will help you decide which type of reporting is probably best for you.
  • If your need is more analytical than operational, we might direct you to Cal Answers, which is a separate system that uses non-real-time data sourced from SIS, and is designed to present information in a summarized, aggregated form across a wide range of dimensions.  CalViz (Berkeley’s implementation of Tableau) may also be an option in some very particular cases.

Additional Information

How do I request assistance?

Submit the Data Consult Form administered by the Data Solutions team.  Data Solutions is a unit of Berkeley IT’s Campus Applications and Data that oversees SIS Reporting, Cal Answers and CalViz.  Our team will evaluate your request and be in touch to help you get the data you’re looking for.  If your reporting need is ongoing or cyclical, we can suggest or create a report that you will be able to run on your own when you need it.  If it’s a one-time request, we can work with you to define the need and provide the data to you without a self-service component.