IT at McGill: Creating Profound and Positive Impacts

1
Best Practices in Campus ERP Implementations

• IT at McGill Creating Profound and Positive
  Impacts
• Roger Rigelhof
• McGill University

2
About McGill me

• Established 1821
• 30,000 students
• Research intensive, Faculty of Medicine
• Annual budget approaching 1 Billion
• Roger Rigelhof
• 37 years as a Math Prof at McGill
• Project Director of SCT Banner Implementation
• 10 years as Associate Dean of Science
• Senator 1984 1993, 1996 2000
• An Engineering Physics Grad from the U of Sask!

3
What we did, and when we did it

• First Senate Report Spring 1995
• Second Senate Report Spring 1997
• RFP July 1997
• Purchase SCT Banner -Spring 1998
• Finance go-live June 2000
• General Person go-live for Finance and HR
• General Person go-live Aug 2001
• for student and all historical data (450,000
  persons)

4
What we did, and when we did it

• HR/Payroll January 2002
• Student Web Registration April 2002
• Academic Records conversion July 2002
• Admissions go-live September 2002
• Degree Evaluation
• Recruitment
• Imaging
• Whats next HigherMarkets, Workflow

5
What is a Best Practice

• Definition
• A best practice is what results when qualitative
  comparisons are made between similar
  organizations business practices.
• OR
• A best practice is any activity that an
  organization finds successful in accomplishing a
  task.

6
10 Best Practices that worked

• Executive management should endorse the project
  and remain actively involved throughout the
  implementation

7
What to avoid
Executive Interest
Project begins Time Projects ends
8
Project Governance
CIO Project Sponsor
Project Director
PMG
SHARD
CSA
FIS Policy
SIS Policy
HR Policy
HRPM
9
Adapting to change

• Executive management should be cognizant about
  the institutions ability to adapt to the
  organizational changes that occur when ERP
  software is implemented.

10
Adapting to an ERP
Productivity
Time
11
Adapting to an ERP
Go-live
Productivity
?
Implementation
ERP Shock
Benefits
Preparation period
Time
12
ERP Shock Relief

• SIS and FIS specialists
• Funded by IST, coordinated by project manager
• Hired by faculties to serve departments
• Extremely successful program
• Training, liaison, advocates

13
More Best Practices

• ERP software implementation responsibilities
  should be shared between the information
  technology department and functional areas where
  the software is being implemented.
• Policy committees involved senior management
• Implementation teams consisted of functional and
  IT people

14
Best Practices

• The project team composition should represent all
  functional areas where the software will be
  implemented.
• Finance System Core team of managers from
  Accounting
• Broad consultation within the entire financial
  community esp for CofA
• Functional specialists in Purchasing, AP, AR,
  Budgeting, Grants

15
Best Practices

• Contd
• Student System
• Managers from Admissions, Registrars, Student
  Records Officers from Colleges of Arts, Science,
  Grad Studies
• SROs used to test mock registration
• Students used for communication plans etc.
• HR/Payroll
• HRPMC (HR Project Management Committee) met
  regularly.

16
Best Practices

• Project team members normal job responsibilities
  should be reassigned to other employees for the
  project duration.
• Temporary promotions and backfilling
• Replacements were trained before Implementation
  started
• Finance and HR systems
• Managers spent 4 days/week at Project HQ
• Student System
• 100 at Project HQ

17
Best Practices

• A separate dedicated work environment should be
  specifically created for the project team.
• Project headquarters
• Functional and technical users brought to a work
  environment specifically dedicated to the project
  team and to building the system.
• A project manager should be assigned full-time to
  the implementation.
• That would be me!
• An Academic with some previous experience with
  projects

18
Best Practices

• Implementation information should be continuously
  communicated to the campus community.
• BannerSpeak quarterly newsletter
• Website
• Information sessions before each go-live
• Information reports to Deans, Senate Committee on
  Student Affairs, Senate Committee on Information
  Systems, Computer Users Committee

