The Policy Board has retained a consulting team from IBM Global Services to investigate the issue of data warehousing. They have provided the consultants a list of people to interview within key units involved. Their findings will be reported to the Forum as they progress. The result of this study is to be an implementation strategy for a campus data warehouse. McRae added that this effort will not result in a selection of a platform, but instead a definition of the content requirements and sources for this data.
Interviews involving a group of deans are now underway.
Meetings with critical administrative officers are being scheduled. Through these interviews, consultants will try to determine what the compelling goals are and what's important to the institution in the future. They will follow with a second set of interviews with the same people, including support staff, to determine what the information needs are, their sources, their potential for sharing data, and how to effectively manage the task of data warehousing. The consulting team will be invited to speak to the Forum. The Policy Board also did a review of the campus IT organization and the proposed CIO position.