Enterprise Data Inventory Initiative FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Purpose

This FAQ articles consolidates recurring questions received across the System regarding the Data Resource Inventory Initiative and provides a consistent, practical interpretation of what should be included in the current inventory.

Quick Start

If you only have a few minutes, use the following decision guide before completing the web form or spreadsheet.

Include by default
When uncertain, include the resource. The first phase is intended to create a broad, system-wide map. Entries can be refined, grouped, or excluded from later efforts after the inventory is reviewed.

Questions & Answers

1. What is the Enterprise Data Inventory Initiative?

It is a systemwide effort to identify where institutional data is stored. The inventory will create a clearer map of data resources, so the OSU/A&M System can improve data integrity, security, governance, strategic decision-making, student success work, and readiness for future analytics and artificial intelligence initiatives.

2. What is “institutional data”?

For this initiative, institutional data means data that belongs to, is maintained for, or is used on behalf of an OSU/A&M institution or the System as a whole. It includes student, employee, financial, research, academic, and operational information.

Practical rule: If the institution owns the data or relies on it to perform its work, treat it as institutional data and include the resource.

3. What is “operational data”?

Operational data is information used to run the day-to-day work of a college, department, office, program, or service. It may document activities, services, transactions, workflows, communications, scheduling, facilities, events, outreach, or internal administration.

• Examples include departmental tracking spreadsheets, service or request records, event and registration data, contact lists, web-form responses, website content, workflow records, and files used to support recurring business processes.
• Operational data can exist even when it is not student, employee, financial, research, or academic data.

4. Who should participate?

Colleges, departments, administrative units, campuses, and other institutional areas should involve anyone who knows where data is stored or managed. This may include faculty who maintain research data, staff who manage files or business processes, application owners, data stewards, and IT personnel.

5. Is participation voluntary or mandatory?

Although the initiative is not a mandatory compliance exercise, units that store or use institutional data should submit their resources to support a comprehensive systemwide inventory.

Practical rule: Treat participation as an expected institutional responsibility and escalate local questions through your IT contact or Heath Hodges.

6. What types of resources should be included?

Include systems and locations that contain institutional data, regardless of format or hosting model.

• Enterprise and departmental applications
• Databases and data warehouses
• Cloud applications and software-as-a-service tools
• Spreadsheets, Google Sheets, and similar working files
• OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams-connected repositories, group drives, and other file locations
• Web forms and survey tools
• Websites and internal web content
• Photo, video, audio, and digital asset repositories
• Research servers, lab systems, and locally managed storage
• Vendor-hosted platforms that hold institutional data

7. Should we include centrally managed OSU systems such as Banner, OneDrive, Slate, SharePoint, or Microsoft 365?

Yes. If your area uses a centrally managed system to store or manage its institutional data, include it as a data resource for your area. This helps identify where units rely on shared platforms and what types of data they maintain there. Duplicate entries can be consolidated during later review.

8. For Banner or another database, do we need to list every table?

No, not during the current phase. List the application or database at the system level and identify the types of data it contains. Detailed table-level documentation may be useful later, but the immediate priority is identifying systems and resources that may not already be known.

9. Should photo repositories and digital media be included?

Yes, when the photos, videos, audio files, graphics, or other digital assets belong to an OSU/A&M institution or the System. Include the repository or application that stores or manages those assets.

10. Should web applications such as Canva or Sprout Social be included?

Yes, when the application stores institutional content, account information, communications, analytics, media, or other data owned or used by the institution. The same principle applies to other cloud-hosted applications.

11. Should websites, web pages, and internal SharePoint sites be included?

Yes. Include the platform or repository when it contains institutional content or operational information. You do not need to submit every individual page as a separate resource. Record the website, site collection, repository, or managed platform at an appropriate level and describe its contents.

12. Should web forms, spreadsheets, and files used for internal operations be included?

Yes. Include web forms, spreadsheets, Google Sheets, workbooks, and similar resources when they collect, store, or organize institutional data. For many related files stored together, identify the repository, business process, or collection rather than creating an entry for every file.

13. Do cloud-hosted and vendor-hosted resources count, or only internally hosted systems?

Both count. The inventory is intended to identify institutional data wherever it resides, including on-premises servers, university-managed cloud services, third-party platforms, hosted applications, research environments, and externally managed repositories.

14. What information should be disclosed?

Provide the information requested by the web form or spreadsheet about the resource, such as its name, purpose, owner or responsible area, data types, location or hosting model, access method, update frequency, size or scale when known, and criticality. Do not insert sensitive record-level data, passwords, confidential values, or the actual contents of the dataset into the inventory.

Practical rule: Describe the resource and the categories of data it contains. Do not copy the underlying data into the form.

15. What if I do not understand a spreadsheet heading or do not know an answer?

Complete the fields you can accurately answer and coordinate with the person who owns or administers the resource for technical details. If a heading is unclear, contact your institutional IT representative or Heath Hodges before guessing. A short, accurate description is more useful than an unsupported technical answer.

16. What if several people submit the same system?

Submit the resource when it represents your area’s use or data. Some duplication is expected in a broad inventory and can help show how widely a shared platform is used. Entries can be reviewed and consolidated later.

17. What if I am unsure whether a resource belongs in the inventory?

Include it by default and explain the uncertainty in the description or notes. The current goal is a comprehensive first-pass inventory. It is easier to refine an entry later than to discover an omitted data location after the inventory closes.

18. Who can submit information?

Submission is limited to individuals within the OSU/A&M System. Third-party vendors or external partners should work through an institutional employee who can submit the resource on behalf of the appropriate unit.

19. How should we submit the inventory?

Use the web form for one-off or individual resources. Use the Excel spreadsheet when a department has many resources or already maintains a system list. When using the spreadsheet, open it in the Excel desktop application if the embedded dropdowns do not function correctly in Excel for the web.

20. When is the current submission deadline?

Inventory submissions are requested by September 30, 2026.

Submission Checklist

• I involved people who understand the unit's application, files, research environments, and business processes.
• I included both internally hosted and cloud/vendor-hosted resources.
• I included operational resources, not only formal enterprise systems.
• I described categories of data rather than copying sensitive data into inventory.
• I included uncertain items and added context instead of omitting them.
• I used the web form for individual entries or the spreadsheet for a larger collection.

Need help?

Contact Heath Hodges, A&M CIO, at hhodges@okstate.edu. Institutional IT contacts may also help identify resource owners and technical details.