6-Enterprise Institutional Analytics and Data Platform Additional Info.docx

Request for Proposals (RFP) Enterprise Institutional Analytics and Data Platform Purpose and Intent Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide an enterprise, institution‑wide data platform that serves as the College’s centralized foundation for Institutional Effectiveness, analytics, reporting, and data‑informed decision‑making. The platform will integrate institutional data across academic, student, enrollment, finance, human resources, and institutional effectiveness domains and expand access to trusted, actionable reporting and insights across the College.

This procurement is specifically for a higher‑education–focused enterprise data platform (data warehouse / lake-house with governed analytics), not a stand‑alone reporting, visualization, or operational case‑management tool. Solutions that lack an underlying governed analytical data environment will not meet the intent of this RFP.

The intent of this RFP is to select a solution that:

· Establishes a centralized, governed analytical data environment that serves as the institutional system of record for analytics and reporting

· Enables trusted, repeatable, and transparent institutional analytics rather than ad‑hoc or system‑specific reporting

· Supports Institutional Effectiveness, planning, accreditation, equity analysis, and executive decision‑making

· Democratizes access to data through self‑service analytics for non‑technical users

· Embeds data quality, metadata, lineage, and governance into daily use

· Reduces manual reporting and dependence on undocumented institutional knowledge

· Can be implemented quickly using pre‑built higher‑education connectors, data models, and analytic content

· Positions the College for future ERP transitions, enterprise reporting, and responsible API‑ and automation‑enabled use cases This procurement is intended to support institution‑level analytics, reporting, and data‑informed decision‑making, and is not intended to replace or duplicate operational student success platforms. SLCC currently uses EAB Navigate 360 for advising workflows, case management, and student‑level interventions.

The platform sought through this RFP will serve as a governed analytical and integration foundation, enabling longitudinal analysis of student outcomes and related institutional data for Institutional Effectiveness, planning, equity analysis, and reporting. Where appropriate, the platform may provide governed datasets, metrics, and aggregates to downstream systems (including student success platforms) via reporting, APIs, or enterprise automation workflows. The platform is not expected to provide advising workflows, case management, or student engagement functionality.

This RFP is informed by competitive solicitations issued by peer community colleges and higher‑education consortia.

Institutional Context SLCC is a public, comprehensive community college serving a diverse student population. The College’s current enterprise systems include:

· Ellucian Banner (student, finance, and human resources)

· Canvas learning management system

· EAB Navigate 360 student success platform

· DegreeWorks for degree audit and academic progress

· EnrollmentRx (Salesforce‑based) enrollment and recruiting platform

· Power BI and Microsoft Fabric for reporting and analytics

· Cognos Business Intelligence SLCC has historically relied on a mix of system‑specific reporting, spreadsheets, and a home‑grown (custom) data warehouse and reporting environment built on Oracle with WhereScape for ETL, alongside multiple enterprise and departmental reporting tools.

SLCC is Utah’s largest community college, serving approximately 26,000 Undergraduate Education Students, 12,000 High School Concurrent Enrollment Students, and 3,000 Technical Education Students annually. A total unduplicated student count of 41,500 students as of 2025-2026. The College operates across multiple campuses and centers throughout Salt Lake County, in addition to extensive online offerings. This scale, geographic distribution, and mission breadth place significant demands on institutional data, analytics, and reporting capabilities.

This environment reflects a historical build strategy that has provided flexibility and control but has become increasingly difficult to sustain and scale over time given staffing, maintenance, and modernization demands. As a result, this procurement explicitly evaluates a buy‑versus‑continue‑to‑build approach to reduce long‑term institutional risk while preserving access to trusted institutional data.

SLCC seeks to rationalize and modernize its institutional analytics and reporting landscape by adopting a centralized platform that can serve as the governed foundation for current and future reporting, reduce long‑term technical debt, and support enterprise‑wide data access, integration, and automation.

Outcomes the Solution Must Support Broad Access and Data Literacy

· Enable faculty, staff, academic leadership, enrollment managers, institutional researchers, and executive stakeholders to access role‑appropriate analytics

· Reduce dependence on central IT or Institutional Effectiveness for routine analysis and ad-hoc reporting

· Support adoption through usability, training, and documentation rather than technical expertise Institutional Metrics and Student Outcomes

· Standardized analysis of persistence, retention, course success, completion, and equity outcomes

· Longitudinal tracking and disaggregation by student subgroup, program, and term

· Transparent, governance‑approved definitions of institutional metrics Early Indicators and Analytical Insight

· Surface interpretable, explainable indicators derived from historical and current‑term data (e.g., momentum, course outcomes, degree progress)

· Indicators are intended to support monitoring, analysis, and planning, not automated intervention execution

· Insights should complement, and not replace, existing operational systems Student Data Integration and Progress Analytics

· Flexible ingestion of data from multiple student-related systems, including but not limited to degree audit tools (e.g., DegreeWorks or equivalent), learning management systems, advising and student success platforms, and other systems capturing student interactions and support

