ROBI

Historical Context

In November 2021, former Rice President Leebron acknowledged the serious problems that had arisen following the rollout of iO that summer.

President Leebron statement on iO. Full text: https://rice.app.box.com/s/jf8pzwowl9k1x96fqi0fydlm794vx0y0

In the context of Research Administration, and in particular management of Post Award administration, the absence of a reliable financial system and/or interface to extract data from was a significant problem. 

Rice Oracle Business Intelligence (ROBI)

Using a tool called Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (to which access had been made available to all users via a link in the official iO Grants Management module at launch), the Office of Research began creating a series of Research Administration-supporting dashboards.

In December 2021 the collection of these function-specific dashboards was informally named Rice Oracle Business Intelligence (ROBI). Division-specific instances of these dashboards were subsequently developed and made available to divisionally approved users throughout early 2022. The Office of Research conducted over 40 individual training sessions on the use of this tool and provided user support. 

The Office of Research met regularly with ROBI users to collect their feedback from them face-to-face, via dozens of e-mail suggestions from users, and via a formally prepared questionnaire. 

2022. Questionnaire Responses https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P2Dvdfh066LCBFtdFsPkgDbyWXSRnGzc/view?usp=sharing 

The tool was migrated to OIT oversight in May 2022, but updates have continued to be applied to it by the Office of Research. 

This tool has moved from version 1.0 (December 2021) through version 1.35 (as of February 2024). As iO has stabilized, the need for updates to, and for the use of ROBI has naturally declined.

Access to ROBI

To request access to ROBI, contact your divisional lead administrator. Their written (e-mail) permission is required in order for the access request to be made. Forward the permission e-mail to James Hayward (jth6@rice.edu) of IRSO, the creator of this tool.

User Guide

Note that this guide is currently accurate through version 1.30 of ROBI. This guide is slightly outdated in some areas.
https://rice.app.box.com/file/960889636013?s=rk1cdv64u42czwsev3607mvfg15qubcd 

Lessons Learned

Building ROBI was an extremely time-intensive process that several Rice staff took on as a passion project, collectively spending over 2500 hours (approximately 1.2 staff years), with the overwhelming majority of that time spent being unpaid evenings and weekends. As Research Administrators with decades of collective experience, we had confidence that we knew what we needed to see from a data tool in order to be able to do our job, but we knew comparatively very little about Oracle analyses and dashboard development. Unsurprisingly, reaching the level of 'enthusiastic amateurs' in this area required a huge time investment, much trial and error, self - teaching, and patience.  

The first lesson learned here is that the effort made may have generated a helpful resource for Research Administrators but this approach is not an efficient or sustainable way to approach development. 

Simply knowing what should be available in order to achieve Research Administration goals is one thing, understanding the actual data architecture and the relationships (and barriers) between various data areas that might impede or shape thoughts on that is another altogether.

A financial system with its own associated layers of security, that merges with an HR system which has its own distinct layers of security is at potential conflict with the needs of Research Administration, whereby the need to see and know things in order to respond to internal and external program management (or other obligations associated with monitoring and managing sponsored projects) may well cut across the primary logic and security rules associated with the financial and HR data.

The various iterations and evolutions of iO have addressed many of these concerns and questions by generating a form of secure tunnel into certain HR data and calculated encumbrance data, that is pertinent to specific awards, making the security role of the award (to which a user can be associated or not associated) the way in which a degree of security is maintained.

The main conclusion that can be drawn by those that built ROBI is that in spite of their high levels of experience in Research Administration, it still would have been impossible to generate a useful tool like ROBI without the continuous feedback, inputs, and perspectives of its users. Furthermore, and perhaps most critically, the process of what users say they want/need vs the developer interpretation of what users say they want/need fundamentally requires the mindset (and conscious evaluation/direction) of a Business Analyst to be applied to it in order for the whole process to be efficient and productive. 

Hearing what people ask for and knowing what they mean (and why they've asked for it) in order to build what they actually need (and not necessarily the literal interpretation of what they've asked for) seems to be a critical role in tool development. If such Business Analysts exist for the interface between Research Administration and Oracle SQL Development, it would make sense to involve them heavily at all stages of development!

Future of ROBI

Updates to ROBI have slowed and no major future functionality changes are proposed. New users are still permitted, but the Office of Research is no longer actively onboarding or training those users. 

With limited (minor) exceptions, the full functionality of ROBI can be found within iO SPFF (and other) dashboards. 

ROBI is not being actively updated relative to Oracle patches and updates and its functionality may be impacted by such updates in the future. If this happens, there is no certainty on whether ROBI will be patched to continue or if it will cease. For this reason, it is advised that all ROBI users make sure that they know the way to get to the same information type in iO rather than ROBI and increasingly use that pathway instead.

Should any executive plans to consciously deactivate ROBI be made known to the Office of Research, all users will be given advance warning.