Plymouth State Simplifies Data Integration with Rapid Insight Software

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 11/25/08

Plymouth State University in New Hampshire has deployed Rapid Insight Data Integration software to simplify data management. The school uses Data Integration to collect data from multiple sources and view it in multiple ways. The application incorporates drag-and-drop icons and arrows that let users connect the data sources to functions including merge, filter, cleanse, aggregate, de-dupe, flatten, append, sort, and rename.

"Heading up institutional research, I have fiduciary responsibilities to make sure the correct data from all areas of the campus are accessible, analyzable, and reported to the right people," said Scott Mantie, associate dean for institutional research and assessment. "That's getting harder as the data gets more diverse, and there are regulatory demands to see it in more ways. Rapid Insight Data Integration lets me do the work of three people, preparing both ad hoc and long-term comprehensive reports."

"I've worked with SQL, Oracle, Microsoft Access, Banner, and a host of other data integration applications and languages over the past two decades," said Mantie. "Data Integration is a quantum leap ahead in terms of productivity and ease of use."

Plymouth State, which has about 7,000 students, uses Data Integration to pull data from databases in different departments to create an omnibus institutional census for each semester. That census, which is a global view of data for topics such as drop-out rates and specific geo-demographic behaviors, is the basis for up to 60 reports, including the one for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Some of the different reports Mantie and his team run help the school predict applicant enrollment and determine how many students will graduate and the majors they'll pursue. They can see which students attend what classes on any given day and map that to grade point average. The university hopes the information will help drive decisions for continued growth.