Reporting and Analytics Tools, Domain and Usage

Evisions Argos is a cloud-based higher education reporting tool for Banner. Argos reports deliver information and insights that you need in order to make timely, better-informed decisions. Argos allows you to access Banner data, create reports, and view your data in different ways. Specifically, users will view information by use of Dashboards and Reports.  Dashboards and Reports are built using Datablocks.  Datablocks are pre-formed collections of Banner data. 

Usage and Audience

Used for student enrollment, course-related, degree completions, and financial aid data reporting. Members of the Information Management Group in Enrollment Management have created datablocks to support the above reporting needs.

Support and Training

For support and training on Argos, please reach out to the Information Management Group via email at argos@villanova.edu. 

IBM Cognos Analytics is a business intelligence solution for enterprise reporting. It enables users to write, schedule, run and view reports which use the Operational Data Store (ODS) and Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) as its main source(s) of data. Users can access replicated Banner data in the ODS via Cognos packages or through direct SQL query. 

Usage and Audience

Used for Advancement, Finance, Human Resources and Payroll operational reporting. Members of the Technology Services-BI Analytics create and modify Cognos data modules and packages to support the reporting needs for these areas.

Support and Training

For support and training on Cognos Analytics, please open a support ticket with the Technology Services-Business Intelligence and Analytics team via the support portal.

Data Insights is a vendor-supported structured data warehouse environment integrating data from multiple campus systems and other ad-hoc data sources with Tableau as the visual analytics and reporting tool, that currently serves as the central repository for curated live and freeze (census) snapshots of student enrollment, admissions, financial aid, course, student success, and post-graduate outcomes data, relevant bursar and finance data, faculty and staff data, as well as multiple external benchmarking data, with advanced reporting and analytics capabilities. Data Insights platform is intended to support a data-informed approach to planning and decision-making through self-service dashboards and reporting capabilities with seamless accessibility within a secure environment.

Usage and Audience

Leveraged for the University's external survey data reporting needs such as Common Data Set (CDS), Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), U.S. News & World Report Ranking, Accreditation, and Grant-related data requests. In addition, the Data Insights platform supports internal data reporting and analytics requests by providing aggregated data and dashboards on students, faculty, and staff, as well as unit-record-level data reports for faculty.

Support and Training

For support and training on Data Insights, please contact the Office of Decision Support and Data Integrity (ODSDI) via email at odsdi@villanova.edu or visit their website to submit a request.

ODSDI also publishes newsletters every Fall and Spring term with useful updates on Data Insights dashboards and training sessions.

Other Resources

University Statistics – Publicly available self-service dashboards showing official University data.

Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersing, and interactive insightsYour data might be an Excel spreadsheet, or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises hybrid data warehouses. Power BI lets you easily connect to your data sources, visualize and discover what's important, and share that with anyone or everyone you want.

Usage and Audience

Used by Faculty and Staff for personal data visualization and reporting needs. It is not connected directly to any institutional data warehouse.

Support and Training

For support and training on Power BI, please visit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/.