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Questions for RFP #100-DD04: Online Analytical Processing / Business Intelligence System
1. Who are your targeted end users? Is it an objective of the district to have each teacher in the district using the OLAP/BI tool to inform instruction and drive school improvement?
Please indicate which end-users will be using the OLAP/BI tool.
0 District Administrators
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
0 Counselors
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
0 Principals
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
0 Teachers/Faculty
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
0 Other
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
2. How do you currently disseminate analysis information to your end users? Do you have a relatively quick and easy way for staff to request new analyses of existing data sets?
3. Do you plan to implement this in the entire district all at once or phase it in? If phased in, by geographic region? School type groupings? End user roles? Other (please specify)?
4. Regarding your data sources:
§ We’re assuming the district uses individual central systems for Student Information, Finance, Human Resources, and Transportation. Is this correct? We also assume you have multiple student assessments to analyze. How many standardized assessments do you use (e.g. FCAT, ACT, SAT)
§ How many unique district assessments do you want to analyze?
§ Will you want to analyze and report on the district’s survey data and community polling?.If so, is most of this data in a consistent data format survey-to-survey and year to year?. If not, about how many different data formats will we need to work with?
§ What other data sources would you want to analyze using the BI/OLAP tool (Attendance, Health, Cafeteria, etc.)?
§ So we can properly assess the work related to your administrative system data, please respond to the attached System Information document.
5. Does the district want sizing information for server hardware? (If so, we’ll need to gather some more detailed information about projected usage levels and extent of data)
6. Do you have an existing data clean up process for importing or exporting data into your environment?
7. Will the selected vendor be responsible for providing end-user training materials or training end-users on the application? Will you look to the vendor to arrange for training or consulting on staff development for data driven decision-making?
Detailed System Information
Provide the following information only for those systems that contain data you would like to include in the initial rollout of the OLAP/BI.
0 Student Information System
Name of system:
RDBMS or Vendor Product (i.e., SASI III):
Platform:
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
Unique student IDs throughout district: 0 Yes 0 No
Enrollment statistics in SIS:
0 Testing and Assessment Data
Please list the standardized tests you will use to support analysis:
Specify the format that the data is received in (i.e., Tape, CD, FTP, flat file, etc.):
Please describe the availability of the data (i.e., the data is in the district; the data is at another location):
Finance System
Name of system:
RDBMS or Vendor Product:
Platform:
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
0 Human Resources System
Name of system:
RDBMS or Vendor Product:
Platform:
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
0 Transportation System
Name of system:
RDBMS or Vendor Product:
Platform:
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
0 Other Administrative/Data systems
Name of system:
RDBMS or Vendor Product:
Server Platform:.
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
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Responses follows each question
Questions for RFP #100-DD04: Online Analytical Processing / Business Intelligence System
1. Who are your targeted end users? All district administrators and educators. Is it an objective of the district to have each teacher in the district using the OLAP/BI tool to inform instruction and drive school improvement? Yes.
Please indicate which end-users will be using the OLAP/BI tool.
0 District Administrators
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
0 Counselors
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
0 Principals
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
0 Teachers/Faculty
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
0 Other Business Power Users
0Daily 0Weekly 0Monthly 0Other
2. How do you currently disseminate analysis information to your end users? A combination of; mainframe printed reports, web based dynamic Crystal or SQL Reporting Services reports and power user ODBC connectivity to the data warehouses. Do you have a relatively quick and easy way for staff to request new analyses of existing data sets? Power users have ODBC connections to data warehouse views and use Excel, Access, SPSS or SAS. All official statistical analysis is obtained through the district’s Data Analysis department who use SAS on both mainframe and data warehouse information sources.
3. Do you plan to implement this in the entire district all at once or phase it in? Phased. If phased in, by geographic region? School type groupings? End user roles? Other (please specify)? Likely end-user roles but not yet determined.
4. Regarding your data sources:
§ We’re assuming the district uses individual central systems for Student Information, Finance, Human Resources, and Transportation. Is this correct? Yes, these are systems on the mainframe (in ADABAS and/or VSAM), in many cases this data is extracted from these systems nightly and loaded to the data warehouses (SQL Server 2000).
§ We also assume you have multiple student assessments to analyze. How many standardized assessments do you use (e.g. FCAT, ACT, SAT)? Anticipated for 2004-05 and beyond are 12 standardized testing programs, including district programs: (1) grade 2 & 3 Stanford; (2) grades 1 – 11 SRI or replacement; state programs: (3) kindergarten SRUSS, (4) grade 10 PSAT, (5) FCAT writing, (6) grades 3 – 10 FCAT SSS, (7) grades 3-10 FCAT NRT, (8) FCAT graduation, (9) grades K - 12 EPAS; and national programs: (10) AP exams, (11) ACT & (12) SAT. Please note that some programs have multiple administrations in a given school year.
