Customer story · Lamar Institute of Technology
Meeting key reporting deadlines with Evisions Professional Services
Facing new Texas reporting mandates with a small, newly hired team, LIT brought in Evisions Professional Services to rework its Argos DataBlocks and reports, and finished the work within a month.
Beaumont, Texas
2-year institution
Professional Services
- Faster access to dataBetter, more timely access to the data the institution needs.
- Deadlines metState deadlines met that the school could not have met on its own.
- Argos, more widely usedMore people across departments now work in Argos directly.
Lamar Institute of Technology at a glance
1990
Founded
4,500+
Students
327+
Faculty and staff
50+
Undergraduate programs
01
The challenge
New state rules, a new team, and a fixed deadline
In 2022, the Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment department at Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) learned from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that state-required Coordinating Board Management (CBM) reporting was changing, alongside a new Recommended Course Sequencing provision.
LIT would need to modify and improve its data and reporting system to comply with the CBM changes and implement the new provision, all by state-imposed deadlines.
CBM reporting changes
The state’s required Coordinating Board Management reporting was being revised.
A new provision
Recommended Course Sequencing, also required by Texas, had to be implemented too.
A small, new team
A relatively new director and recently hired staff, still learning the system.
The Institutional Effectiveness (IE) department would spearhead the changes. The department wasn’t big, and its Executive Director had only recently hired a couple of employees. The new staff would need training on the existing reporting system and to be brought up to speed quickly on the state’s updates.
02
The solution
A block of hours, and a month to deliver
Lamar Institute of Technology has used Argos as its enterprise reporting tool since 2007. Every department runs reports in Argos, while Institutional Effectiveness and Information Technology do the ‘heavy lifting’ of designing DataBlocks and creating reports.
The state-mandated changes called for a thorough evaluation of LIT’s DataBlocks and reports to decide what needed to change and what had to be created, and then help doing that work. The Coordinating Board, knowing the changes carried costs, offered institutions a grant toward related expenses. LIT applied for and received grant money.
What Professional Services did
Using part of the grant, LIT contracted a block of hours with Evisions Professional Services (PS). The PS team reviewed the current DataBlocks and reports, determined which Development services were needed to make the changes in time, and worked closely with the IE department to prioritize the work, providing specifications wherever possible.
Where no report specifications existed, PS suggested ways to gather the information. They executed all Development work within the institution’s existing environment, and trained the new employees to design DataBlocks and write reports in Argos.
| Before | With Evisions |
|---|---|
| Unclear which DataBlocks and reports had to change | A full review, with every change scoped and prioritized |
| No specifications for some reports | Suggested ways to gather the missing information |
| New staff not yet trained on Argos design | New employees trained to design DataBlocks and write reports |
| Deadlines unlikely to be met in-house | All necessary work completed within a month |
Once the tasks were defined, each took on average a half day to a day to scope, and another half day to a day to execute. In the end, all the necessary work was completed within a month.
The IE department could have done the work themselves, but the time constraints, alongside their other responsibilities, would have meant re-prioritizing their entire workload, and it was still unlikely they would have met the deadlines.
“
The Argos report development and training provided by Evisions Professional Services helped us meet key reporting deadlines.
Bishar Sethna · Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, Lamar Institute of Technology
03
The results
Deadlines met, and more people fluent in Argos
By working with Evisions Professional Services, LIT was able to identify every change needed, execute those changes, and meet the deadlines imposed by the state agency.
LIT was particularly impressed with its Professional Services consultant. The consultant’s prior experience working in higher education was a huge factor, not only in figuring out the reporting requirements and how to better access information, but in doing it all in a timely manner.
State deadlines met
Every required change was identified, built, and delivered on time.
Done within a month
Each task took a half day to a day to scope, and as long to build.
Higher-ed know-how
A consultant with higher education experience sped up the requirements work.
Less reliance on one office
More people in other departments can get the information they need.
The PS team’s work also helped more people in other departments get familiar with Argos, so they no longer have to rely on one or two departments to provide the information they need.
“
The Evisions Argos Training provided me additional skills and tailored instructions to edit and run Argos reports, while answering some of my user-specific questions and concerns. Argos is an essential data extraction tool that benefits LIT, so this training was immensely helpful.
Robin Clements
Reporting Analyst I
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Your turn
Bring us the project you keep putting off
Tell us what your team needs built, converted, or cleaned up. We will scope it with the people who will do the work.
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