MBO Amersfoort provides young people with a pathway to a meaningful role in society. The institution prioritizes offering students an inspiring and dynamic work and learning environment, preparing them for their societal roles as skilled professionals, employees, and responsible, self-aware citizens. Around 8,000 students are enrolled in nearly 140 different programs at MBO Amersfoort. The strength of this educational institution lies in the small scale of the various teaching locations and training companies, enhancing the involvement and connection with students and staff.
Proliferation of over 300 reports
In the past, MBO Amersfoort used a BI tool. Astrid de Witte, Head of Information Management at MBO Amersfoort: “That tool was managed by one person, a BI specialist, who developed a lot on their own. Whenever a request came in, he would create a report without hesitation. While this led to great results, it also posed risks. A proliferation of different reports emerged, with more than 300 at its peak. Managing some of these reports became a challenge, and the demand kept growing. The knowledge about the data rested with one person, and stakeholders had no insight into the wealth of information we possessed.”
“There was a lack of organizational knowledge about the underlying infrastructure and how it was set up. This created limitations in terms of scalability and development. That’s why we drew up a project plan at the time and looked for partners that could offer a scalable, independent solution that aligned with our existing data architecture.”
Breaking data silos
The solution’s requirements were quickly clear, according to De Witte. “We were looking for a way to bring together data from various source systems in one place. Think of data from our student information, HR, Service, and Finance systems. We wanted to integrate this information to create detailed and/or integrated reports and dashboards for the Board of Directors, directors, education managers, and other stakeholders within our organization. The goal is to provide valuable information that helps our organization make better decisions and improve processes—all to continuously enhance the quality of our education.”
A flexible and scalable data platform
MBO Amersfoort also wanted to create a manageable, flexible, and scalable data environment. “We needed a solution that could grow with the needs and demands of our organization and education. In a manageable environment, where we could gradually offer more room and freedom for new data initiatives within the organization. But in a way where we always know who has access to what data and what happens to it. Additionally, we wanted to keep the hosting in-house, within our existing Microsoft Azure environment,” says De Witte.
The approach: implementing the Data Platform for Education
After an intensive selection process, the choice fell on the Data Platform for Education (DPO) from Macaw, developed with the latest Microsoft Azure cloud technology. “We also had the option to renew the existing BI tooling and continue with that. However, we decided to opt for a fresh start—a fresh start that gave us the opportunity to make new choices and sometimes radically discard the old,” says De Witte. “The implementation process began with a thorough analysis of our specific needs and requirements. Macaw worked closely with our organization to gain insight into our existing solution, processes, and objectives. Based on this analysis, a plan of action was created to gradually implement the data platform.”
Three-layer data platform: gold, silver, and bronze
The project began with Azure Fundamentals. “The foundation of our Azure environment was already in place. We asked Macaw to analyze this foundation and make improvements to ensure a solid base for our data platform.” Macaw then started implementing the DPO. “The DPO consists of three layers: bronze, silver, and gold. In the bronze layer, raw data from our source systems is unlocked based on standard connections. In the silver layer, the data is decoupled from the source systems and structured using data modeling, based on the common data model (based on MORA, the reference architecture for MBO). This is done to align data from different systems. For example, a student may be referred to as a ‘learner’ or ‘participant’ in one system and as a ‘student’ in another system. We want to create consistency. This way, we translate raw data into information that our BI experts can properly interpret and use in the gold layer. In the gold layer, data is made accessible to the organization in the form of models, reports, and dashboards,” says De Witte.
Data validation is key
A crucial part of the data platform’s adoption was data validation. De Witte: “Macaw worked with people from our organization to check if all the data was correct. Do the figures match? Where are the discrepancies or errors? Why are the numbers different or wrong? How can we improve the data? By having these conversations, we were able to improve the quality of the data in our platform step by step. We sometimes encountered data errors we thought had been removed long ago. So it was a very valuable process, in which Macaw’s experts provided excellent support.”
From over 300 to 60 reports in PowerBI
After the first phase of setting up the DPO, MBO Amersfoort began migrating its original BI tooling to Microsoft Power BI in phase 2. “We thoroughly analyzed which of the over 300 existing reports could be turned off—primarily those that were rarely used or whose output was no longer correct. Ultimately, around sixty reports remained, which we rebuilt in PowerBI over three months. Macaw helped us by, among other things, developing the reports in our corporate style and properly setting up authorizations and permissions.”
“We mainly see that the DPO gives us much more freedom in how we handle data, without losing control.” – Astrid de Witte (Head of Information Management)
A solid data platform with visible added value
MBO Amersfoort now has a solid data platform. In collaboration with The Next School and Macaw, two dashboards were also developed for the Board of Directors, directors, education managers, and career coaches. “We are very proud of that. It’s a great step for us to work more data-driven, with information that is complete, reliable, and available on time for our organization. Through this project, we have seen greater awareness of the added value of information. There’s growing enthusiasm to shape more information through reports or dashboarding. We are now making the choice to tackle this in a controlled and gradual way. The first step is to show the wealth of information we now possess through our data encyclopedia, and perhaps this information can be used more broadly. Ultimately, we want users to work with data independently. For now, this is done through our data domain specialists from the various support departments,” says De Witte.
The data platform makes data increasingly accessible
“What we mainly see is that the DPO gives us much more freedom in how we handle data, without losing control. Macaw has created a manageable environment that decouples data from the source systems. This opens up numerous possibilities to support our stakeholders and improve all education-related processes based on data. This way, we hope to make data increasingly accessible. Moreover, we manage the platform in-house and understand much better how it’s structured. We have the in-house knowledge to further develop the DPO platform and reduce the risk of a proliferation of data initiatives.”
Continuing to develop as partners
Through this process, MBO Amersfoort has gained a new perspective on how the institution wants to handle data. De Witte: “We are continuously taking steps, for example by adding new sources or making other datasets available. Macaw remains an important partner and advisor for us. They support us with licensing, support, and the development of the platform. They assist us when we need an extra pair of hands or when things get too complex. They are open to new ideas and work very collaboratively with our other partner, The Next School. That makes it very pleasant for us to work together!”
Want to take steps to become more data-driven?
MBO Amersfoort is a great example of how a data platform can help an educational institution move forward. By collecting, structuring, and making data available in one central environment for reports, dashboards, and other data initiatives, the DPO makes this possible. Would your educational institution also like to work in a more structured and data-driven way? We’d love to help!
