With increasing numbers of data analysts across the University using Power BI, the HR Datamart project decided to make strategic HR data available in Power BI workspaces.  We have achieved this, but it turned out to be significantly more work than we expected. Power BI is a data visualisation tool that lets analysts present information […]

Earlier this month, we had a stimulating conversation with colleagues from another Scottish university, in which we compared our approaches to structuring our core data.  We share the goal of making our core data as valuable as possible, in a world where data analytics is of increasing importance.   Much data analysis now manipulates data […]

“Digital Estate” is a term we are using to describe all the IT infrastructure, data and applications that enable the university to function.  Like the physical estate (i.e. the buildings and spaces around them), the digital estate must work for the people who use it, while being safe and secure.  It requires investment and maintenance.  […]

The transformation of computing services to the cloud paradigm is an industry-wide phenomenon which presents radical challenges and opportunities to how the University provides IT services. Cloud will affect most aspects of the University’s IT, including Management, Operations, Procurement, Budgeting, Security, and Compliance. In January this year, the Knowledge Strategy Committee approved the University’s strategy […]

One of the less important effects of the strange year we’ve just had was a dearth of blog posts here.  There were many reasons for that absence.  Some were pandemic related, as we had to adapt to new demands and cover for members of staff who weren’t able to work.  Other reasons were more prosaic […]

Our new People & Money system is replacing the University’s old HR and Finance systems.  With that change comes the need to replace the data feeds that connected the systems being replaced to other IT applications.  We’re taking advantage of this to change the way we connect our systems.  Instead of copying large data files […]

With the shift to working online, our staff and students are running many more meetings, workshops and seminars using videoconference tools of one sort or another.  To support them, we have introduced a new service for Online and Digital Events, which provides advice and guidance on which videoconferencing tools are best to use for different […]

It’s almost a truism that pretty much any system, strategy or plan can be improved by considering multiple points of view.   The more people who will use the system or be involved in the strategy, the more that wider consultation is likely to help. So consulting widely is generally a good thing – but it […]

What with responding to the pandemic, moving to working from home, and in my case covering for a colleague, we’ve been even more lax than usual in blogging here.  So here’s a post with an update on the strategy documents that I posted about in the autumn. https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/enterprisearchitecture/2019/09/09/why-strategy/ These strategies cover our central business systems, […]

I always like to see what EA practices are doing at other universities, so I was interested to see that Columbia University’s EA team have a comprehensive web presence about their work.  Take a look!  Some of it is for Columbia staff only but quite a bit is public. https://confluence.columbia.edu/confluence/display/CUITEA/CUIT+Enterprise+Architecture+Home