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data integration

Web Summit Vancouver Day 1: Creative Data, Disposable Software, and the Scale of What’s Coming

Some tools only need to exist briefly. Some applications are valuable precisely because they are lightweight, experimental, disposable, or solve a temporary problem. But many universities still assume every software decision means years of implementation, governance, and permanence.

When the Report Becomes the System of Record

At many universities, the most authoritative source of institutional data is not the student information system, the data warehouse, or even the institutional research office.  It’s a dashboard. Or a spreadsheet. Or sometimes, a PDF circulated to a committee.

Shadow Systems: The Data Infrastructure Nobody Wants to Talk About

Shadow systems are rarely documented centrally. As a result, it may not be obvious who owns a dataset, business definitions may diverge across units, and institutional data may be duplicated across dozens of small environments. When this happens, governance becomes reactive rather than proactive.

From Data Standards to Data Strategy: Why MortarCAPS is Necessary But Just the Start

At Re-University, the hallway talk was “Our systems still don’t talk to each other.” This stagnancy has downstream impacts that become more profound over time as strategic decision-making, collaboration, and future planning information sources decline in meaning, accessibility, and currency.

Data Governance in Higher Ed: Empowering IT Professionals

Every person on campus, from employees, leaders, and students, will interact with the work produced by IT professionals. IT employees can be a crucial asset in data governance adoption, promotion, and management.

Why Write Code?

Clearly, I love SQL. But do I use it anymore? Rarely. Instead, I use visual workflows for my data integrations.

How Metadata Management Tools Support SEM

Implementing a metadata management tool solves the problem of data analysis requiring perusing thousands of fields, hundreds of tables and dashboards, and speaking with different teams to pin down definitions and data origins that live in the mind of a specific person.

Benefits of Mapping Data Lineage

Promote trust in your data with a metadata management tool, which ensures clarity of who is accountable for the accuracy of a particular dataset, who to turn to if questions arise, where a piece of data originates and how its used.

Peak of Data Integration: 2022 FME User Conference

Automated data integration enabled Douglas College to generate a staged release of course registration timeslots over a two week timespan, which will grant over 20,000 students access to registration. This dynamic timeslot process better adapts to evolving registration policy and practices.

Two decades of data wrangling, and I’m still learning new things

Many institutions we work with struggle with the subscription models employed by many software vendors. Each time you onboard new staff, there is an added license cost that you didn’t plan for in your budget. But with FME, the cost of adding new staff to the platform is exactly zero.