We know that there’s a lot of campus data noise – here’s an overview of the tools and data sources that are the most important for the largest number of UWM data consumers.
Data Systems
Below, we’ve included the four most commonly-used official systems for capturing/reporting the current state of UWM data, as well as the tools used to visualize and export that data for other day-to-day purposes.
PAWS
PAWS is the student information system used by UWM students and staff for capturing the current state of all academic – course enrollments, program/plan/advisor assignments, degree processing, among many others. It is the system of record for UWM student data, and the primary source of data for the majority of campus reports and dashboards.
All campus employees will have some level of access to PAWS, but additional PAWS access is managed by the Registrar’s Office (RO) and technical support is provided by UITS. Requests for role-specific administrative access for additional functionality (such as grade roster access or student advisor functionality) can be submitted through the DAR form. Please see the RO’s PAWS Administrative Access page for more information.
OBIEE
OBIEE is the official BI platform for UWM student data reports and UW System (UWS) HR dashboards. Since OBIEE’s go-live in March 2019, UWM authors have created a collection of shared dashboards with UWM data warehouse data to meet a wide variety of campus needs. Please expand the menu below for a complete list:
All UWM faculty and non-student staff are eligible to request OBIEE access through the DAR form. There are two main OBIEE roles – Student Records Consumer (consumer) and Student Records Author (author). Consumer access allows users to run and export data from shared dashboards, while trained authors can create new ad-hoc requests and new shared dashboards for other campus users.
Power BI
Power BI is a Microsoft BI tool that combines industry-leading visualization and data analysis capabilities and tight integration with other Microsoft 365 (previously Office 365) offerings to create impressive dashboards and reports and a more meaningful way for data consumers to read and interpret campus data.
In March 2020, the DGCC recommended that the campus adopt Power BI as the new campus-wide ad-hoc reporting tool. Power BI Free licenses have automatically assigned to all UWM employees with an EMPL1 designation (all non-student employees) to allow for access to content shared in Premium capacity workspaces.
Currently, the GSITOR‘s Research Activity App and 2030 Action Team Dashboard are the only publicly-accessible Power BI content, but our analysts and technical staff are working on more exciting Power BI content in the future!
EAB Navigate
Adopted in fall 2014, Navigate combines technology, research, process improvement and predictive analytics to enable proactive, data driven conversations with students. Visit the Academic Affairs Navigate webpage for more information about obtaining access and creating Navigate reports.
Data Sources
The below three systems are the officially-supported campus data sources for student, HR, and financial information. As new data sources are integrated into common UWM reports and dashboards, we’ll add them to the list below.
UWM Data Warehouse
The UWM data warehouse (DW) is a database of student information that is updated regularly with PAWS data. The DW has two types of data – 1) operational data (updated with the previous day’s PAWS data between midnight and 6am) with things like course enrollments, students’ academic plans/advisors and 2) snapshot data (captured on a set schedule and/or frequency) with enrollment/application information for historical comparison and/or mandatory reporting purposes.
For a clearer picture of the semester enrollment snapshot timelines, see the OAIR Enrollment Data & Reporting Process page. More technical details about DW load schedules and requesting DW access can be found on the UWM Reporting website.
HRS EPM
HRS is the shared UWS-wide platform for maintaining HR data across individual campuses and the UWS. The HRS EPM data warehouse serves as a platform for basic queries and reports, and also as a data feed for external supplemental systems such as OBIEE.
The majority of day-to-day HRS data can be found through OBIEE HRS shared dashboards and HRS EPM data warehouse access will only required for more technical staff who will be integrating HR data with other systems or creating reports for other users.
SFS
SFS is the shared UWS-wide financial database. The goal of SFS, and of the people who support it, is to provide a single integrated financial system that enables each institution to execute their core business processes efficiently. A variety of reporting and access methods are available; for more information, please see the UWS SFS website.