How Asia Pacific University transformed reporting for 700+ users across campus with Jaspersoft

Challenge

Real-time data and insights constrained by legacy reporting tools

The Center of Technology and Innovation (CTI) at Asia Pacific University (APU), part of the APIIT Education Group, serves as a software house for the entire education group, which includes a language center, international schools, undergraduate and postgraduate programs, and more. The team is responsible for building and maintaining IT and reporting systems used across a wide range of departments, from academic administration, including heads of schools, to finance and campus services.

CTI supports reporting and analytics for just about everything: student performance, teaching evaluations, financial transactions, and even the university’s cashless campus system. With numerous responsibilities and stakeholders, having reliable and accessible data was critical. But their existing tools just couldn’t keep up.

At the time, they were using a combination of Oracle Reports and spreadsheets. Oracle Reports could handle basic tabular-style outputs, but it wasn’t designed for interactive analytics or visual dashboards. While spreadsheets helped fill in the gaps, building meaningful insights from raw data was time-consuming and inconsistent.

"Every time management wanted information, they had to actually inform us, and we had to generate the data, mine the data, and only then could we pass it along. That was not fast enough to support leadership decision-making," explained Nurul Akmal Abdullah, Manager, Software Development

The need for a faster, more flexible reporting and analytics solution was clear. CTI needed a tool that could serve multiple departments, scale with growing demands, and cut down on manual work.

Solution

Why APU chose Jaspersoft and how they’re using it today

When the CTI team at APU set out to modernize their reporting and analytics, they had clear goals. They wanted a platform that could support deeper insights, speed up decision-making, and reduce manual data work across departments. After comparing two other options, they landed on Jaspersoft.

"We started exploring what was available in the market. We tried Jaspersoft as a trial, built some reports, and quickly saw how it could help," shared Mustafa Othman, Manager, Software Development. "It started with a food analytics use case—understanding what was selling, what wasn’t. That opened the door."

Today, Jaspersoft plays a central role in CTI’s operations. It powers everything from student performance dashboards and teaching effectiveness reports to cashless system transactions and vendor reconciliation. Academic leadership, marketing, finance, and even operations rely on the data coming out of Jaspersoft to make timely decisions.

"Almost everyone on campus touches it in some way," said Ismail Siraj Siddiqui, Web Application Developer. "Lecturers use it for attendance. Marketing uses it for tracking enrollment by country. Finance uses it for monthly reporting. Even parking and cafeteria vendors get reports."

But it’s not just about the volume of reports, data sources, or users; it’s about control, speed, and insight. Here are the key Jaspersoft features that have helped CTI unlock more value across the university:

Permissions that protect sensitive data

Before Jaspersoft, it was hard to make sure only the right people had access to specific data. That was especially important in an academic environment where confidentiality matters.

"If I’m a lecturer, I shouldn’t see other lecturers’ class surveys," Ismail explained. "With Jaspersoft, it checks who’s logged in and shows only the reports they’re allowed to access."

Jaspersoft's fine-grained permissions control helps the university maintain privacy and ensures users only see what’s relevant to them. And it all integrates with CTI’s existing authentication system, which further simplifies permissions management and security.

Interactive dashboards and drill-downs to identify root causes

CTI needed more than static reports—they wanted dynamic tools that would help users investigate problems and explore data on their own.

"When you see a red flag in a dashboard, you can just click it and drill down into the source data," said Ismail. "You drill down and see what’s causing the issue, instead of guessing."

These interactive reports, made possible by Jaspersoft, help academic leaders identify gaps in student performance, understand attendance patterns, and even monitor how new services are performing in real time.

Merging data for more complete answers

Many of CTI’s insights depend on data that lives in separate systems, like HR, academic records, and finance. Jaspersoft made it easier to bring those datasets together.

"We’ve built reports that combine HR and other systems so that users get a better, more complete view," Nurul said. “It helps with everything from staff planning to analyzing resource usage."

This ability to unify data, powered by Jaspersoft's virtual data sources feature, without duplicating data or building complex integrations, was a big time-saver and eliminated the need for additional human or computing resources.

Scheduled reports that reduce manual work

Before Jaspersoft, the CTI team spent a lot of time preparing reports manually. Now, they’ve automated much of that work with scheduled reports.

"We’ve scheduled reports that go out on the first of the month or end of the month—whatever management needs for their meetings," said Ismail. "We also send weekly summaries to external food vendors, so they can reconcile transactions."

With Jaspersoft, these scheduled reports can be sent in multiple formats, including Excel and API calls, and have helped the team support operations with minimal effort.

Self-service reporting for faster answers

One of the biggest changes that Jaspersoft enabled for CTI was the ability to offer self-service reporting. This helped cut down on repetitive data requests that previously came through the IT help desk.

"We looked at what kinds of requests were coming in and turned the most common ones into self-service reports," shared Nurul. "Now users can get what they need with a few clicks, instead of opening a ticket."

Enabled by Jasersoft’s ad hoc reports, departments can easily explore their own data, make decisions faster, and free up CTI's time for bigger projects.

Altogether, Jaspersoft has played a key role in helping CTI move from reactive reporting to proactive insight. Jaspersoft has become a core part of how APU operates day to day, not just for data teams but for anyone making decisions across the campus.

Results

Insights in minutes, fewer tickets, more control

With Jaspersoft in place, CTI has seen major improvements in how data is accessed, shared, and acted on across APU. Decisions that used to take days or even weeks now happen in minutes.

Faster decision-making: "Now, while they're having a meeting, they can make updates to stakeholders immediately," said Nurul. "They don't have to wait for us to pull the data." This speed has been especially valuable for management, who often need to make quick decisions based on enrollment trends, academic performance, or operations data.

Fewer analytics support requests: The team also saw a drop in help desk tickets. Thanks to self-service reporting, many departments no longer need to ask CTI for basic data requests. This frees up the CTI team to focus on larger strategic projects instead of day-to-day reporting tasks.

Stress-free compliance and security: Data privacy and accuracy have also improved. With clear permission rules in place, users only see what they're allowed to see. This has helped reduce confusion and avoid the risk of exposing sensitive information.

Jaspersoft has become a vital part of how APU runs. It has improved not just reporting, but now supports how the whole university works together.