ERP at The University of
Nebraska: Defining Roles
Don Mihulka, University of Nebraska
Dave Reifschneider, Prescient Consulting
Jim Buckler, Prescient Consulting
Overview
• Brief history of project
• Identification of roles and responsibilities
needed from IT, functional and consulting team
members
• Values and skills sets required by team
members
• Staffing the team – multi-campus process and
issues
Overview - Cont.
• Communication methods used to keep team
and University informed
• Team building activities
• Lessons learned
Brief History
• Multi-campus system each with unique
missions
• Over 46,000 students
• Almost 11,000 full-time faculty & staff
Brief History-Cont.
• Accounting, finance, purchasing,
budgeting, budgetary control, human
resources information, payroll, etc., for:
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$1.1 billion budget
150,000 orders/invoices per year
400+ departments and auxiliaries
970 on-line users daily
360,000 paychecks or electronic deposits per year
42,000 employee records
Project Timeline
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Preparation Phase 9/97 - 11/97
Analysis Phase 11/97 - 2/98
Design Phase 2/98 - 11/98
Implementation Phase 11/98 - 6/99
Go-Live with Financials/procurement - 7/1/99
Go-Live with Human Resources – 10/22/99
Current System
Deficiencies
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Difficult to use (very complex)
Limited in functionality
Disparate systems (not integrated)
Multiple databases
Inflexible, difficult to change
Not year 2000 compliant
Encourages use of “shadow systems”
Do not meet business needs
Guiding Principles
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User comes first
Cost effective
Empower people –
Provide appropriate training and assistance
Facilitate process redesign/Allow for
evolutionary changes
Guiding
Principles-Cont.
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Client server direction
University commitment
Reporting standards
Easy to use
Support diverse needs
Knowledge
and Skills - Functional
• Knowledge of University business processes
• Empowered decision maker
• Ability to work in diversified teams and guide
and motivate project team members
• Ability to work in both a management capacity
and hands on detail in the system
Knowledge
and Skills - Functional
• Ability to multitask and provide strong time
management skills
• Requires excellent communication skills to work
with diverse groups on multiple campuses
• Advance application software skills, including
but not limited to, presentation, spreadsheet,
word processing and planning applications
Knowledge
and Skills - Technical
• Willingness to learn new programming and
development skills
• Adapt to new client/server technologies and
tools
• Communication skills - work closely with
business processes and team members
• Build business and integration knowledge
Team Member
Responsibilities
• Work as a partner with consultants and other
team members
• Work closely with all other project teams to
understand the inter-relationships and
integration of the R/3 system
• Attend R/3 training classes
• Report progress to team leader via status
reporting mechanism that is defined
Team Member
Responsibilities
• Learn and utilize methodology and software
• Act as a change agent for the University of
Nebraska
• Communicate back to campus units on
business decisions and progress of the project
Team Member
Responsibilities
• Address campus concerns as University
concerns. Stay focused on the goal of a
University-wide solution in which business
processes across campuses are the same
unless truly unique requirements require
otherwise.
• Major issues that could result in a change of
scope for the project should be elevated to the
team leader as soon as they become known.
Team Member
Responsibilities
• Develop and execute system testing and
acceptance strategies, to include both unit
testing and system integration testing.
• Assist in development of training materials and
in conducting end user training as necessary
• Provide post-implementation support.
Implementation
Team
• NU-SAP team comes from all four campuses
• Steering Committee oversees the project
• Core and Extended Teams (~ 25 people)
– 7 functional and support teams
– several cross-functional teams
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Implementation Consultants (~15)
Technical Resources (~ 25 people)
Campus Primary Resources (~ 60 people)
Campus Transition Teams (~ 40 people)
Council of
Business Officers
Project Steering
Committee
Implementation Team
Implementation
Consulting
Project Manager
University
Project Manager
Project
Administrator
Accounting &
Financial Management
(FI)
Project Systems
(PS)
Business Planning &
Controls (CO & FM)
Technical and Data
Conversions
Procurement & Logistics
(MM)
Human Resources &
Payroll
Training &
Documentation/
Change Management/
End User/Customer
Primary Resources: Asset Management, Accounts Payable, Benefits, Budget, Controlling, General Ledger, Human Resources, Inventory Control,
Payroll, Project Accounting, Purchasing, Sponsored Programs, State Interface
Transition Teams:- Change Management & Training and End-User Liaisons
Technical Support - Systems, Networking, Desktop
Team
Communications
• Shared database, so all team members had
access to status reports, project documents,
etc.
• ‘Bullpen’ meetings
• Weekly team meetings
• Campus presentations by project team
End User Support
• SLUGO — Lotus Notes and Web
 Online help and printed materials
 Campus tailors to meet their needs
 Computer Based Training (SAP Navigational)
 Downloads (Install SAP GUI, G/L Account listings,
Business Forms)
 News (Disseminate information)
 Training Registration
 Profile Management (access to secure area of
SLUGO)
Team Building
Activities
• Social activities
• Golf tournament and other evening outings with
team
• Rewards & Recognition program
• Team Bonus – sharing successes during project
phases
• Gifts provided to team – ex. Team shirts
• ‘Bullpen’ work environment
The Human Story
• The University of Nebraska has had a very
successful ERP implementation
• The people involved with this effort have done
an outstanding job
• What is clear, is that we have only just begun
with the total implementation of SAP
• Large multi-campus implementation, we had to
coordinate the development of U-Wide common
business practices necessary in order to
implement the first phase of SAP
The Human Story
• The sophistication and complexity of the SAP
system is significant especially for the end user
• The continuation of training and development
activities is key
• Changing the culture and matching the right
talent to the new way of doing business, all
takes time
The Human Story
• Enterprise systems only raise the stakes to new
levels of cost and interdependency between
technology and business
• The role of the IT organization is critical to the
success of the implementation
– require training and skills to develop and support the
new system while maintaining the legacy system until
go-live date
Outcome
• A successful, on time implementation
• Knowledge transfer
• New skill set and processes involvement with
technical/functional team members. Transition
and support of legacy and new system
Outcome
• Appropriate staffing resulted in a successful
implementation, on time and very little turnover
in staff over a 2-year period.
• Collaboration of consulting, technical and
functional team members resulted in knowledge
transfer.
• Team focus on system wide issues, instead of
campus issues, to quickly resolve conflicts
Lessons Learned
• Avoid scope creep
• Full time team members
• Interaction between between consultants,
technical and functional team members
• Minimize customization
• Knowledge transfer
Lessons Learned
• Data conversion is critical
• Test, test, test - use testing tool if possible
• Consider other system components earlier
in project planning - automation scheduling,
printing software & processes
• Plan for after go-live!!