INSITE: Center for Business Intelligence and Analytics works with several data and business intelligence software companies to bring hands-on tools for MIS students to use as they work on business projects in the classroom.

A student’s demonstrated ability to work with a variety of different tools illustrates a good understanding of the underlying principles and analytical techniques, which will in turn display an aptitude for learning whatever new tools become readily available in the future.

“As a philosophy, we like to let students choose which specific tools they want to use—we’re pretty agnostic about them,” Sudha Ram, INSITE Director explains. “We try to expose them to many different software tools, open source and commercial, explain how they accomplish their goals, plus the pros and cons. Then we let students choose based on look-and-feel, feature set, or career aspirations.” This approach also shows students the value of matching a tool to the specific need—something they will want to do once they move into the workplace.

“The students seem to like playing around with open source tools a lot,” says Sudha. “When they go to internships, they often see that organizations out there are using both commercial and open source tools—so it’s good for us to prepare them for that reality.”

Knowing how technologies, big data, and knowledge management techniques are used in real-world business enterprises is critical to the success of the program, Sudha concludes. “We try to do a lot of research in the same areas we teach, then let students simulate some of the same experiences. Having state-of-the-industry tools on hand for them to use is very essential. We’re very pleased that providers like Jaspersoft and Attacama have made them available to us and our students.”

View our case studies:

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Jaspersoft Case Study
Top-ranked Higher Ed Programs Groom Tomorrow’s MIS Experts Using Open Source Business Intelligence

“The Jaspersoft Business Intelligence Suite is commercial open source software that delivers integrated reporting, dashboarding, analysis, and data integration so companies can make better decisions—faster.”

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Attacama Case Study
A Real-World Education: At the University of Arizona’s MIS Department, Students Learn How Data Really Works

“Ataccama provides critical data management solutions and technologies to help organizations maximize the value of their data. Whether the need is industry focused or technologically driven, Ataccama has the breadth of experience and capabilities to deliver real business value. Additionally, an extensive set of predefined templates; methodologies, knowledge bases and data models are included as a core part of the solution in order to speed up all project phases from initial concepts through technical implementation to organizational process definitions and roles description.”

If you are interested in having our students use your software tools in the classroom, please contact Dr. Sudha Ram.