Data Warehousing Puts New Life into Legacy System

Abstract

The major focus of this paper is to explain how Ferris State University (FSU) is developing a data warehouse application to deliver timely, accurate student information to academic customers, providing an PC database environment for working with legacy data.Two underlying factors led to the development of this application. A more timely method for delivering reports to college staff is needed at a time when Information Services (IS) staff resources are diminished. The mainframe-based Student Information System presents information on an individual student basis; whereas, colleges often need to view student information in an aggregate form by college, department, course, or advisor. This application is designed to empower the customer to design and create reports and queries based on their individual needs with the ultimate outcome being an improved service to students.