Summer Profitability Challenge: A Compelling Case for Business Intelligence

To strategically assess the profitability of its summer session, Miami University began an initiative known as the Summer Profitability Challenge project, focused on managing summer enrollment while measuring and containing costs. The project team included representation from across university divisions. The challenge was to bring together pieces of technologically disconnected data and report them as usable and actionable information to support administrative decisions that would increase profitability. As the project progressed, the value and substance of the powerful business intelligence methodologies allowed the team to cross seemingly insurmountable barriers. The initial challenge—detailed and innovative reporting for effective decision making in a real-time environment—was met. Further, the team debriefing following Phase I of the project revealed the value of the collaborative effort as well as best practices in alliances across university divisional divides. In this article, members of the team share this business intelligence case study, an application to a summer session revenue-sharing and profitability model with data and reporting, and the best practices and outcomes revealed by the project.