About TRI

The Translational Research Institute is a partnership between:

• The University of Queensland

• Mater Research

• Queensland University of Technology

• Queensland Health

While also hosting a number of clinical and industry collaborators.

TRI supports a wide range of shared research platforms, from microscopy and animal services to preclinical imaging. Since implementing PPMS in 2015, they’ve managed core facility scheduling, user access, service requests and financial operations through a unified system.

But as internal and partner reporting demands grew, TRI needed more than data access, they needed data insight.

“We began operations in 2012 born of the desire to bring collaboration to science and directly impact the translation of research from the bench to the bedside and back to the bench again.”  — Emily Duggan, Director Service Delivery & Quality, TRI

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Why TRI Integrated PPMS with PowerBI

PPMS already stored a rich dataset. TRI wanted to leverage it to:

• Justify equipment investments using usage and downtime trends

• Address staff capacity with clear evidence

• Highlight equipment risks and performance bottlenecks

• Provide tailored reporting to executives and collaborators

“We needed to move from data collection to data communication.” —  Emily Duggan, Director Service Delivery & Quality, TRI

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From Raw Data to Strategic Dashboards

1. Planning Equipment Investment

TRI tracks booking trends, repair frequency and downtime for each instrument to help guide capital equipment planning. Monthly reports show which instruments are frequently booked, frequently repaired, or showing signs of overuse.

This has helped:

• Identify instruments approaching the end of their service life

• Align capital investment requests with real usage data

• Make proactive, rather than reactive, infrastructure decisions

PowerBI dashboards make this information visual and actionable for decision-makers.

“The capital replacement analysis dashboard is one of the most powerful tools we have. It breaks down staff time, consumables and service costs, and overlays that with utilisation trends.” — Emily Duggan, Director Service Delivery & Quality

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2. Justifying Staffing Needs with Clear Data

Some TRI cores, like microscopy, experienced rapidly rising demand without a corresponding increase in staff. While managers understood the pressure, they needed hard data to make a case for new hires.

With PPMS usage data visualised in PowerBI, the team could:

• Pinpoint peaks in usage by time of day

• Demonstrate unsupervised use late at night or on weekends

• Correlate increased lead times with limited staff availability

This resulted in successful requests for new hires and better oversight, with evidence that was hard to ignore.

“One of our facilities had people booking it at 10pm at night and weekends trying to get on. If 20 labs are using it and can’t book it, that’s the kind of data that builds the case for action.”  — Tess Vogts, Core Facilities Manager

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3. Tailoring Reports for Different Audiences

TRI uses dashboard permissions to provide just the right amount of information to the right people.

Examples include:

• Core Managers see detailed equipment-level reports to plan workload and maintenance

• Executives and leadership see higher-level summaries and trend visualisations

• Partner institutions are offered custom views to support cross-organisation reporting

“We realised we needed not just annual snapshots but longitudinal views to support decisions around surge usage, funding or performance dips.” — Emily Duggan, Director Service Delivery & Quality

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Principles Behind TRI’s Reporting Success

TRI’s framework is guided by five key principles:

1. One Source of Truth: All dashboards use PPMS data, ensuring consistency across facilities and reports.

2. Granularity: Data is broken down by facility, instrument, user group, and booking type — not just overall numbers.

3. Audience-Specific Views: Every stakeholder gets a view that suits their role, from day-to-day management to high-level strategy.

4. Historical Context: Dashboards are built on longitudinal data, supporting trend analysis and long-term planning.

5. Secure, Governance-Aware Publishing: Dashboards are securely shared through PowerBI Service with planned improvements for broader institutional access.

“Having one data source, PPMS, that feeds into a consistent reporting model across our platforms has been really powerful. It means everyone’s working from the same numbers.” — Tess Vogts, Core Facilities Manager

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What’s Next for TRI?

TRI is continuing to enhance their reporting and decision-making capabilities with several upcoming priorities:

• AI & Forecasting: Reviewing PowerBI Copilot and Microsoft AI tools to support predictive capacity planning

• Inter-Institutional Dashboard Sharing: Piloting secure dashboard access across UQ, QUT, and Mater Research

• Consistent Utilisation Metrics: Defining baselines for 24/7 vs business hours usage across instruments

• Transparent Pricing Models: Capturing and communicating off-peak and holiday usage within PPMS dashboards

These steps are part of TRI’s broader goal to make data not just available but meaningful.

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Early Indicators of Impact

While KPIs are still being defined, the early signs are promising:

• Faster turnaround on equipment purchasing decisions

• More efficient internal reporting cycles

• Increased engagement from both facility managers and institutional leadership

• Greater visibility of facility performance in board-level and external reports

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Case Study Snapshots

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Turning Insight into Impact

TRI’s integration of PPMS and PowerBI has transformed the way its research infrastructure is managed, not only in terms of operations, but in how value is communicated across teams, partners and leadership.

It’s a model that blends real-time data with long-term strategy and one that’s very adaptable to other institutions.

Curious how Stratocore can help your organisation build a reporting model that supports smarter decisions? Get in touch.