Ed Cornelius
Latest posts by Ed Cornelius (see all)
- How to Create a Plan for Upgrading Administrative Software - March 9, 2016
- No More Firefighting!Transform Your Leadership Team in 5 Steps - August 13, 2015
- Does Your ERP Project Need a Manager or a Leader? - June 29, 2015
Our last few blogs have discussed why schools are looking at their enterprise administrative systems and some common challenges they are facing. If you have come to a decision to upgrade or replace your campus systems, now the question is: How do we plan for a large systems improvement?
Implementing or upgrading an administrative system is one of the largest projects a school can tackle these days and it should not be committed to without a thoroughly thought-out plan. First, know that you are not alone! Consider the following market observations:
Given these statistics, many higher education institutions will likely be active in exploring administration software systems in the higher education market!
But first let’s talk about barriers to systems change
Before embarking on any plan, your school needs to consider what the barriers will be to upgrading or replacing your administrative systems. In our last blog, we noted four common barriers- noted briefly here. Please check out the blog post here for more details.
1. Cost/Benefit is Not Articulated.
2. Wait and See Approach.
3. Plagued by Current Inefficiencies.
4. Organizational Readiness is Low.
While these are common barriers to systems change, your institution may not be riddled by all of these and may have some unique barriers to your situation to consider. It’s important to identify and create a solution for any barrier that might effect a systems change at your school.
A Plan to Improve Administrative Software on Campus
Once a decision has been made to move forward with an administrative systems change, a plan must be implemented. We have put together a four-step process for putting together a plan to upgrade administrative software. The four steps are:
- Carry out a Strategic Systems Assessment on Campus
This kind of assessment on campus should validate the institutional need to develop a business case for systems improvements. This will include a needs assessment, a market analysis, and projections of costs. If the institution has a strategic plan, make sure that systems upgrading is covered in the institution’s strategic plan.
- Carry out a Business Process Re-Engineering Project
In the second step, we must analyze and commit to streamlining existing processes at the institution. In this way, the institution can compare their best practices to existing commercial systems in the higher education market.
- Carry out an Organizational Readiness Assessment
This step, done well, will increase the likelihood of implementing new administrative software on campuses. Collegiate Project Services has created 16 separate factors to predict how ready the institution is to be successful at implementing new administrative systems on campus. Some of these success factors involve organization change management (OCM) expertise on campus.
- Oversee an Independent Vendor Selection Process
A final step of this plan is to carry out a vendor selection process in order to seek the best possible software systems for a particular higher education institution. At this point it is important to have a seasoned, independent consultant to provide oversight for the RFI/RFP process.
In Summary:
Based on strategic market observations, institutions will likely be active in exploring administration software systems in the higher education market. Before embarking on a plan, institutions should make efforts to consider common barriers to systems change as well as barriers that may be unique to their situation. In what is often a complicated process, following the four-step plan as described should allow for a seamless transition to a new or upgraded system.
