What’s the Value of Hiring an ERP Selection & Implementation Partner?

By Keith Myers

The evolving challenges of Higher Education institutions today have never been more difficult. Continued public funding reductions, challenges to meeting student enrollment goals, and the need to increase student retention and graduation rates present complicated challenges to manage for any institution. As a business officer at a community college, you know all too well the challenges of leading in this environment and for every challenge there appears to be a new potential business partner touting a software solution designed to solve each problem. Too often functional office leaders, IT staff and college executives return from the latest conference with visions of the latest and greatest software platforms that will solve all the challenges of the institution. While you know the decision to implement a new ERP system is the first step towards an important transformation at your institution, unless you know what you’re doing, a project of this size and complexity can be daunting. We’ve all heard stories about implementations gone wrong and the carnage left in their wake. Between the number of new solutions in the marketplace and the disruptive changes sweeping higher education, ERP migrations have never been more challenging. That’s why an increasing number of community colleges are turning to ERP selection and implementation partners to show them the way.

An ERP selection and implementation partner is an independent third party that can serve as both an executive advisor and true partner to assess and evaluate your institution’s current operations and systems and provide insights about the best path forward. While they come in different shapes and sizes, an ERP selection and implementation partner understands the nuances of higher education and has in-depth knowledge of the products available. Such a partner can help your college not only avoid common missteps and pitfalls associated with ERP migrations but also provide three things many community colleges are lacking:

1. Risk Mitigation through Experience

With an abundance of ERP systems to choose from and established platforms undergoing revolutionary changes, identifying the best-fit solution has become a high-stakes guessing game. Though your team might be familiar with some of the solutions, an ERP selection and implementation partner can offer deep knowledge of and experience with of all higher education ERP solutions and an understanding of the implications of the changes occurring in the marketplace.

An effective partner will create a sense of unity around your project by working closely with key stakeholders across the organization to assess the current state, define the desired future state, and collaboratively evaluate each solution’s strengths, weaknesses, and ability to meet your organization’s goals. This ensures that all possibilities are considered and helps prevent critical decisions from being made in a vacuum without understanding their broader impact.

For example, at a college in Pennsylvania, CampusWorks brought the community together to create a shared vision of success. By mapping their current processes and comparing them to their future requirements, we were able to clearly identify their pain points and help them develop an RFP that led to a well-informed, unanimous decision.

By engaging an experienced partner in the early stages of the planning and assessing activities of an ERP implementation, colleges can dramatically reduce the risk that occurs in selection of the correct vendor. It also helps colleges better predict time and cost associated with implementing and identify the high-risk challenges that could require unplanned changes or expenses.

2. Resources

Most community college staff are stretched thin and don’t have the time to add an ERP migration to their already-full plates. A strategic partner who’s invested in your institution’s long-term success can provide technical and functional experts who can work alongside your team and in collaboration with the selected ERP vendor to oversee the implementation process, create a roadmap with realistic deadlines, and deploy the solution on time, on budget, and on scope.

If our experience has taught us anything, it’s that successful ERP projects are rooted in trust. An independent third party can help foster trust within your organization by sharing knowledge, providing support, and preparing your home team to stand alone when the project is complete. Trust is achieved when everyone feels involved and realizes a sense of ownership for delivering results as an interdependent, highly-functioning team in which each person is recognized as an indispensable, valued, and trusted resource.

CampusWorks helped foster this kind of trust and collaboration within a statewide community college system that wanted to streamline its business and information systems. By listening to the needs of the entire community and involving them every step of the way, we were able to implement changes that not only increased efficiency and reduced costs but were widely embraced across all colleges.

3. Independent Perspective

Colleges work so closely with their ERP systems that it can be difficult to see them objectively. An ERP selection and implementation partner can offer an unbiased perspective with no hidden agenda to ensure your college identifies the best solution to fit your institution’s unique needs. In some cases, that may mean redesigning business processes to optimize how you’re using your current ERP system. In other cases, it may mean moving to a new solution that’s capable of supporting your institution’s long-term goals. Either way, it’s imperative to partner with an independent firm that has no affiliation with any software or hardware vendors to ensure they are motivated only by serving your best interests.

For example, when a Wisconsin community college was faced with the decision to upgrade their ERP system or migrate to a different solution, CampusWorks led a Fit-Gap Analysis to help them objectively evaluate the current system's ability to meet the college's needs now and in the future. Armed with this information, the college decided that moving to a new solution was the right path forward. CampusWorks helped the college understand its business requirements and develop an RFP that led to a unanimous decision about their new ERP solution. We also helped negotiate the contract, which resulted in substantial savings.

Working with the right ERP selection and implementation partner can mean the difference between achieving a successful implementation or not. When considering prospective partners, look for the following qualities:

A strong track record of success with a variety of ERP projects
A broad range of expertise and services that reach across the institution and can address all of your needs
An independent firm that has no affiliation with any software or hardware vendors

Over the past 20 years, CampusWorks has led, supported, and optimized ERP projects at community colleges across the country. Our experience has enabled us to cultivate a proven ERP selection and implementation model that guides institutions through the process to arrive at a best-fit solution and an on-time, on-scope, on-budget implementation. Since we’re not affiliated with any hardware or software vendors, we can offer 100% unbiased perspective, which often helps colleges reach a unanimous selection decision. To learn about CampusWorks’ ERP planning and support services, visit

https://www.campusworksinc.com/capabilities/enterprise-resource-planning-support.

Author Bio: Keith Myers is the Senior Vice President of Client Development at CampusWorks, a strategic consultant dedicated to providing community colleges with an independent perspective and creative solutions to improve operations, reduce costs, and position students for success.

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