Documents Contributed by ECAR and Enterprise Resource Planning

This research bulletin is designed to help senior college and university administrators better understand the complexities of both financial aid and information technology support for efficient and effective management of the financial aid resource. Using the financial aid technology pyramid as a framework, the bulletin illustrates how to use the pyramid in enrollment management, financial aid, and IT planning and implementation.

This study, designed and analyzed by ECAR on behalf of the Council of Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA), identifies the forces of change that are building for higher education and seeks to understand their potential implications. The report adds the voice of higher education's administrative leadership to the dialogue about the future of our institutions. Sponsored by 22 CHEMA member associations, the study examines how administrators and officials engaged in college and university support functions anticipate that higher education will change over the next ten years by identifying the changes, opportunities, and threats these leaders foresee for higher education, for their institutions, and for specific functional areas. In addition, the study discusses how prepared institutions are to manage change and shape their own futures.

The evaluation and remediation of the risks posed by trailing-edge or obsolete systems is a critical component of an enterprise risk management (ERM) strategy—the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling an organization's activities to minimize the effects of risk on its operations. While enterprise-wide student, financial, and human resource applications appropriately demand much of our attention and budget, smaller administrative, departmental, or niche applications cannot be ignored. This research bulletin examines the various roles played by smaller systems—housing systems, endowment investment and accounting systems, hazardous materials tracking systems, and the like—and potential risks they pose.

These Key Findings describe the major discoveries of the ECAR research study called Good Enough! IT Investment and Business Process Performance in Higher Education, which takes a complex look at the performance of so-called business processes in higher education, with a special focus on how IT investments have influenced that performance. It explores the question of what higher education has gained from its sizeable investment in improving business processes. This study also looks at the role that leadership and culture play in the performance of institutional processes. CIOs and others from more than 300 U.S. and Canadian institutions provided quantitative data, while individuals from some two dozen institutions participated in interviews. In addition, ECAR visited exemplary institutions to provide a detailed look into the mechanics of particularly interesting efforts to improve the performance of campus processes.

This Roadmap is designed to illuminate the major discoveries of the ECAR research study called Good Enough! IT Investment and Business Process Performance in Higher Education, which takes a complex look at the performance of so-called business processes in higher education, with a special focus on how IT investments have influenced that performance. It explores the question of what higher education has gained from its sizeable investment in improving business processes. This study also looks at the role that leadership and culture play in the performance of institutional processes. CIOs and others from more than 300 U.S. and Canadian institutions provided quantitative data, while individuals from some two dozen institutions participated in interviews. In addition, ECAR visited exemplary institutions to provide a detailed look into the mechanics of particularly interesting efforts to improve the performance of campus processes.

As a complement to the ECAR research study called Good Enough! IT Investment and Business Process Performance in Higher Education, this case study examines the Iowa State University (ISU) formal program to facilitate business process innovation. The program is based on a goal of consistently promoting enhancements in process and customer service, and on implementing a sustainable method of cross-departmental business process reengineering, and this case study provides an illustration of ISU's practice in action with the successful redesign of the university's travel reimbursement process.

As a complement to the ECAR research study called Good Enough! IT Investment and Business Process Performance in Higher Education, this case study explores how Brooklyn College and The City University of New York optimized their student advising process to support a strategic goal to enhance student enrollment and retention. The first part of the case study looks at Brooklyn College efforts to create a more customer-friendly administrative environment. The second part of the case study focuses on CUNY's Office of Computing and Information Services (CIS) Project Management Office and discusses its deployment of an enterprise-wide online advising and degree audit system.

This ECAR research study takes a complex look at the performance of so-called business processes in higher education, with a special focus on how IT investments have influenced that performance. It explores the question of what higher education has gained from its sizeable investment in improving business processes. This study also looks at the role that leadership and culture play in the performance of institutional processes. CIOs and others from more than 300 U.S. and Canadian institutions provided quantitative data, while individuals from some two dozen institutions participated in interviews. In addition, ECAR visited exemplary institutions to provide a detailed look into the mechanics of particularly interesting efforts to improve the performance of campus processes.

Drawing from research at California State University, Indiana University, Purdue University, and the University of Minnesota, this research bulletin describes the drivers, issues, and practices for ERP implementations at multicampus institutions. It is applicable to higher education institutions that have distributed organization structures and a multiplicity of student populations, faculty policies, and traditional business practices.

This bulletin identifies major cost factors that influence total cost of ownership of enterprise resource planning systems, along with tactics and management strategies for containing those costs in an academic environment. It also discusses benefits associated with ERP life-cycle implementation and with assessing the business value of information technology.