· Ability to analyze academic progression in context with student engagement and support touchpoints across the lifecycle

· Identification of patterns related to credential progress, near‑completion status, and alternative or non-linear completion pathways

· Analytical visibility into deviations from declared programs, expected curricular sequences, or planned pathways, informed by integrated data across systems Faster, Repeatable Institutional Reporting and Analytics

· Reduce manual effort for recurring institutional reports (e.g., strategic planning, compliance reporting, annual reporting)

· Enable self‑service access to KPIs, trends, and point‑in‑time analysis

· Support cohort‑based and longitudinal reporting across academic years Functional Requirements Self‑Service Analytics, Dashboards, and Reports

· Web‑based analytical workspaces designed for non‑technical users

· Ability to filter, compare, and drill into data without writing SQL or scripts

· Drill‑down from institutional metrics to program‑, course‑, and student‑level detail (subject to role‑based access controls)

· Ability to save, share, and export data products (i.e. reports, dashboards)

4.2 Cohort Definition and Longitudinal Analysis

· Flexible cohort definitions by term, program, demographics, participation, or initiative

· Explicit support for term census, end‑of‑term, and custom point‑in‑time snapshots

· Ability to retrieve and reuse historical snapshots

· Protection against retroactive changes altering official historical metrics

4.3 Integrated Domain Analytics

· Multi‑year program and course‑level analytics

· Cross‑domain analysis combining student, financial, and HR data where appropriate

· Consistent governance‑aligned logic across domains

4.4 Financial and Human Resources Analytics

· Integration with Ellucian Banner Finance for revenue, expenditure, and budget analysis

· Ability to analyze costs relative to enrollment and outcomes

· Integration with Ellucian Banner HR for workforce and staffing analysis

· Secure, role‑based handling of sensitive HR data

4.5 Report Modernization and Legacy Conversion

· Optional services to convert or rationalize existing reports from Cognos, Apex, or other legacy tools

· Options to recreate reports natively or in Power BI using governed datasets

5. Data, Governance, and Transparency Requirements

5.1 Data Architecture and Portability

· Support access to raw, transformed, and curated data layers

· Ensure long‑term data portability and avoidance of vendor lock‑in

5.2 Centralized Ingestion and Refresh

· Banner as primary system of record

· Ingestion from Canvas, Navigate 360 (analytics only), DegreeWorks, EnrollmentRx, and other institutional systems

· Daily or near‑real‑time refresh where appropriate

5.3 Metadata, Definitions, and Lineage

· Centralized data dictionary documenting calculations, lineage, and provenance

· Visibility into how institutional metrics are derived

5.4 Embedded Data Governance and Quality

· Defined data ownership and stewardship roles

· Controlled metric change processes

· Data quality monitoring and anomaly visibility Technical Requirements Architecture and Scalability

· Cloud‑based or hybrid architecture suitable for higher education

· Scalable design supporting multi‑year data volumes and concurrent users

· Architecture capable of supporting future ERP transitions

· Submission of high‑level architecture and data‑flow diagrams Security and Compliance

· FERPA‑compliant data handling

· Role‑based access control integrated with institutional SSO

· Encryption in transit and at rest

· Comprehensive audit logging

· Documentation of relevant security assessments or certifications where available As part of the College’s standard procurement and risk review process, vendors must successfully complete the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT), version 4.x, and provide a current Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT). Both assessments must have been completed within the past twelve (12) months at the time of evaluation. Failure to satisfactorily complete either the HECVAT or VPAT, or the identification of material unmitigated risks or accessibility gaps, may result in the proposed solution not being considered further.

Interoperability and APIs

· Governed dataset delivery to BI tools such as Power BI

· APIs or standard access methods for downstream systems and automation

· Data remains the property of SLCC Platform Operations

· Vendor‑managed updates, backups, and monitoring

· Clear delineation of vendor and institutional responsibilities Implementation, Adoption, and Speed to Value

· Incremental delivery with usable analytics early in the project

· Accelerated deployment using pre‑built connectors and models

· Prioritization of student, financial, and HR analytics

· Stakeholder validation and training Vendors must:

· Describe service‑level expectations for availability, refresh, and API access

· Identify institutional resource commitments and dependencies Vendor Qualifications

· Experience delivering enterprise analytics platforms to community colleges or similar institutions

· Banner experience required

· Demonstrated financial and HR analytics capability

· Experience integrating LMS, CRM, and student success systems

· References from institutions of comparable size and scope Evaluation Criteria

· Alignment with requirements

· Transparency and governance depth

· Speed to value and sustainability

· Architectural flexibility and future readiness

· Vendor experience and total cost of ownership Cooperative Purchasing SLCC intends this solicitation to support cooperative purchasing under Utah statutes. The resulting contract may be made available to USHE institutions and other eligible public entities, subject to local approval. Participation is not guaranteed.