Rensselaer is among 10 organizations recognized at Computerworld BI Perspectives Conference

TROY, N.Y. — Rensselaer’s Data Warehouse Group was one of 10 organizations recognized by Computerworld’s Business Intelligence Perspectives, the premier conference for leaders in the business intelligence and IT management sector, as an honoree of its “Best Practices in Business Intelligence” awards program. The award identifies and acknowledges excellence among users of business intelligence solutions and approaches. Rensselaer was the only higher education institution to receive this recognition.

Rensselaer’s Data Warehouse Project has been selected by Computerworld’s Business Intelligence Perspectives, the premier conference for leaders in the business intelligence and IT management sector, as a finalist in its “Best Practices in Business Intelligence” awards program.

“The Data Warehouse Project has allowed Rensselaer to significantly improve consistency and access to Institute information. This has allowed improved planning, forecasting, and decision-making processes for various campus constituencies,” said John Kolb, Rensselaer’s chief information officer. “It is very rewarding to receive this recognition from Computerworld. This award is the result of strategic investment in the goals of The Rensselaer Plan and focused hard work by many people at Rensselaer.”

The award identifies and acknowledges excellence among users of business intelligence solutions and approaches. Finalists were evaluated by a panel of judges based on case study submissions that profiled the company, its IT department and infrastructure project management challenges, as well as application deployment details, summaries of the key technology used, and measurable solution outcomes. 

“Business intelligence initiatives are at the center of converting information technology to information management and competitive advantage,” said Ron Milton, executive vice president, Computerworld. “The organizations and professionals judged to be honorees in Computerworld’s 2006 ‘Best Practices in Business Intelligence’ Awards Program have unlocked the true value of business intelligence and applying analytics to their advantage.”

Sponsored by Hyperion, Business Intelligence Perspectives’ annual awards program, “Best Practices in Business Intelligence,” identifies and acknowledges excellence among companies in the following areas:

• Creating a strategic vision and using business intelligence (BI) for ROI through IT leadership
• Data visualization, prediction and presentation by leveraging customized solutions
• Information retrieval and reporting by leveraging off-the-shelf enterprise software
• Planning, designing and building the BI infrastructure
• Use of competency centers to champion BI technologies to enterprise-wide ROI  

Rensselaer, along with Cooper Communities Inc., a company based in Rogers, Ark., was honored in the “Creating a Strategic Vision and Using BI for ROI through IT Leadership” category. Other honorees included: BNSF Railway and Emergency Medical Associates; Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Reader’s Digest; Cisco Systems and R.L. Polk & Co.; IBM Corporation’s Business Performance Management Center of Excellence and Intermountain Healthcare, in the remaining categories, respectively.

“We are honored to receive this recognition that acknowledges the strength of our data warehouse and business intelligence implementation practices,” said Ora Fish, program manager for the Data Warehouse Project. “Rensselaer’s success was driven by our overall strategy that has recognized the need to build an excellent business intelligence infrastructure while ensuring adaptation of the new analytical capabilities in campus processes, updating people skills, and changing our analytical culture. This broad-reaching impact required successful collaboration of various academic schools and administrative portfolios such as Finance, DotCIO, HR, Provost, Enrollment, VP of Research, Student Life, and IA.”

Computerworld is a leading source for news, information, and opinion on the critical technology and management issues affecting senior technology professionals. Honorees were announced on Sept. 27 during a special awards ceremony at Business Intelligence Perspectives, held at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas, Nev.

About Computerworld
Computerworld is recognized worldwide as the premier source for news, information, and opinion on the critical technology and management issues affecting senior technology professionals. Computerworld’s award-winning weekly publication, Computerworld.com Web site, focused conference series and custom research, form the hub of the world’s largest (58-edition) global IT media network. In the past five years alone, Computerworld has won more than 100 awards, including the 2004 and 2006 Magazine of the Year Award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Computerworld has an online audience of over 1.1 million unique monthly visitors (Omniture) and a total print audience of 1,337,000 (IntelliQuest CIMS Spring 2006). Computerworld is on the Web at www.computerworld.com.  

Computerworld is a business unit of International Data Group (IDG), the world’s leading technology media, research and events company. A privately held company, IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers, including CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Network World and PC World. The company features the largest network of technology-specific Web sites, with more than 400 around the world. IDG is also a leading producer of more than 170 computer-related events worldwide, including Storage Networking World®, Premier 100®, LinuxWorld Conference & Expo®, Macworld Conference & Expo, DEMO® and IDC Directions. IDC provides global market research and advice through offices in 50 countries. Company information is available at http://www.idg.com. 

Contact: Jessica Otitigbe
Phone: (518) 276-6050
E-mail: otitij@rpi.edu