Fast Facts: Reproducible Factbook Reporting in Quarto

Session Abstract: While Business Intelligence (BI) tools for data visualization and interactive reporting, exemplified by Power BI and Tableau, are immensely useful to IR offices, they have key limitations. Namely, cost, complexity, and confinement. Institutions facing budget cuts or with limited reporting capacity require reliable alternatives. Even institutions that do successfully integrate these BI tools into their work benefit from having a repertoire of tools to provide the information needed by a broad array of stakeholders. Cue the power of Quarto! This session will tangibly demonstrate how Colorado State University generates its annual Factbook through a reproducible, dynamic, and automated process in Quarto (via RStudio). Attendees will learn ways that Quarto can function as a substitute for, as well as a complement to, more expensive BI tools. As an open-source publishing system, Quarto can empower IR offices of all sizes to create easily digestible and accessible reports in a timely manner.

Keywords: Quarto, RStudio, factbook, reproducible reporting, decision support