Executive Summary

The University has initiated an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project, a University-wide initiative which was recommended by the Administrative Technology Committee and approved by the Board of Trustees. With a wide consensus in a participatory selection process, SunGard Banner has been selected as the core software to replace AIMS, along with various other software products that will support University business objectives. The University has also selected Strata Information Group to provide implementation services which includes both project management services as well as functional area training and consulting.

On June 28, 2010 the following message from President Bob Weisbuch was sent to the campus community:

June 28, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

This week, the university will embark on an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project, a long overdue campus-wide initiative that will replace AIMS, our 30-year-old administrative software, with SunGard Banner, a suite of newer, more advanced programs. Some of the benefits we can expect from this new system include:

• A portal that allows individual students, faculty and staff to see information that is specific to their identities and interests
• An online purchasing and procurement process, including online approvals
• A degree planning tool that allows students and advisors to plan and manage a student's entire program of study
• Online applications that tie directly into our admission databases
• The ability to offer students online room selection

The implementation effort will be overseen by an executive committee, which I have asked Alan Candiotti, assistant vice president, university technology, to chair. It will include members of both his staff and Cabinet.

The ERP Executive Committee's first task will be to identify project leaders for each of the major administrative areas. These individuals will serve on the front line throughout the process as members of a cross-functional Implementation Lead Team. I ask that vice presidents, deans and directors support this effort by making sure their departments are represented as needed and participate fully. The project includes a budget for supplemental staffing in areas that are severely impacted by the increased workload.

I have also asked the executive committee to ensure that the conversion process includes a thorough review and updating of our business processes. We would be missing a major and multifaceted opportunity if we did not explore how they might be streamlined or improved upon to better serve students, staff and faculty.

While we have a lot of work ahead of us, I am confident in our community's ability to meet the challenge and am excited about the enormous benefits it will yield for Drew. The leadership of the project is committed to its successful completion and will do its best to keep everyone informed about progress. Alan will be writing with more detailed information in the coming weeks.

Best,

Bob

Project Objectives

The expectations and objectives for the ERP project are:

• Replace functionality provided by AIMS and to retire the AIMS system by December, 2012
• Preserve the security and integrity of University data
• Leverage the investment in a new system by assessing and improving current practices and policies wherever practical and possible
• Improve staff access to reliable, consistent, and timely data; and eliminate redundancies
• Provide timely and accurate reports to the Board of Trustees, Executive Staff, and other Drew University constituents
• Enhance decision-making capabilities via accurate and timely access to appropriate data
• Deliver individualized information to students, faculty, and staff via a portal
• Preserve identity management and single sign-on functionality via a portal
• Streamline the purchasing and procurement process with online procedures, including online approvals
• Provide a degree planning tool that allows students and advisors to plan and manage a student's entire program of study
• Tie online application data directly into the admissions database
• Provide user offices with the tools for self-reliance, including reporting tools and distributed printing
• Create an environment that encourages quality and continuous improvement

Measures of Success

The Banner ERP implementation will be deemed successful when:

• The University's faculty and staff can perform their job responsibilities effectively in Banner or other ancillary software without making use of AIMS by the production live dates described under Project Timeline.
• The need for duplicate data entry and shadow databases has been greatly reduced or eliminated.
• Ad hoc reporting capabilities are made available to departments.
• All students, faculty and staff are provided direct access to a single integrated view of personalized information from the Luminis portal.
• The University is able to communicate effectively with prospective students and applicants.

Project Scope

Banner modules and other Sungard Higher Education software purchased are:

• Banner Finance (G/L, A/P, A/R, Purchasing)
• Banner HR/Payroll
• Banner Student (Admissions, Student Records, Student Accounts Receivable, Catalog/Schedule, Flexible Registration)
• Banner Relationship Management (Admissions and Recruiting communications)
• Banner Financial Aid
• DegreeWorks (Degree Audit)
• Luminis (portal)
• ODS (Operational Data Store)
• BDMS (document imaging) – not phase one
• Workflow – not phase one
• Recruiting and Admissions Performance (Admissions dashboard) – not phase one
• Travel and Expense Management – not phase one
• EDW (Enterprise Data Warehouse) – not phase one

Other ancillary software products included in the initial scope are:

• Ad Hoc Reporting Tools
• Identity Management
• Adirondack Solutions (Housing)
• XLerant Budget Pack (Budget Development) - completed
• Parking system (Adirondack)
• Classroom and Event Scheduling (tbd)
• PeopleAdmin – not phase one
• Judicial system (tbd) – not phase one

"Not phase one" refers to implementation software or activities that will be deferred beyond the go-live dates for the core software modules. These items will not appear in the initial project timeline.

