As we continue the implementation of the Anthology Student Information System (SIS), we have reached the third round of data conversion and testing. The data quality is now robust enough to explore the system’s reporting features.  The timing for the third testing phase aligns with the anticipated delivery of security fixes for reports on the Anthology Student menus, support for cloud-hosted college-specific data sets, and a recent recommendation from the 5C legal counsels on how to manage the risks associated with access to Anthology’s technical developer tools. With this in mind, we want to provide a summary of the reporting features for Anthology Student and current plans for how the colleges will get access.

Menu Reports

Anthology Student (AS) features basic, module-based reports accessible via the web client, allowing users to generate real-time lists based on selected parameters and to create student groups based on those lists. We have requested that Anthology schedule functional overviews of the menu reports starting the week of March 24, 2025, to familiarize users with these reports and coordinate testing.

Access to Anthology Report Developer Tools

Some of Anthology’s technical developer tools and roles grant unrestricted tenant-level access to the AS database. Users with access to these tools may have the ability to view, create, or alter data in the system that belongs to another college. The developer tools for reporting include query APIs, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), and Views. With the recent recommendation from the 5C legal counsels and project leadership, the 5C presidents have determined that extending access to Anthology’s developer tools to a limited number of individuals per college is appropriate and necessary to implement and maintain Anthology Student. Each college will be able to request access to the Anthology developer tools for a maximum of three (3) qualified technical employees (“developers”) who meet the following requirements as set by the colleges:

  1. Primary responsibility for technical development of SIS integrations, workflows, and/or reports.
  2. The duty to preserve and protect the integrity, privacy, and security of all data within the Claremont Colleges’ SIS ecosystem, irrespective of which college owns the data.
  3. School Official status as defined by both the college of employment and within the consortium.

We have created a request form for the 5C Leads to designate their college’s developers. Please read below for details and training plans for SSRS and Views.

 SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Service)

The menu reports in AS were developed with SSRS. This tool allows report developers to create real-time reports that other users can run from the AS reports menu. Using SSRS requires proficiency in SQL (Structured Query Language) and designation as an authorized 5C developer. We will schedule SSRS training for the 5C designated developers in mid- to late-March 2025.

Views

Views is Anthology Student’s built-in reporting tool. Like Cognos, Views allows users to create real-time reports beyond those offered on the AS menu. Views allows some object-based user restrictions, but certain objects will still contain data from all of the colleges. Claremont submitted a request in the Anthology Student Idea Exchange to observe campus-based user limitations in Views. Anthology recently communicated that this idea is being considered for their development roadmap, but we don’t have any further details. Therefore, access to Views will follow the protocol we are using for SSRS and other Anthology developer tools. We will organize training on Views along with SSRS in mid- to late-March 2025.

Analytics

Anthology recently informed us that TCCS will be able to create a data integration pipeline for connecting each college through Azure Data Factory to Anthology Student. Once established, each college will have access to a Power BI Reporting Services/Tenant that will connect to a college-specific data set. This will give the colleges control and flexibility to use their chosen reporting tools and develop their own reports. TCCS is already collaborating with Pitzer to develop and test the Azure/Power BI reporting option and outreach to each of the other colleges is underway. Fred Cheng from TCCS IT and Jackie Lo from the SIS implementation team are the contacts for this effort. The goal is to have data sources set up for each college by this summer.

We are happy to finally have some clear steps forward on Anthology Student reporting. We look forward to supporting the 5Cs in implementing these reporting options. If you have questions, please feel free to contact your college lead, or members of the TCCS project team. We will share the dates and times for the training mentioned above as soon as they are finalized.

If you have questions, please send them to Kiara Canjura, SIS Project Administrator, at kiarac@claremont.edu or sisproject@claremont.edu.