The first reporting tool that we introduced on Handshake was hosted by Looker. This created opportunities for your institution to report on data so you could easily view data on Handshake as it pertains to students, staff members, and others connected to your institution.
We've now introduced Omni's reporting tool under Insights. To help get you acclimated to this new feature, we will walkthrough the similarities and differences between the two tools.
Note: This article features content related to Analytics. Analytics will only be accessible until August.
Topics:
- Similarities
- Differences
- Terminology
Similarities
- Both reporting tools use Handshake data to build out reports, data refreshes at midnight.
- Permissions remain the same, you need Access Analytics permissions to view reports and Manage Analytics permissions to build custom reports.
- While Insights will include some new fields, every field that was available in Analytics will be available in Insights.
- The explores and topics are the same across Analytics and Insights.
- Handshake created legacy reports from Analytics will be available in Insights under the Handshake - Legacy Reports folder.
Differences
- In Analytics, you created stand alone reports. In Insights, a workbook is created and there can be multiple queries that appear as tabs.
- Upon creating a new report, Analytics sets default filters automatically. Insights no longer sets default filters, so you can build from zero.
- Analytics provides shareable links. Insights uses a folder storage system, workbooks can be shared within the feature.
- Analytics could only provide pre-built dashboards, but in Insights, you can create your own dashboards. Learn more in Insights: How to Create a Custom Report and Dashboard
- Insights provides an AI Assistant to help answer questions, define terms, and build queries. Learn more in How to use AI in Insights
- Functions such as XLOOKUP can be completed within Insights.
- Insights has more customizable options available for reports.
Terminology
Use this table for a quick glance of some similarities and differences between Looker and Omni!
| Looker | Omni | Definition |
| Explore/Report Type/Template | Topics | The starting data set used for reporting (Students, Jobs, Appointments, Fairs, etc.) |
| Dashboard | Dashboard | A single page featuring visualizations of data |
| Report | Query | A single page featuring data that was created by your team or Handshake |
| N/A | Workbook | A collection of multiple queries and/or dashboards, separated by tabs. |
| Reports tab | Folders | Location where reports can be saved/shared between users at your institution. Handshake created reports are also located here. |
| Duplicate | Explore (action) | An action that creates a copy of the report. In Looker, selecting Duplicate instantly saves the copy. While in Omni, after selecting Explore you can manually select File -> Save to save the copy. |
| Schedule | Deliveries & Alerts | The option that begins the process to set up a scheduled report. Learn more in Analytics: Scheduled Reports |