Dean Meloney, Director of Academic Affairs at the SC Johnson College of Business, currently oversees the team that runs the faculty activity database. For nearly five years he has helped to develop that database, shaping it into a powerful tool for their college. On April 2, 2025, at the Emerging Tech Dialogues: Trust & Data event, attendees can explore the challenges, surprising gains, and lessons learned in Meloney’s quest to refine and share the college’s data.

From Data to Decisions

“There’s a phrase that I learned in a prior job: “decision-quality data.” It captures the idea that just gathering data isn’t enough. Users have to be able to trust the data,” said Meloney, comparing the challenge of collecting and distributing data to the struggle of letting someone borrow your first car. 

“If your experience was like mine, it required a bit of an orientation course: ‘It will stall immediately after the first start. That’s fine—just pump the gas and start it again. It’ll run for about 10 seconds and stall again. Just keep giving it a little gas until it warms up,’” said Meloney.

Data can require background information that’s only available from the people that collected it or originated it. If you must give detailed instructions about how to manage and interpret that data, then it isn’t decision-quality. 

“Our goal has always been to give people a 2020 Corolla rather than a 1978 AMC Pacer. Getting there is the trick,” said Meloney. Ensuring trust and usability when collecting data is one of the topics at the heart of his presentation.

Combating Inefficiency with Data That Helps People

By learning about the needs of other units across the college, Meloney’s team found they could help reduce inefficiencies by providing monthly standing reports from their database. 

Introducing themselves and the work they did was yet another way to make a difference. Meloney notes one example, where a colleague went to each faculty member’s individual webpage to gather information for a faculty list, not knowing that Meloney’s team housed the data that fed into those web profiles all along. 

“We could have provided her a roster report in minutes with all the data that likely took her several hours to track down. My goal is to minimize the number of times things like that happen.”

Lessons Learned

Over the years, Meloney has witnessed the ups and downs of data management. He shared these tips for anyone who finds themselves on a data-driven journey:

• Get the word out on what you have. It’s very likely that other units can benefit.
• Don’t be afraid of tracking data you may not have an immediate need for, assuming it doesn’t add significantly to your workload. If you think it could be useful, it’s likely it eventually will be (if you don’t keep it a secret.)
• Hire the right people. 

“We need people who are bothered by disarray. People who have to fix it when they open the silverware drawer and see a teaspoon mixed with the tablespoons,” said Meloney.

• The people who work most closely with the data are most familiar with it. Ask them for insights into what it’s saying. 

Attend Meloney’s session for more tips, insights, and a conversation in the spirit of learning from one another.

Register today for the free, full-day symposium.

“I know that most of our challenges aren’t unique. I really hope to hear what others are doing to overcome theirs. Just the act of discussing with others will spark some creativity, and I know we’ll leave with new things we want to try.”