A Multidimensional Information System Architecture Proposal for Management Support in Portuguese Higher Education The University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro Case Study

Abstract

Today's society is characterized by an abundant growth of data and information within the organizations, largely due to the extrapolation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) used to support their daily activities. The growing complexity of IS, has required the appearance of Information Systems Architectures (ISA) for their management and maintenance. The research team has identified relevance in its applicability within the Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (PHE), and a case study with the University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) was drawn. Through the development and implementation of an ISA proposal, UTAD was provided with a transversal view of all the existing IS, allowing validation of the existence/need for IS aimed at managing information and decision-making under a multidimensional perspective, that is, oriented at different organizational levels, from the operational to the strategic level. Given the proposed ISA degree of abstraction, it can be applied to the other institutions within PHE, since they share similar contexts than the one inherent to UTAD.