Best Pr ac t i c es f r om 19 ERP

I mpl ement at i ons

Presented by,
Tom Danford, CIO
T B d f R Tennessee Board of Regents
Todays Goal s Today s Goal s
Present lessons learned ese t esso s ea ed
from the full suite ERP
implementations of 19
TBR institutions TBR institutions
Discuss how these Discuss how these
lessons learned can
apply on an ERP
implementation at a
single institution
The TBR Chal l enge The TBR Chal l enge
I mplement several
ERP modules
1
across
19 institutions plus 19 institutions plus
the system office in a
forty- month period!
1
Student and Financial Aid,
Finance HR and Payroll Finance, HR and Payroll,
Advancement, and a portal
solution
Our I mper at i ve Our I mper at i ve
Keep every institution on schedule Keep every institution on schedule
and on budget. I t is critical for us to
have a quality implementation while
controlling costs.
A guiding principle is to conserve the
resources of the universities for
academic and other goals academic and other goals.
Cur r ent St at us Cur r ent St at us
We are in our 27
th
month of the project
Implementations have been sequenced
according to three waves of schools, or
cohorts cohorts
34 implementations have been completed, and
64 i l i i 64 implementations are in progress
Except in three instances, all 100 completed
and in-progress implementations to date have
been on schedule and on-time
Ei ght ERP Best Pr ac t i c es Ei ght ERP Best Pr ac t i c es
Lessons We Have Lessons We Have
Learned, Some Easily and
Some the Hard Wayy
Best Pr ac t i c e 1 Best Pr ac t i c e 1
Establish guiding g g
principles at the
highest levels of
h i i i d the institution and
then live by them.
Best Pr ac t i c e 2 Best Pr ac t i c e 2
Form a governance
structure that
i l th involves the
highest levels of
executives as executives as
possible.and get
them involved
frequently.
Our model f or .
Best Pr ac t i c es 3, 4, and 5
Our Project Management Model. j g
Best Pr ac t i c e 3 Best Pr ac t i c e 3
Provide professional proj ect Provide professional proj ect
management support in large doses.
Assumption Assumption
People in higher education are in the
business of educating students, not bus ess o educat g stude ts, ot
managing maj or ERP implementations
Therefore
The system provided project
i h management support in three
significant ways
Pr oj ec t Management Suppor t
at t he Campus Level at t he Campus Level
1. Provided detailed project schedules 1. Provided detailed project schedules
in Microsoft Project to all the schools
2. Separated the role of project
manager and project scheduler
3. Provided training in project tracking
d i f h and reporting format to the system
Best Pr ac t i c e 4 Best Pr ac t i c e 4
Develop a Develop a
Metrics- Driven
Reporting and Reporting and
Feedback System
The Week l y Fl ash Repor t The Week l y Fl ash Repor t
Purpose
P id h h k f h ll ll h Provide a snapshot each week of how well all the
implementations are proceeding.
How the Report is Produced How the Report is Produced
Schedule updates are emailed to the independent
program manager once a week
The program manager evaluates schedule progress
according to several criteria and assigns a color code
(red, yellow, green)
The program manager then produces and distributes
the report system wide each week.
Link to a sample Flash Report
Mont hl y Ex ec ut i ve Dashboar d y
Best Pr ac t i c e 5 Best Pr ac t i c e 5
Establish an
independent independent
program office
at the system
level
A Sampl i ng of t he Pr ogr am
Manager Dut i es Manager Dut i es.
Coordinate and oversee the various implementation
projects system-wide p j y
Provide early warnings to the system and the
university presidents when project milestones are in
jeopardy jeopardy
Design interventions, as needed, to help individual
campuses get back on track
Develop project metrics and provide weekly flash
reports and monthly executive dashboard reports on
progress against budget and progress against p g g g p g g
schedule
Train campus project managers and schedulers in the
use of modern project management tools and use of modern project management tools and
processes
Best Pr ac t i c e 6 Best Pr ac t i c e 6
Do the best communication j ob you Do the best communication j ob you
possibly can
Best Pr ac t i c e 7 Best Pr ac t i c e 7
Deal directly and
i kl as quickly as
possible with
cultural and cultural and
people issues
Best Pr ac t i c e 8 Best Pr ac t i c e 8
Form a true partnership with your Form a true partnership with your
ERP provider and implementer
Wi l l These Pr ac t i c es
Wor k f or You?
Applying these lessons
learned to the single
i tit ti institution
What Appl i es What Appl i es
Developing guiding principles and sticking to them
Involving senior executives
Imposing professional project management
processes and tools and training campus personnel in processes and tools and training campus personnel in
how to use these tools
Separating the scheduler and manager roles
Weekly flash reports and monthly executive
dashboards
d i Vendor partnering
Communicating frequently
Using an experienced outside project management
firm who has done it before
Thank s f or J oi ni ng us Today!
For more information
Pick up our complementary CD that contains
this PowerPoint presentation as well as a this PowerPoint presentation as well as a
copy of the TBR Guiding Principles that were
adopted for their implementations.
Linger and talk with Tom Danford before you
leave. leave.
Contact Tom at tom.danford@tbr.edu