§ How many unique district assessments do you want to analyze? The set of standards-based progress tests, administered 4 times annually, at grades 2 – 10, in reading, writing, mathematics, and science.
§ Will you want to analyze and report on the district’s survey data and community polling? Not at this time, we use survey software that includes analysis functionality.If so, is most of this data in a consistent data format survey-to-survey and year to year? No. If not, about how many different data formats will we need to work with? Unknown.
§ What other data sources would you want to analyze using the BI/OLAP tool (Attendance, Health, Cafeteria, etc.)? School site administrators and instructional staff would find it valuable to analyze assessment/instructional data from instructional software programs running in their computer labs and classrooms. This data is not centrally collected/maintained at the district computer center and may be unique from school to school, available only on their LANs.
§ So we can properly assess the work related to your administrative system data, please respond to the attached System Information document.
5. Does the district want sizing information for server hardware? Yes. Estimate 500 or less power users and up to 25,000 casual query/report users. Current environment is two (2) active/passive clustered quad-Itanium 64 bit database servers handling application demand and two (2) dual Zeon servers for query demand. Both fiber connected to a six (6) terra-byte SAN (If so, we’ll need to gather some more detailed information about projected usage levels and extent of data)
6. Do you have an existing data clean up process for importing or exporting data into your environment? Current ETL process uses no tools other than mainframe COBOL extract programs and DTS load. Limited data clean-up.
7. Will the selected vendor be responsible for providing end-user training materials or training end-users on the application? Vendors can propose any training paradigm (train the trainer, train all users, provide only materials, etc.) they wish, but it is reasonable that they make training materials available to MDCPS for use, copy and distribution in any case. Though there is no specific training requirement in the RFP, district training cost associated with a product is one of the stated evaluation criteria (page 5 of RFP). Will you look to the vendor to arrange for training or consulting on staff development for data driven decision-making? See above, it is up to the vendor to propose a training paradigm, MDCPS will fill any training gaps and overall training cost to the district will be considered during evaluation as stated in the RFP.
Detailed System Information
Provide the following information only for those systems that contain data you would like to include in the initial rollout of the OLAP/BI. Note the following:
MDCPS data warehouses and RDMS databases are in MS SQL 2000 with enterprise level, processor based licensing. Mainframe source system data is in SAGA ADABAS or VSAM. Most data taken from mainframe source systems and implemented in the data warehouses is de-normalized and maintained in its source form. Warehouse Transportation data and some HR data is normalized and multi-dimensional. MDCPS has planned and modeled a 3rd normal form data warehouse feeding multi-dimensional data marts. No date has yet been established for implementation, therefore assume present data structure with provisioning for the future warehouse model.
0 Student Information System
Name of system: ISIS (in-house CICS mainframe source system), much data already in SQL data warehouse refreshed daily, current/active student –class information, no history in warehouse.
RDBMS or Vendor Product (i.e., SASI III): ADABAS source, daily ETL to SQL in warehouse
Platform: IBM zOS mainframe source, Wintel SQL warehouse
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
Unique student IDs throughout district: 0 Yes 0 No
Enrollment statistics in SIS: Yes, approx.360,000 students, extensive data on each as ISIS is a very broad and deep SIS.
0 Testing and Assessment Data
Please list the standardized tests you will use to support analysis: FCAT , SAT9, SRI, SAT, ACT collected centrally with FCAT and SAT9 data available in the warehouse from 2001 forward. Other assessment data either not collected centrally or not tracked. School sites administer other assessments through instructional software programs, which vary by school and is available only in school computer labs, classroom computers or school site LANs if at all.
Specify the format that the data is received in (i.e., Tape, CD, FTP, flat file, etc.):
IBM zOS mainframe source, Wintel SQL warehouse
Please describe the availability of the data (i.e., the data is in the district; the data is at another location):
District level testing/assessment information is stored in our SIS and most is already in the data warehouse environment and refreshed daily.
0 Finance System
Name of system: MSAF
RDBMS or Vendor Product: GEAC product uses VSAM
Platform: IBM zOS mainframe
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
0 Human Resources System
Name of system:Numerous mainframe source systems.
RDBMS or Vendor Product:Daily ETL to SQL warehouses.
Platform: IBM zOS mainframe source, Wintel SQL data warehouses
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
0 Transportation System
Name of system:Data across several mainframe systems.
RDBMS or Vendor Product: ETL to SQL data warehouses, 5 years of history in warehouse.
Platform: IBM zOS mainframe source, Wintel SQL warehouses.
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
0 Other Administrative/Data systems
Name of system: COMPASS Work Order system
RDBMS or Vendor Product: Mainframe Product uses VSAM, ETL to SQL warehouses, 13 months, active WOs only in warehouse, no history.
Server Platform: Wintel SQL for warehouses, IBM zOS for source system.
Data is exportable: 0 Yes 0 No
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