REDWOOD SHORES, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/09/13 -- Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL)

News Facts

• Valdosta State University, a regional university in South Georgia serving approximately 12,491 undergraduate students, has seen a 10 to 15 percent improvement in student midterm and final grades since implementing Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition at the start of the Fall 2012 semester.
• To address its 67 percent one-year student retention rate, which costs the university $6.5 million in lost revenue each year, Valdosta State University chose Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to provide 600 faculty and 100 staff members with rich insight into student academic performance. With instant, on-demand access to student class loads and grades, faculty can make timely decisions on how to facilitate student success, whether the right path is notifying the student's advisor, conducting one-on-one meetings with the student or implementing tutoring services.
• With the new business intelligence environment, Valdosta State University has improved administrative productivity by more than 500 percent. Administrative staff can now complete 90 percent of all data requests from faculty, department heads, deans and Office of Financial Aid grants staff within 24 hours -- compared to the previous average response time of one to three weeks -- using the solution's interactive dashboards, which enable faculty and staff to build reports from existing templates.
• With Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, faculty can receive important, recurring reports via email, eliminating the need for administrators to log in and run reports at specific times during the semester. Moreover, faculty can now easily communicate with each other across campus -- expediting and simplifying the process for flagging student issues and delivering help to students. The solution also provides faculty with access to an interactive class roster containing student photos, thus personalizing communication between faculty and students and improving interactions.
• The university's new business intelligence environment has also streamlined IT responsibilities and cut database administration time in half, enabling database administrators and programmers to focus on core tasks such as implementing new Web applications, exploring new technologies and building new reports.
• Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition adds to the university's Oracle footprint, which includes Oracle Database, Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle's PeopleSoft Financial Management.
• Valdosta State University began implementing the multi-phase project in April 2012, and released phase one to faculty and staff campus wide in August 2012, on time and on budget. The university continues to expand its data warehouse and business intelligence tools across all campus areas -- including alumni relations, student life, housing and student affairs -- and in early 2013 will release a portal to its students.

Supporting Quotes

• "Since implementing Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition in August 2012, we have seen an obvious increase in support and productivity among our faculty and staff, creating an atmosphere of innovation at Valdosta State University. The number of campus departments requesting access to the Oracle portal for applications, forms and automated processes has risen significantly, and with the platform's customization capabilities it is easy to build one application or report and fit it to the specific needs of each department. This interoperability, combined with Oracle's rapid application and development model, enabled us to achieve long-term goals in a short period of time," said Brian Haugabrook, director of data warehouse, Council of Student Affairs (COSA) chair, Valdosta State University.
• "Valdosta State University demonstrates that the right business intelligence environment can yield astonishing benefits to an institution looking to improve student success and retention. With Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition's out-of-box reports, Valdosta State University's faculty and staff have the information and tools they need to continuously monitor student performance and make quick decisions on how to support each student and improve the educational experience," said Cole Clark, global vice president, education and research industries, Oracle.

Supporting Resources

• Oracle in Higher Education
• Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
• Oracle Database
• Oracle Data Integrator
• Oracle's PeopleSoft Financial Management
• Oracle Higher Education on Facebook
• Oracle Higher Education on Diigo

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