Case Study: Arizona Department of Education streamlines reporting and saves millions with Microsoft Azure

The Arizona Department of Education fixes a broken finance and reporting system with Microsoft Azure and the Ed-Fi Alliance

The Arizona Department of Education faced a critical challenge with its outdated, fragmented finance and reporting systems. Its numerous siloed databases produced conflicting information, causing an estimated 2.3 million annual transaction errors and forcing local schools to spend $30 million a year on corrections. To fix this broken system, the department partnered with Microsoft Corporation, utilizing Microsoft Azure and the Ed-Fi Alliance to reimagine its data analytics.

Microsoft's solution involved unifying the department's disparate data streams onto a single Azure-based dashboard via the Ed-Fi API. This streamlined the data platform, reducing data processing run times from multiple days to just a few hours and cutting one 11-hour process down to 47 minutes. The transformation empowered educators with immediate access to student data for better decision-making and is estimated to save local schools upwards of $40 million in staff time annually, while also ensuring accurate financial reimbursements.

Arizona Department of Education

Mark Masterson

CIO