London School of Economics uses Business Intelligence to Provide Students with On-Line Access to Time-Table Information
The government has set a target that by 2005 one quarter of all government services should be available online. For an education institution or any other government department this is a very tall order when you consider the vast amounts of information the government has access to. The following outlines the issues facing the London School of Economics (LSE) - one of the leading universities in the UK in managing information and looks at how using business intelligence from Business Objects to overcome them.
The Challenge
- LSE has over 7000 registered students in more than 18 academic departments. Every year the college is faced with the challenge of having to administrate and distribute the college timetable; detailing courses, course modules, room information and tutor information. Traditionally, it has achieved this through paper-based systems, where timetables were printed out and pinned up on noticeboards around the campus. At the start of every year, large queues of students would form as they lined up to request their own particular timetable. Similarly, telephone and e-mail directories were produced on paper and distributed to each member of staff at the start of the year.
- LSE needed a cost effective and efficient way to deal with these two issues. Timetables needed to be available to both students and teachers, for which changes could be made and viewed at short notice and at no extra cost. Also, the telephone and email directories were often out of date within a very short amount of time at the start of the year. The cost and resource of re-printing was prohibitive.
The Solution
- LSE implemented a business intelligence solution from Business Objects to move the administration and distribution of the university time-tabling system on-line. The on-line system means LSE's customers i.e. Students and Lecturers can access the information on courses, course modules, timetables etc. 24 hours daily. Web kiosks and plasma screens are available throughout the University, from where students can look up the latest timetable information or email and telephone information, all of which is freely available from remote sites within the campus - such as Halls of Residence.
The Benefits
- Reduced Costs
Moving the time-tabling and administration online at LSE reduces costs by increasing productivity and removes time consuming manual tasks. The online system means that LSE has one central source to update and maintain. The cost of producing and distributing paper timetables has been completely cut out. - Improved Customer Services
Business Intelligence empowers the customer - in this case the students and teachers. It is well known that self service information leads to greater customer satisfaction than third party information. Providing up to date information in real time to students and teachers online empowers them as they can access the areas of the LSE portal they want and find information for themselves at any time. Through the ease of use and because the system is centrally managed users can be assured that the information they are given will always be completely up to date.
Latest Projects
LSE has also recently implemented another on-line service for students whereby up-to-date information about terminal availability is shown on plasma screens in public areas. A report is refreshed every hour which shows, for example, how many computers are available on the 3rd floor of the library. This has proved very popular with students who can reduce wasted time looking for free terminals on which to study or conduct research.
