IT at McGill: Creating Profound and Positive Impacts

Roger RigelhofMcGill University

Best Practices in Campus ERP Implementations

slide 2

About McGill & me Established 1821 30,000 students Research intensive, Faculty of Medicine Annual budget approaching $1 BillionRoger 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!

slide 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)

slide 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 What’s next –HigherMarkets, Workflow

slide 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.

slide 6

10 Best Practices that worked

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

slide 7

What to avoidExecu

tive Inte

rest

Project begins Time Projects ends

slide 8

Project Governance

Project Manager

Services Team

Project Manager

HRIS/Payroll Team

Project Manager

SIS Team

Project Manager

FIS Team

CSA FIS Policy HR Policy

SHARD

SIS Policy

CIOProject Sponsor

HRPM

PMG

Project Director

slide 9

Adapting to change

2. Executive management should be cognizant about the institution’s ability to adapt to the organizational changes that occur when ERP software is implemented.

slide 10

Adapting to an ERP

Productivity

Time

slide 11

Adapting to an ERP

“Go-live”

Productivity

?

Implementation ERP “Shock”

Time

Benefits

Preparation period

slide 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

slide 13

More Best Practices

3. 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

slide 14

Best Practices4. 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

slide 15

Best Practices4. Cont’d

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.

slide 16

Best Practices

5. 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

slide 17

Best Practices

6. 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.

7. A project manager should be assigned full-time to the implementation.

That would be me! An Academic with some previous experience with

projects

slide 18

Best Practices

8. 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

slide 19

Best Practices9. 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 formAs of May 2003: Total number of sessions:1,166 Attendees:

7,094

slide 20

Best Practices

9. Cont’d 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)

slide 21

Best Practices

10. 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.

slide 22

A Best Practice that didn’t work

Vanilla vs. Customization: Customization:

Makes end users happy Vanilla:

Lowers TCO

slide 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

slide 24

Vanilla with Sprinkles

When to Customize: Performance considerations

Rewriting code Web Governor

slide 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

isn’t quite as functional as the local mod.

slide 26

Gartner on the Cost of an ERP

The CFOs

dream

Cost

Reality (Vanilla)

Reality (Mods)

Ouch!An upgrade

bump

Project Begins Project Ends Time

slide 27

What is success, anyway?

Possible DefinitionSuccess is realizing your vision.

slide 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

slide 29

What is success, anyway?

Possible criteria On time, on budget

Only if the scope doesn’t change! Only if Technology doesn’t 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!

slide 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

slide 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

slide 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

slide 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

slide 34

And Now – Lea and Rick

Thank You!Roger Rigelhof

roger.rigelhof@mcgill.ca