In addition to guiding the implementation of e-Builder and ServiceNow, IP&O’s Strategic Services group has also been working on improving how the division distills important data, makes it available in real time, and gleans from it valuable insights for forecasting business practices.
“Our division is responsible for so many of the university’s functions,” said Ghislaine Darden, Associate Vice President of IP&O’s Strategic Services group, “it is critical that we keep track of key data and have it available in a format that is easy to understand, continually updated, and can aid in short and long-term decision making and planning.”
This is where Robert Perez comes in. Perez, a Data Analyst in IP&O’s Strategic Services group, has been helping IP&O groups to manage their data into digestible dashboards. “Data needs to be easily interpreted, and a dashboard allows the user to see the information in a different way and to interact with it,” he said.Dashboards, Perez explained, are not static. They are interactive and constantly updated. “Dashboards can filter information to reveal what I like to call ‘secrets’. These are simply insights into the data that are not readily seen in an excel file or other static file.”
Perez emphasized that dashboards are vital for planning. “Dashboards reveal predictable trends. For example, if you are trying to hire, a dashboard can reveal vacancy trends that help you to accurately predict when you might need to increase staff.”
Perez has been working with the FCA group to create a dashboard that contains all of the university assets they formerly kept in an excel file.”
“Robert’s dashboards for the FCA group have been extremely helpful. The dashboard has combined five different steps into one view, which has made our work much more efficient,” said James Boswell, Assistant Director of IP&O’s FCA group. “With all the data readily available, we can multitask during field visits. The dashboard allows us to quickly access asset information from multiple AiM modules, including the PMs, the Master Asset profile, and the space information. Additionally, we can send out reports to each of the MA shops using the dashboard.”
Employee Services has also been a beneficiary of the several visualized dashboards. Perez is currently developing a Vacancy Report, which was previously a manual process dependent on marrying data from two systems. Additionally, he has completed a Position Replacement Report, which will support both Employee Services and our Business Services partners. This report saves Employee Services from a lengthy and time consuming bi-annual manual reconciliation which entailed identifying incumbents and replacements for all IP&O positions.
Perez is also our DocuSign administrator and can support IP&O groups with DocuSign needs. If your group can benefit by visualized dashboards contact Robert Perez at rjp265@ipo.rutgers.edu