19
Best Practices

• All employees who will use the software should
  receive thorough training.
• Training room and training team (approx 6
  trainers as many as 30 at times!)
• Basic Navigation course plus
• Finance 5 courses, HR 3 courses, Student 23
  courses
• 4,840 Employees attended 1 or more sessions
• Detailed instructions for each and every form
• As of May 2003
• Total number of sessions1,166
  Attendees 7,094

20
Best Practices

• Contd
• Banner Help Desk , FAQs, How-tos
• Hands-on obligatory sessions
• You only get access to the forms for which you
  have had training
• Drop-in labs (bring in your real work)

21
Best Practices

• Conversion of data from the old software system
  to the new should begin early in the
  implementation process
• For student system
• Converted all electronic person record
  450,000 records
• Converted all electronic Student records -250,000
• Financial data was partially converted
• HR Legacy system ( a relatively new system) was
  converted.

22
A Best Practice that didnt work

• Vanilla vs. Customization
• Customization
• Makes end users happy
• Vanilla
• Lowers TCO

23
Vanilla with Sprinkles

• When to Customize
• Compliance to legislation
• Protection of Privacy
• When the student is the user (has big impact,
  lots of users)
• Example Modify Name
• When there is a show-stopper for user acceptance
• Transcripts, Admissions, Self serve data labels
• When there is big disproportional impact on one
  user area
• Budget Query for Researchers

24
Vanilla with Sprinkles

• When to Customize
• Performance considerations
• Rewriting code
• Web Governor

25
Vanilla with Sprinkles

• How to Customize
• Build add-ons rather than baseline mods to
  tables, procedures
• Manage development
• Develop a standards document
• Use version control
• Be willing to throw your add-ons away if the
  vendor provides functionality in a future release
• Even when the vendor delivered enhancement isnt
  quite as functional as the local mod.

26
Gartner on the Cost of an ERP
The CFOs dream
Ouch! An upgrade bump
Reality (Mods)
Cost
Reality (Vanilla)
Project Begins Project Ends Time
27
What is success, anyway?

• Possible Definition
• Success is realizing your vision.

28
Our Vision

• Our vision is of a McGill in which the
  constituents - faculty, students and support
  staff, have direct access to secure data, and the
  means to accomplish certain administrative tasks.
  Thus students and staff would maintain the
  appropriate parts of their own records directly.
  Students, for example, would apply to McGill, be
  able to track their applications, register for
  their courses, request student aid, examine their
  records, via a form of universal access such as
  the Web. Academic staff would receive course
  rolls, submit marks, and receive support for
  academic advising via the Web.

-Project Definition Document, December 1999
29
What is success, anyway?

• Possible criteria
• On time, on budget
• Only if the scope doesnt change!
• Only if Technology doesnt change!
• Are all end users happy
• Unthinkable at an Institution where critical
  thinking is valued
• Are they using the system?
• If yes, the implementation is a success!

30
Banner Stats

• Cumulative Client User Logins 1,165,323
• Distinct Client Users
  2,829
• Typical active client logins 400-500
• Distinct Web Users 95,295
• Distinct student registrations
  49,185
• Typical active web logins 200-300

31
The big wins - Minerva

• For the student diminished need to understand
  the beaurocractic structure of McGill
  everything is on Minerva
• Application for admission
• Course schedule, advising and registration
• Course evaluations
• Transcripts
• Degree evaluation and graduation
• Fees and Income Tax forms

32
The big wins - Minerva

• For Faculty course and advising info on Minerva
• Class lists and grade submission
• Advising transcripts and Degree evaluation
• Real time interface SSO with WebCT
• For Researchers fund administrators
• 3 clicks to the bottom line of a Research Grant
  or fund
• Invoice Imaging
• PCard reconciliation
• Push and Pull reports

33
In addition

• Employees and Students are empowered to mange
  their own personal information including
• Address changes, phone numbers, emergency
  contacts, email, name
• For Faculty and Central Administrators
• An improved appointment process
• An integrated system and Data warehouse
• Enhances Institutional Research
• Aids consistency and accuracy of reporting
• Only one system to learn, not 3

34
And Now Lea and Rick

• Thank You!
• Roger Rigelhof
• roger.rigelhof_at_mcgill.ca