UNIRAZAK relies on SAS® to deliver enhanced performance management for a competitive position in the growing education industry

The deployment of SAS® Strategy Management enables UNIRAZAK to stay on target in its rapid growth as Malaysia's leading private university.

With an increasing number of local universities and soaring academic expectations, it is vital for Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNIRAZAK) to retain its market competitiveness by ensuring outstanding performance of administration and operations such as business unit and staff performance. UNIRAZAK turned to SAS Strategy Management not just to produce quality graduates, but also for the effective management of the university as a commercial organization.

Established Dec. 18, 1997, UNIRAZAK is one of the first private universities in Malaysia. Named after Malaysia's second prime minister, the university provides tertiary education to more than 10,000 students in 39 academic programs at diploma, undergraduate and post-graduate levels at eight regional centers.

UNIRAZAK has grown steadily in size and in the diversity of its course offerings; at the same time, academic standards have advanced. It was one of the first private learning institutions in Malaysia to receive the SIRIM certification of ISO 9001:2000. The fact that the university is of Malaysian Super Corridor (MSC) status is also testament to the university's commitment in integrating technology and innovation into its teaching and learning techniques.

Growth issues stress reporting abilities
Like most universities, UNIRAZAK came from a legacy of manually-produced reports for the institution's administrative processes and operations. A significant amount of time and resources were allocated each year simply for this purpose. Until recently, some crucial reports such as financial summary and publication analysis still took up to a few weeks to be sufficiently completed to facilitate management decision making.

President and Vice Chancellor of UNIRAZAK Professor Datuk Dr. Md. Zabid Haji Abdul Rashid says, "The massive efforts and costs associated with report preparation were beginning to bog the university down and prevented it from focusing on its core objective of achieving academic excellence. We couldn't afford this to continue happening if we were serious about wanting to grow."

In short, UNIRAZAK had a dire need to automate its performance management system for faster decision making and to reduce the costs and resources needed to generate ad hoc reports.

The second issue hindering the university's growth was the preparation of its annual Key Performance Indicators (KPI), which were semicomputerized and set and monitored by the various departmental heads. Because of the "manual mode" by which the performance targets were prepared, the university's KPIs were not dynamic and didn't accurately reflect changing departmental objectives throughout the year.

"As competition gets more intense every year, UNIRAZAK management needs to increase its visibility and ability to closely monitor the university's performance. And this means being able to access real-time data whenever we need it," says Professor Datuk Dr. Md. Zabid.

Improved performance clarity 
Since implementing the SAS solution through collaboration with Marff Resources and eCodeus Consulting, the university has reported notable improvements in its ability to generate reports; at the same time, the university has made performance metrics, goals and achievements more visible. SAS automates UNIRAZAK's reporting functions and provides a performance-management system that enables accurate monitoring of monthly KPIs for a clear view of targets and achievements.
 

Vice President of UNIRAZAK, Associate Professor Dr. Raja Hanaliza Raja Ahmad Tajudin

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