ERP within University Budgets
NBS delivers Higher Ed solutions in today’s challenging budget environment
All ERP and large IT system implementations have their array of challenges, and these hard economic times only add to the challenges. Additionally, implementing ERP in a Higher Education institution adds issues that are specific to colleges and universities. Natural Bridge Solutions (NBS) has successfully implemented multiple modules, and releases in Higher Ed within budget and on-time. Many of the different implementations were during the current recession, offering additional budget and resource challenges.
ERP implementations at a university are especially challenging due to staffing levels, availability of knowledgeable resources, budget constraints, and limited project experience from IT and the business units. NBS approach to each of these challenges was to provide high level experience program and project management, and functional and technical consulting at a cost that makes fiscal sense to a university.
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Staffing levels and availability – staffing is a challenge due to the already minimal staffing levels most departments face. On any large project it is important to establish a fully dedicated team, but the challenge is different due to budget constraints and limited staffing levels found at most universities. NBS worked to establish realistic availability expectations and build the appropriate timelines.
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Available budget – budget was especially difficult due to limited funding and the recession. During each implementation, NBS worked with the university, other consulting firms, and consultants to establish budget thresholds. NBS consistently provides resources at rates that were in line with mid-size corporation rates instead of the high rates national firms have established.
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Limited project experience – higher education institutions generally have very limited exposure to even medium sized systems implementations, let alone a large ERP or large best of breed business software implementation. They are very adept at small projects, but complexities are magnified significantly with incremental increases in scope, resources, budget, and complexity. NBS provides experienced program and project management to organize and direct overall ERP and major module implementations that many organizations just don’t have experience to provide. NBS also provides senior functional and technical expertise to work with the program office and functional teams to ensure success.
Natural Bridge Solutions experience has led to its Thinking There, Getting There, Living There Methodology. The methodology addresses key issues at every step of the ERP journey. It begins by working with The President, CIO and CFO-level executives to effectively provide a virtual test drive of their implemented ERP system. This facilitates more informed project and product selection decisions to minimize risks in what for most institutions is their largest organization and systems project.
During implementation, Natural Bridge Solutions can use a series of fast-start tools based on previous projects that accelerate installation and system benefits. Natural Bridge Solutions can offer a suite of post-installation products and services that enable organizations to continue gaining benefits long after initial implementation is complete.
NBS has experience with all levels of ERP and business software implementations. Our unique experience with higher education and mid-sized companies gives us a unique skill set to take formal project approaches and modify them to adapt to the realities of doing business as a regional higher education institution or mid-sized company. In addition to system implementations, NBS has experience in creatively taking existing systems and extending their life span as a temporary alternative to implementing a new system. We leverage tools such Business Objects to give your organization a “fresh” view of your data. There are many instances that we can extend a client systems by leveraging data they didn’t either use or know they had. Business Objects gives us a great deal of flexibility with systems, databases, and operating systems.