About the Advanced Analytics project
The Board of Governors and the Executive Board at SDU decided, after a pilot project in 2017, that SDU Analytics should carry out an actual strategic project 2018 - 2021 to uncover potential in the use of advanced analytics.
Along the way, the project was extended until and including 2022, and since then a plan has been laid for phasing in learning from the project for transformation into regular operations during 2023 – 2025.
Project Advanced Analytics is collectively the term for advanced data processing, e.g. machine learning, where large amounts of data from many different sources are used.
In Project Advanced Analytics, classic descriptive statistics and traditional statistical methods are replaced by more modern data science approaches.
The purpose of the project is to challenge the well-known classic standard reporting from the business systems by having a stronger analytical focus on new types of insights via new data sources and new analysis methods. In comparison, the content of the classic management information is typically defined in relation to several legality requirements, external reporting requirements and operational management needs in the organization.
The machine learning part of the project has been in EU tenders in 2018 to ensure the strongest external assistance for the development of machine learning models. From 2020, the machine learning development was taken over internally in SDU Analytics by virtue of the competence development achieved in the project.
Part of the project was a Student Analytics Lab, where students and analysts in SDU Analytics worked closely together.
In general, the project provided new competences internally for more efficient and modern data use, which has contributed with new solutions for the entire SDU, and a generally faster time-to-market data flow with end-to-end handling from the raw data to the dissemination of the analytical presentations.
The project has been crucial in being able to experiment and develop new types of data support for SDU and has also given SDU Analytics significant competence to work actively with data ethics. An additional effect for SDU Analytics of the project was many new relationships nationally and internationally across sectors and industries.
Several elements from the project are naturally closed down with the end of the project, but there are several elements from the project which continue to live on in various processes being fully embedded in the ordinary operation 2023 – 2025.
SDU's Analysis Portal, to which all employees at SDU have access, is a very concrete result of the project.
