CROA BASICS A COLLEAGUE END USERS PERSPECTIVE Vern Johnson and Mary Campion Linfield College June 14, 2016 Analytics & Reporting Forest Grove, Oregon NWEUG 2016

SESSION RULES OF ETIQUETTE  Please turn off your cell phone/pager  If you must leave the session early, please do so as discreetly as possible  Please avoid side conversation during the session Thank you for your cooperation!

Linfield is a small liberal arts college located in McMinnville OR, the heart of Oregon Wine Country Enrollment over all: 2,466 NCAA Div III Mary has been a Programmer/Analyst for Linfield College since Vern joined Linfield in 2013 as a programmer/analyst. We support Colleague, WebAdvisor, and CROA. About Us

INTRODUCTION  Learn what CROA is and how to build a basic CROA report with step- by-step instructions.  Tips, tricks and gotchas that we have learned along the way.

SESSION AGENDA  What is CROA (Colleague Reporting and Operating Analytics) ?  Building your first CROA report I. Preparation & Research II. Writing the Report III. Making it Useful and Pretty (demo) IV. Troubleshooting

TOPIC #1 Consider using the section header slide as you transition from one topic/agenda item to the next.

Four Step Approach to Report Building

Preparation & Research  Extracting the Data – Why? Data needed – fields and how to verify the values External reports; Administrative #’s, researching This leads to how you define your report How often does the report need to run? – flexibility  Query: Inputs you will need – terms, statuses State your query criteria Combined Query, Merge universes  Build each one as it could become a template Making it Useful and Pretty  Formatting  Variables  Viewing different results in type you choose  Input / Filter – difference how they work (demo)  Scheduling  Share  Save As / Export Writing the Report  Start CROA  Query first! Get your numbers working (screen shot)  Pull over query fields to verify - use the report objects & refresh – these don’t need to display in the report  Filter problem ordering of report objects – speed and accuracy.  Drag fields over into results objects panel and view as a list  Order of fields in result panel doesn’t mean that the way they need to be on the report.  Using a filter (demo)  How to use a Saved List Troubleshooting  I the end user – numbers / counts are off! What is expected – too many, too few. Missing known records that meet the criteria Field is missing – wrong name / name misleading (ID’s) Nulls / no nulls Our favorite – It worked last month…  Send report to Bi user if they are assisting in the troubleshooting.  ITS: Security - SSN Specific Department folders to share reports PC vs Macs Java 32 bit CROA Admin: Include sample data in field descriptions

Quad I Preparation & Research

 Extracting the Data – Why?  Data needed – fields and how to verify the values  External reports; Administrative #’s, researching  This leads to how you define your report  How often does the report need to run? – flexibility  Query:  Inputs you will need – terms, statuses  State your query criteria  Combined Query, Merge universes  Build each one as it could become a template

Universe PDF

Universe PDF Cont.

Transform.xlsx (Structure Report)

Quad II Writing the Report

Writing the Report  Start CROA  Query first! Get your numbers working (screen shot)  Pull over query fields to verify - use the report objects & refresh – these don’t need to display in the report  Filter problem ordering of report objects – speed and accuracy.  Drag fields over into results objects panel and view as a list  Order of fields in result panel doesn’t mean that the way they need to be on the report.  Using a filter (demo)  How to use a Saved List

Start CROA

Simple query:

Simple Query Report:

Document Summary

How to use a Saved List:

Complex Queries:

Quad III Making it Useful and Pretty

Making it Useful and Pretty (demo)  Formatting  Variables  Viewing different results in type you choose  Input / Filter – difference how they work (demo)  Scheduling (screen shots)  Share  Save As / Export

Quad IV Troubleshooting

 I the end user – numbers / counts are off! What is expected – too many, too few. Missing known records that meet the criteria Field is missing – wrong name / name misleading (ID’s) Nulls / no nulls Our favorite – It worked last month…  Send report to Bi user if they are assisting in the troubleshooting.  ITS:  Security - SSN  Specific Department folders to share reports  PC vs Macs  Java 32 bit  CROA Admin: Include sample data in field descriptions Troubleshooting

URLS: SAP Help Portal: Ellucian Hub: Book: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 Third Edition The Complete Reference by Cindi Howson & Elizabeth Newbould

Summary  Plan your report: queries first with minimum fields.  Make your reports as re-usable as possible.  Format the report last – make it pretty.  Share your knowledge and reports with others.  Saves them from re-inventing the “wheel”  Troubleshooting – colleagues, internet resources

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS  Be sure to leave about 10–15 minutes for questions from your audience

THANK YOU! Vern Johnson and Mary Campion and