ODU integrates campus data for digital growth

80+

applications integrated with ERP

Rapid

deployment with no-code API development

Enhanced

real-time data access and automation

Stat Image

As demand for digital learning surges, Old Dominion University (ODU) embarked on a digital transformation to enhance student engagement and operational efficiency. With Informatica, ODU centralized its data integrations in one place, automated key workflows and improved the delivery of real-time services and reporting for all stakeholders.

“Being an educational institution requires managing vast amounts of data coming from various platforms and applications. Data is critical to develop student-centered approaches and enhance their learning and engagement experience. We wanted to build a framework that connects diverse data sources, reduces data siloes and optimizes transparency."

Jimmy Patel

Executive Director of Enterprise Systems
A data-driven campus for the digital era

A data-driven campus for the digital era

Founded a century ago as an extension school, Old Dominion University (ODU) today is a globally recognized R1 research institution and one of Virginia’s largest public universities. ODU offers degrees in over 175 majors across seven colleges and three schools, serving over 23,000 students from 99 countries. As demand for digital learning models surged, ODU sought to modernize its data strategy to monitor student engagement, performance and retention. The university had been seeing rapid growth in data from various sources, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and learning management systems (LMS), as well as other third-party applications. This data plays a vital role in student success, budget and payroll. “Being an educational institution requires managing vast amounts of data coming from various platforms and applications,” says Jimmy Patel, Executive Director of Enterprise Systems at ODU, and a 24-year veteran of the university where he first joined as a Database Administrator. “Data is critical to develop student-centered approaches and enhance their learning and engagement experience. We wanted to build a framework that connects diverse data sources, reduces data siloes and optimizes transparency."

To support the President’s digital transformation vision, Patel and his team sought to move ODU’s data architecture to the cloud. This would enable more efficient integrations as well as a centralized data warehouse for analyzing student, employee and financial data.

Compliance is also a top priority, including protection of student records under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Sai Ratnakar Nidumolu, Business Intelligence Developer at ODU, emphasizes this : "At ODU, with the increasing volume of data, there is a greater need to ensure data privacy and security for every student.”

"Automating the flow of data between applications with no-code and low-code solutions was key to our modernization strategy. We wanted to build reliable integrations with reduced development time and ensure data accuracy."

Sai Ratnakar Nidumolu

Business Intelligence Developer

Moving to a scalable cloud data platform

When ODU embarked on its cloud modernization journey, the team faced a common predicament; fragmented data. At ODU, over 80 applications regularly communicate with the university’s main ERP system, Banner. Previously, the team had been using point-to-point (P2P) integrations and APIs in a limited iPaaS solution. However, this approach led to a scattered and disorganized architecture. The team wanted a centralized, efficient solution for data and application integration and management.

"Automating the flow of data between applications with no-code and low-code solutions was key to our modernization strategy," explains Nidumolu. "We wanted to build reliable integrations with reduced development time and ensure data accuracy."

The solution was Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), a comprehensive suite of tools for data integration, application integration, quality, governance and API management. The platform's flexibility and scalability allow ODU to connect diverse and multi-cloud data sources across ODU’s complex technology environment, including:

Moving to a scalable cloud data platform
  • Oracle-based ERP system (Banner) for core university operations
  • SQL server for services like printing (Pharos)
  • Snowflake for data warehousing, including attendance data and learning management system data
  • Salesforce for customer relationship management (CRM)
  • Various file processing systems (SFTP, File I/O, AWS S3)
  • SharePoint for document management and collaboration
  • REST and SOAP APIs for integrating with various systems and services

IDMC now serves as the central hub, with Cloud Data Integration and Cloud Application Integration connecting these systems and enabling seamless data flow and real-time streaming across multi-cloud and hybrid environments. Prebuilt connectors enable ODU to connect to partners like Salesforce and Oracle in minutes.

“As a single tool that offers scalable integrations with diverse sources, IDMC is highly valuable for any organization managing complex data environments,” explains Patel. “In a short time, Informatica has become essential in facilitating our data exchange with third parties and integrating our on-premises and cloud applications.”

Enhancing student experiences with real-time data

Enhancing student experiences with real-time data

With the new data platform, ODU has accelerated the development and deployment of new integrations and services. The low-code/no-code capabilities of IDMC empower even non-technical staff to develop simple mappings and generate reports. This reduces the burden on the IT team while fostering a more data-driven culture throughout the institution.

These improvements have already directly impacted the student experience. Real-time data processing enables ODU to instantly remove holds on student accounts and issue ID cards once a student confirms admission. With IDMC event-driven capabilities, ODU also ensures that up-to-date information is available in real time for systems like budget, payroll and even reports for leadership, including student and alumni feedback in Qualtrics and the latest data on commencement registration.

As new challenges emerge, the IDMC flexible IPU (Informatica Processing Units) pricing model has also been a game-changer. The university can scale its data operations across new connections or capabilities without the need for additional license purchases. As Patel notes, "This flexibility allows us to onboard new applications in an agile manner. We can use several types of connections without any limits if we stay within our contract's IPUs."

When launching its cloud modernization program, ODU could easily migrate thousands of tables and billions of rows of LMS data to a cloud-based data lake with minimal effort. Additionally, it enabled daily syncs between the ERP Banner and Microsoft SharePoint. No matter what connection or process emerged next, the IPU license provided the agility to meet each use case.

Looking ahead: Data governance, automation and AI

ODU's success with Informatica isn't just about the technology—it's also about the community that comes with it. "Informatica's support team has done a fabulous job in troubleshooting complex issues," Nidumolu says. "Their knowledge base articles are comprehensive, and most issues can be resolved by referring to the documentation."

The university has also benefited from Informatica training programs, including instructor-led sessions that have enabled a "train the trainer" model within ODU. This approach has helped spread knowledge and best practices across the IT team.

With Informatica, ODU has also been able to establish a solid foundation for future AI initiatives. "While we are in the pilot stage of building modern Data Governance Architecture, AI and ML capabilities in Informatica will help us fine-tune our data," Nidumolu adds. "Automated data profiling, classification, and lineage to find data inconsistencies and duplicates helps ODU maintain data quality, which improves our reporting architecture."

Looking ahead: Data governance, automation and AI

The university is particularly excited about the potential of CLAIRE GPT, Informatica’s generative AI capability. Patel envisions its role in future initiatives: "At DTT (Digital Transformation and Technology), one of our core principles is to automate business processes. We believe CLAIRE GPT will play a crucial role in automating and enhancing our data management workflows."

As ODU continues to evolve its data strategy, the university has ambitious plans for expanding its IDMC footprint – from secure AWS agents and a centralized data lake to new audit frameworks or real-time ticketing workflows in ServiceNow.

With Informatica as the cornerstone of its data strategy, ODU is ready to deliver trusted data capabilities for students, faculty and staff . With each new cloud integration and real-time service, the team is setting a benchmark for how higher education institutions can use technology to drive student success and operational excellence in the digital age.

Inside the solution

Intelligent Data Management Cloud

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Cloud Data Integration

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Cloud Application Integration

Integrate apps and data in real time with intelligent business processes spanning cloud and on-premises sources.
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Data Management for Oracle

Informatica is an Oracle Cloud preferred partner for enterprise cloud data integration.
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Salesforce

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