Project Timeline

Key implementation go-live dates are:

• July 1, 2011 – Finance
• July 1, 2011 – reporting tool and ODS
• August, 2011 – Admissions (and Relationship Management)
• October, 2011 – Luminis (prospects, applicants)
• January 1, 2012 – HR/Payroll
• January, 2012 – Financial Aid
• March, 2012 – Student (registration, accounts receivable, catalog/schedule)
• October, 2012 or February 2013 – DegreeWorks

Project Assumptions

• The Banner implementation will be 'vanilla' – no modifications of the program source code will be made.
• The project will be limited in scope as described under Project Scope; Except where otherwise noted, implementation will be limited to replacement functionality. Other approved initiatives will be included in not-phase-one planning.
• Replacement functionality refers to the ability to achieve required business objectives, rather than to replicate current procedures. Assessment and improvement of practices and policies is expected.
• No development, modification, or report development will be done on AIMS unless it is mandated by a government body or the Board of Trustees.
• Given the necessity of meeting implementation goals to support the University's mission, Banner and its associated components will be the number one priority for University Technology. All other projects will be deferred or assigned a lower priority.
• Interfaces will be written as needed to achieve continuity and maintain functionality through the implementation cycle.
• Printing of reports and forms will be done locally in user offices using a laser printing strategy.
• Ad hoc reporting capabilities will be available to end-users.
• End-user training will be conducted by University staff.
• Shared codes will be determined by the Data Standards team.
• Project documents will be posted on U-KNOW.

Project Risks

Project constraints and challenges ("boundary conditions") include:

• Limited timeline
• Resource limitations
• Department workloads
• Other critical priorities

Project risk factors include:

• Staff turnover for key personnel
• Unforeseen events
• Scope creep

Project Organization and Project Governance

The project organization is comprised of a top-level executive steering committee, an implementation cross-functional leadership team (Team Leads Committee), and various project teams and work groups. See Project Organization for an organizational chart and complete list of teams.

The role of the executive steering committee is to provide executive level leadership for the overall project. The steering committee makes the final decision on any policy recommendations or issue resolution. This committee will be chaired by Alan Candiotti, Assistant Vice President, University Technology. Project Sponsors are Howard Buxbaum, Vice President for Finance and Business Affairs, and Pamela Gunter-Smith, Provost and Academic Vice President.

The Team Leads Committee (cross-functional leadership team) reports to the executive steering committee. The Team Leads Committee co-chairs are the Drew University Project Manager, Axel Larsson and the Strata Information Group (SIG) Project Manager, Monica Crawford. The Project Managers will provide implementation status reports to the executive steering committee as well as identify issues or policies that may require action by the executive steering committee.

The project managers' role is to create or monitor project task lists and project plans, serve as a resource to the module implementation team leaders, serve as liaison to the vendors, and manage resources to keep the project on track to meet production live dates.

The Team Lead members are listed in the Project Organization document on U-KNOW. This committee includes broad representation across the institution. Its responsibilities are to: resolve cross-module issues, identify change management strategies, recommend institution-wide policy or procedure changes, and monitor the progress of the implementation.

Each module implementation team leader is a member of the Team Leads committee to ensure appropriate communication throughout the organization structure. The team leader's responsibilities include:

• convening team meetings
• ensuring documentation of meeting decisions and action items (to be posted on U-KNOW)
• attending all relevant training and consulting sessions
• keeping a project task list in coordination with their primary SIG consultant
• establishing relevant policies and procedures
• creating training and documentation plans
• forming workgroups to address specific functionality or issues, with invitations to the appropriate subject matter experts

The team leader is also responsible for identifying and escalating any implementation issues to the Team Leads committee and/or the Project Managers. Any decision or recommendation that will delay the overall timeline or require additional resources must be approved by the executive steering committee.

Module team members are assigned to their respective module teams based on their expertise within their functional area and their ability to participate in team decisions, development of streamlined procedures, software configuration, testing, documentation, and training. Team members are expected to attend team meetings scheduled by their team leader as well as training and consulting sessions, and to complete project tasks within the guidelines set by their primary SIG consultant.

A technical staff member will be assigned to each module team, and will be responsible for supporting or coordinating technical requirements for that team. These may include: hardware/software setup and testing, conversion program mapping, programming and/or testing, interface processes, script-writing, report development, and troubleshooting.