A 129+ year-old West Coast university, consistently ranked among the world’s leading educational institutions, embarked on a major initiative to modernize its business intelligence and reporting environment.
With seven schools, over 40 academic departments, and graduate programs across law, medicine, education, and business, the university manages complex institutional data. Tracking HCM information for more than 2,200 faculty members, 12,500 administrative staff, and nearly 17,250 students has become increasingly critical.
In addition, as one of the top fundraising universities and the first to raise over one billion dollars in a single year, accurate financial reporting and analytics were essential. To meet these needs, the university implemented Informatica 10.4 as its enterprise BI and reporting platform.
As reporting demands increased, the university required faster response times, improved system performance, and consistent operational stability. To accelerate time to value and better serve its user community, the university selected DataTerrain to provide Informatica support and maintenance services.
DataTerrain was chosen based on its proven experience in improving service levels, fine-tuning enterprise data warehouse (EDW) systems, and enhancing overall BI performance.
DataTerrain applied a structured, tested methodology grounded in decades of experience supporting large-scale EDW environments. This approach combined deep Informatica expertise with operational best practices to support the university’s data ecosystem.
Scope of services included:
Before engagement, ETL load processes took between six and eight hours. DataTerrain’s team significantly reduced execution time through targeted performance tuning.
This included removing data bottlenecks, applying database-level optimizations, using Informatica pushdown optimization, and enabling parallel processing through partitioning. These measures resulted in faster data loads and improved system reliability.
With round-the-clock production support, issue resolution times were reduced substantially. Ticket backlogs were cleared, and users were able to complete reporting tasks without delays. Continuous monitoring ensured early detection and resolution of potential failures.
Ongoing system improvements led to a steady reduction in technical debt. The number of recurring incidents declined, and average resolution times improved. Preventive fixes replaced temporary workarounds, improving long-term platform stability.
The university highlighted several factors that contributed to the success of the engagement. DataTerrain’s deep technical expertise helped eliminate performance bottlenecks and improve maintainability. Its global delivery model enabled uninterrupted support across time zones. Strong domain experience in higher education allowed DataTerrain to deliver tailored solutions for departments such as medicine, finance, admissions, and faculty management.
DataTerrain helped the university strengthen its BI operations, improve system performance, and maximize the value of its Informatica investment. Today, DataTerrain remains a trusted partner, supporting the university’s mission to remain a global thought leader in a rapidly evolving data landscape.