County community college
An independent data strategy review for a county community college
A legacy reporting tool was reaching end of life. Leadership needed an independent view of the right long-term analytics platform and how to adopt it without disrupting daily operations.
Outcomes
- Platform recommendation matched to existing staff skills and systems
- Cross-functional governance team, with research and planning brought in
- Phased, department-by-department migration roadmap
- Training plan to build internal capability
- Timeline
- Structured discovery and written review
- Stack
- Power BI · Cloud lakehouse · Semantic models · Data governance
- Services
- Data & AI Readiness Assessment
The five questions, answered
- Mission
- High-quality, affordable, accessible education that leads to transfer and careers. Analytics had to show how well the college delivers that public value, not just keep reports running.
- Customers
- The BI team, operational power users in offices such as financial aid, HR, and the registrar, the research and planning office, and staff who edit reports with help.
- What they valued
- Accuracy and repeatability, clear shared definitions, dependable operational reports (most of the demand), a controlled transition, training, and room for predictive analytics later.
- Results
- Every essential report migrated before the deadline, a smaller and more focused report inventory, and staff with the time, skills, and confidence to maintain and extend reporting themselves.
- Plan
- Pilot with two high-value operational offices, then expand office by office, then add outside data such as transfer and workforce outcomes, with governance and training running throughout.
Challenge
The college had a strong technology culture and capable staff, but no formal data governance, limited data access outside IT, and a research office that was not yet part of data decisions. A hard retirement date for the old reporting tool set the clock.
Approach
Three facilitated discovery sessions, framed by the five questions, covered strategic alignment and user needs, the technical architecture, and governance readiness. We weighed the platform options against the college’s mission and its existing strengths.
What we built
- A written review: findings, strengths, gaps, and opportunities
- A platform recommendation and the reasoning behind it
- A governance model with data stewards across operational offices
- A 12–24 month phased roadmap and training plan
Results
Leadership gained a clear, independent recommendation and a sequence it could act on: start with high-value operational offices, build shared definitions with research and planning, and grow staff skills along the way.
Start with a 30-minute readiness call
Tell us what you are trying to fix or build. You will talk with the architect who does the work.
Led by Victor Manchik, founder and principal data architect