About Business Data
How do I receive support?
Data-related questions regarding reports, issues, and enhancements should first be directed to:
Finance: TreasReporting@purdue.edu
SPS: SPS Research Data Request Form
HR: HR Data Request Form or hroperhelp@purdue.edu
AO: AOIntegratedAnalytics@purdue.edu
Cognos tool issues such as error messages, unexpected behavior, etc: BICC@purdue.edu
What does "Boiler Insight" mean at Purdue?
Boiler Insight is the name for the entire suite of Purdue Business Intelligence environments that are supported by the BICC. This includes many of the BI systems that people have been using for some time, such as SAP BW and the Student ODS/EDW, but also includes the data mart environments, such as the HR Data Mart.
When is the Boiler Insight Data Loading in the Warehouse?
Boiler Insight data is loaded into the Purdue Data Warehouse, Monday - Friday from 6:00 AM - 7:30 AM. This is to allow the overnight processes to complete. Reports should not be scheduled or ran during this time.
Data Marts and Stars
A data mart is a group of data from a given subject area--for example human resources--specifically structured for access and reporting. It is usually put together into structures called star schemas (or simply stars) which make accessing the data extremely easy and efficient. Each star holds data for a specific subset of the data mart. Some examples from the HR data mart include: Employee Actions, Employee Leave, and Payroll Charge.
A star is made up of facts--the numeric values that can be summed, like payroll amounts or hours of leave taken--and dimensions which are used to filter, group, and label the facts such as Employee, Position, Leave Type, Cost Center, etc.
You use a BI tool such as Cognos to access the data mart stars and write queries and reports.
Standard Reports
Reports that have been through the vetting and validation process and approved by the appropriate university department who "owns" the data used. Users of standard content can be assured that the information it provides is accurate.
Metadata
Metadata for Purdue is being housed in the Data Cookbook. In each Subject Area section, you can find the respective section's stars linked to the Data Cookbook.
If a link to a specific star is not available, please check back at a later time as this section is being updated periodically.
What is a Departmental Folder and a Departmental Administrator?
The Boiler Insight section of Cognos contains a "Departmental Content" folder for departments to maintain and share content as they see fit. No one has direct access to this folder. However, your department can request a subfolder be created here for your area's use. Your department will control the access to this subfolder.
Before requesting a Departmental Content subfolder, your department needs to decide who in your area will be the "Departmental Administrator". This person will be the one that grants and revokes access to your departments' subfolder. There should be only one or two (as a backup) Departmental Administrators in an area. They will receive additional training.
To request a Departmental Content subfolder and/or determine who your Departmental Administrator is, please submit a request to bicc@purdue.edu.