The story of two data analytics sisters called WANDA and WENDY

Wellesley College is a small private liberal arts college for women. When I arrived in 2010, I heard loud and clear from the faculty and staff that the technology landscape was in disarray and far behind the peer institutions and that we needed a drastic transformation. In this talk, I will describe a highly successful and transformational journey with a few examples. I will share techniques we used to overcome the fear of change and some of the cultural barriers. One of the most successful transformations is the implementation of a data analytics and business intelligence system based on Blackboard Analytics software that provided reliable, accurate and easy access to institutional data. This was one of our hardest journeys but the end result is a high level of satisfaction. I will describe this journey in greater detail and demonstrate the two systems, WANDA, a system for student and faculty data and WENDY, a system for alumnae data. Based on how these sisters have turned out, we are being asked to produce more siblings. We are in the process of delivering them soon