The Business Intelligence and Reporting Services (BIRS) team provides data architecture, analytics, reporting, and business intelligence solutions that support data-informed decision-making at Boise State University. BIRS works with the OIT Project Management Office (PMO) to prioritize project requests.
Each service below includes who it is available to (Audience) and whether it is a formally supported, resourced service (Service level: Base) or an advisory-only / unsupported activity (Service level: Not provided).
*Note on student access: Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) is a self-service reporting tool intended for faculty and staff use. Students do not have access to OAC. Because of this, BIRS does not develop reports, dashboards, or other OAC solutions for student consumption. Audiences listed below (Faculty, Staff) reflect this scope.
| Service Component | Description | Audience | Service Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise reporting | BIRS provides enterprise reporting through Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC), including data warehouse architecture, strategic dashboards, and data governance coordination. | Faculty, Staff | Base — fully supported |
| Data warehouse architecture | BIRS designs and maintains the data warehouse architecture that supports centralized reporting across the university. | Faculty, Staff | Base — fully supported |
| Data governance coordination | BIRS coordinates data governance activities across the university. | Faculty, Staff | Base — fully supported |
| Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI) development | BIRS provides ongoing support for reporting and analytics solutions originally developed by the BIRS team, with the intent to migrate those solutions to the institution’s analytics platform (OAC) where appropriate. New transactional reporting development is limited to case-by-case operational needs — for example, integration file creation and critical real-time reporting where a department has staffing constraints. Important: BIRS does not manage reporting catalog access or administration. Source system owners retain responsibility for reporting governance, security, and administration. | Faculty, Staff | Base — fully supported, with the scope limits noted above |
| Dashboards, reports, and custom data sources (Oracle Analytics Cloud) | BIRS may provide limited, high-level guidance — on an advisory basis only — for dashboards built on independent data sources in OAC, such as department-maintained spreadsheets, third-party vendor exports, or shadow systems. Important: The individual who creates the report retains sole ownership of the project and is entirely responsible for its design, implementation, and ongoing data refreshes. BIRS guidance does not transfer ownership or support responsibility to BIRS. | None (advisory only; no supported audience) | Not provided |
| Development and production support — custom data source dashboards | BIRS does not develop, maintain, or provide ongoing production support for dashboards or reports built on data that is not curated through central university data pipelines. | None | Not provided |
How to request a project
- Submit: All project requests — regardless of size or scope — are submitted through the OIT PMO Project Request Form. Submission does not guarantee fulfillment.
- Review and prioritize: The PMO works with BIRS, stakeholders, and governance committees to build a business case for each request, evaluating value, scope, and urgency.
- Develop: Prioritized projects are scheduled into BIRS development cycles based on existing commitments and resource availability.
Services marked Service level: Base are actively supported by BIRS for the listed audience. Services marked Service level: Not provided are explicitly out of scope — BIRS offers advisory input at most, and the requester/owner retains full responsibility. “Audience: None” means no group receives this as a supported service.