Since implementing Argos campus-wide in 2009, its effects at Lansing Community College (LCC) are snowballing – in a good way.
Argos, an enterprise reporting system provided by Evisions, has helped numerous departments at the campus better report and organize their data, and make better decisions.
Jessica Ashbrook, FA Business Analyst at LCC, opted for Argos after deciding to migrate away from Oracle’s Discoverer solution. On top of that, Argos had an attractive price tag, and met the college’s customization needs.
“We were looking at different solutions that could meet our needs, and we evaluated pretty much everything on the market and went with Evisions at that time,” Ashbrook says. “[We] were looking at the ability for us to add our own customization, how much overhead went into developing the reports and different access considerations…We really wanted something where we had the control of how we displayed both the data and information to our users.”
Ashbrook says the install of Argos was “a joint collaborative effort” between LCC staff and team members from Evisions.
The implementation took one to two weeks, and three phases: development, quality assurance and production. After the installation, users had “plug and play” trainings on how to generate reports based on the system data.
With the solution, users can manipulate the data from the reports any way they want, including drafting a list of information, pulling up a chart or graph, or accessing anything students, faculty and staff want to know.
“What our tool, Argos, does is sit on top of that data from the ERP or any other system they have on campus, and allow them to create anything [with it],” says Matt McLellan, President of Evisions. “They can create a list of information – how many students are in a class, or how many students have financial aid, etc.; in Lansing’s case, they went all the way to dashboards. So if the executives need a high level view, they can easily look at something, get a graph or chart of that info and then drill through it.”
Whether or not a colleges opt for Argos, McLellan says ERP systems are a campus must-have.
He says colleges are under a lot of pressure, especially between finding sources of funding, compliance issues, and constantly presenting accurate data on a regular basis.
An ERP system helps alleviate the stress caused by each of these demands, and makes future endeavors easier to work with and access.
“They’re being asked for more and more data, and so not only do they need to report out all the information they have, they also have the pressure of becoming more efficient, more effective and provide value to students,” McLellan says. “They have to show they’re making decisions of which classes to have, which instructors to give more sections to, all the way to what rooms they should use…All those different decisions need to be based on data.”
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An ERP software aids in assisting and lessening the pressure caused by every departments demand it also makes forthcoming activities simple to work with and admittance.