Data via CertMetrics Advanced Reporting Module tells the “real story”…
“CompTIA needed a robust reporting solution to deal with the massive amount of certification data we mine and analyze on a regular basis,” said Craig Latto, Vice President, Certification Operations. “The CertMetrics™SQL legacy report tool is valuable, essential, and meets many of our needs. But we needed even more power to quickly create, execute, and perform extensive analyses on custom and standard report data. We also needed to decrease reporting latency and timelines to meet our business needs and inform stakeholders quickly.”
The result is the CertMetrics™ Advanced Reporting and Visualization Module. “We have access to data that is absolutely accurate and now we can evaluate it in real-time, which helps us make key decisions with stakeholders,” said Gross. “When I need to evaluate the efficacy of a particular exam, I simply run and review the respective psychometric reports to check stats such as number of deliveries, pass rates, etc. I can do so on the fly, and the results are provided with zero wait time. Over time as the system and data have been available longer, the data has become richer and even more valuable. We don’t typically use all of the advanced displays that are available – but that functionality is there if we need it. I find it especially valuable to use the pivot table functionality to quickly create charts with ease. All the different ways to manipulate data are amazing. It looks professional every time it is generated and is a huge time saver for me when preparing for presentations.”
“I can start with a quick baseline of data for any discussion,” continued Gross. “The system is always up and available. For example, in the case of a psychometric issue, if I’m on a call with our team at Alpine or internal development staff, I can quickly look across our data for trends and details that would have to be otherwise pieced together from legacy psychometric reports. I travel often, and it’s a big advantage that the functionality behaves very well on iPads and other devices, as that allows me to interact with the system and get data to people quickly while traveling; it enables me to tell the ‘real story’ that needs to be told.”
CompTIA appreciates the direct insights Advanced Reporting continues to provide for their certification program and how it also benefits their customers. “We understand our business much better today than we did a couple of years ago due to the valuable data we now have.” stated Latto. “There’s a lot of science going on behind the scenes. Understanding our business and all the dynamics and parameters helps us create an overall better experience for our customers. When we consider what our gut feeling is, we’ve got data to support it. We can also ask, what is driving cause and effect? Without this tool, we would not have the ability to filter large quantities of data and perform these types of analyses as it would be too time consuming.”
Latto also stated that the tool has helped inform CompTIA’s Marketing and Finance departments as well. “Marketing uses the data to understand what programs are popular and to craft marketing campaigns around what exams people are taking, how often people are taking exams, what they’re taking next…there’s a wealth of information available to devise programs that benefit our clients and offer incentives to implement what we believe are good ways to move forward. Finance also benefits by knowing the cost, overhead, and price points…the data in this tool helps guide those discussions.”
Randy summed things up by saying, “The performance of the tool is truly remarkable – especially the way it has been refined over time.”
“Once the team got a feel for how Qlik works,” shared Latto, “we quickly discovered the power and advantage of using filters, which allow us to very quickly drill-down into areas of interest within a larger set of data. For example, we can quickly focus on a set of products in specific timeframes, and then compare those timeframes. We have also created useful ‘go-to’ or ‘favorite’ reports that provide the results we commonly need. With some basic concepts down, we were off to the races. Zero processing time is required. We were thinking we’d have to add filters and coding and do a lot of enhancements internally. Fortunately, we didn’t have to. The data is already there the minute we run reports due to the way that Alpine set up and configured the system. For standard and custom reports that are in place, it is simply stunning how quickly we receive the results!”
Interested in learning more about CertMetrics™ and the Advanced Reporting and Visualization Module? Contact support@alpinetesting.com or, if you are a CertMetrics™ user, contact your Alpine Technical Program Manager for a tour of the CertMetrics™ Advanced Reporting and Visualization Module and start enjoying the internal benefits as well as the benefits to your credentialed candidates! For more information on the Advanced Reporting and Visualization Module, click here.