Putting Your “Office” To Work 2007 TAIR Conference February 2007 Presenter: Doug Atkinson The University of Texas at San Antonio Office of Institutional Research

Introduction “I submitted a request a few months ago. Now I’d like that same information for the current term.” “You sent a report to the College of XXXX, I’d like to get that same information for my college” “I’m comparing the numbers from the CB Report to what you reported to me last month, why don’t they match?”

Questions Answered What would it take to put something together that would allow you to answer these questions?  What was requested  When is it due?  Who are the most frequent requesters  Where did you put the last report that was accomplished?  Why was it needed?  How was the data pulled? (what restrictions, sources, assumptions, timeframes)

Putting Your “Office” To Work UTSA computers typically packaged with Microsoft Office Software.  Internet Explorer  Outlook  Access  Word  Excel Using just these programs, you can answer your own questions

Microsoft Office and Related Programs Internet Explorer –Single Data Entry Point – regardless Outlook –Direct Communications with customer –Indirectly through Access and Word Access –Stores all job related data –Source for reporting and communicating job status

Microsoft Office and Related Programs Word – Merge used to communicate job status with customer –Methodology document when job is complete Excel –Typical method of displaying data requested.

Benefits we’ve seen Easier to employ multi-level quality checks. –Accuracy Customer Satisfaction –Communications Easier to retrieve previous requests –Efficiency Easier to Manage work flow and report on what we’re doing –Informed Decision Making

Improvement areas Automated reminders Recurring requests Schedule-based Reporting Better file management procedures

QUESTIONS?