Introduction
Founded in 1889, Weber State University is a publicly supported, coeducational institution known for its commitment to teaching excellence and student success. With more than 26,000 students studying full and part-time, Weber State needed consistent, accessible data to support reporting and analytics across campus. After years of false starts with home-grown solutions, the University turned to WhereScape to automate data warehouse development and finally deliver a scalable enterprise analytics platform.
Pre-WhereScape Challenges
- Repeated failed attempts: A “build-it-yourself” approach never delivered a full enterprise warehouse.
- Data silos across campus: Departments maintained their own spreadsheets and inconsistent numbers.
- Limited resources: Small IT teams could not sustain traditional warehouse development.
- Changing requirements: Policies and reporting needs shifted faster than manual projects could adapt.
- Low confidence: Lack of expertise slowed progress and increased project risk.
Why WhereScape?
Weber State needed a solution designed for small teams that embedded data warehouse best practices directly into the platform. WhereScape RED stood out by providing automation, Oracle-specific expertise and repeatable patterns that removed guesswork—allowing the University to move forward with confidence and speed.
“One of the things that stood out about WhereScape RED during our due diligence was that the software is intended to be used with a small staff.”
– Lucas Jones, Database Administrator, Weber State University
The Solution
Automated Oracle Data Warehouse
Using WhereScape RED, Weber State designed, built and deployed a new Oracle data warehouse in just nine months with two developers.
Student-Centric Analytics Foundation
The initial rollout included 10 fact tables and supporting dimensions representing one million student registration records dating all the way back to 2006.
Tableau-Ready Architecture
The warehouse was designed to directly support Weber State’s Tableau user community, enabling self-service analytics at scale.
Best Practices Built In
Oracle optimisation, dimensional modelling and automation removed reliance on scarce specialist expertise.
Results
🚀 Faster Delivery With Fewer Resources
- Enterprise warehouse delivered in 9 months with two staff members.
- Phase one completed far earlier than anticipated—even during peak registration.
🚀 Expanded Insight and Consistency
- Centralised data improves consistency and quality across campus.
- Analysts can ask questions that were previously impossible.
- Student demographics and trends analysed with far greater depth.
🚀 High User Adoption
- Approximately 80% of existing reporting needs met at launch.
- Analytics community energized by new possibilities.
- Growing demand as success spreads across departments.
“Our reporting and analytics users are excited and are imagining the possibilities of what is now possible. More and more, IT is able to say ‘yes we can’ to business requests.”
– Lucas Jones, Database Administrator, Weber State University
From Siloed Data to Shared Insight
Before the warehouse, departments tracked their own numbers independently. WhereScape enabled Weber State to centralise data and promote sharing across the University.
Confidence Through Automation
WhereScape provided not just tooling, but confidence—embedding data warehouse expertise directly into the development process.
Built to Grow
Following student data, Weber State has already deployed financial aid fact tables and plans to integrate HR data next; delivering more value sooner than manual approaches would allow.
“With WhereScape, we have been able to do a lot more with a lot less resources. We completed phase one of the data warehouse much sooner than we ever thought possible—by a long shot.”
– Lucas Jones, Database Administrator, Weber State University