EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional
Conference 2007
Copyright William J Schultz, PMP 2007
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Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
122 W. Washington Ave, Suite 700 Madison WI 53703
608.516.0842
[email protected]
EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference 2007
Four Wisconsin private schools collaborate on ERP system implementation
WAICU-ETC Schools
Key Players
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Rod Opsal – WAICU Senior V/P
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Bill Schultz WAICU-ETC Executive Director
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Jeff Ritt – Lakeland College IT Director
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Gary Rodman – Ripon College Asst. IT Director/DBA
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Mark Schroeder – Wisconsin Lutheran Project Manager
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Thomas Hausmann – Wisconsin Lutheran CIO
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Jen Haro – MSOE Project Manager
Agenda
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How and why WAICU-ETC was created
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How we Implemented Together
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Lessons Learned – a panel discussion
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Future of WAICU-ETC
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Q/A
This Project will never work
WAICU president Rolf Wegenke was invited to
speak about our project at a national meeting.
When the meeting ran overtime, the
moderator said,
“In the interest of time, we are going to skip
Rolf’s presentation because we all know this
project will never work.”
How ETC was created
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Due diligence
Decision making process
Governance
Does the consortium model really save money?
Can the WAICU-ETC model be replicated?
Implementing Together
College Sponsor
(CFO)
WAICU-ETC PM
College Project Manager
Module Managers
End Users
Implementing Together
Create a formal Project plan that clearly
defines how the project will be managed
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Executive Summary
Project Scope
Project Assumptions
Project Constraints
Project Approach
High-Level Timeline
Roles and Responsibility
Communication Plan
Issue Management Plan
Scope Management Plan
Implementing Together
Panel Discussion
Clear Structure: Roles,
Responsibilities and Process
Adequate Resources
Communication
Ground Rules
Competent Team Members
Visible, Supportive
Leadership
External Support &
Recognition
Unified Commitment
Collaborative Climate:
War Room
Source: Larson, Carl E.: and LeFasto, Frank J.M. (1989) Team Work: What Must go Right/What Can go Wrong. Newbury Park CA: Sage Publications
Lessons Learned
Pros
 Two heads are better than one

During Implementation and post
Opportunity for Collaborative Post golive end user training
 Sharing of Best Practices
 Cost savings are significant

Lessons Learned
Cons

Remote Training

Consultant preventing forward progress;
have them reassigned.

Add more time to implementation to:
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Data clean-up on bad data and duplicate
records;
Complete Data Conversion Mapping;
Reengineer departmental workflow processes
(If I were to do it over again “I would spend
more time on process redesign and more time
writing reports before go-live.”)
Create Reports
Future of WAICU-ETC

MSOE joined May 1, 2006

Cardinal Stritch joined December 1, 2006

Possibility for others to join

Creating a Business Continuation Plan
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Other software procurements

Annual User Group Meetings
Questions?
For follow-up information contact WAICU-ETC:
[email protected] 608.516.0842