ISG helped Washington State University execute on and source its strategic plan to modernize its financial management and human capital management (HCM) systems.
Opportunity
Washington State University (the University) had a strategic plan to modernize its financial management and human capital management (HCM) systems. The ultimate goal of the strategy was to save costs, improve efficiency and enable future technology and innovation.
Imagining IT Differently
Our services included:
- Refining University-developed system requirements with University subject matter experts leveraging ISG’s extensive repository of leading practice requirements for higher education institutions
- Developing a request for proposals (RFP) for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for approval and issuance by the University
- Developing an RFP for implementation/integration services for approval and issuance by the University
- Offering up a formal evaluation process
- Developing a comprehensive set of scripts for software demonstrations
- Developing a comprehensive set of interview guides for implementation/integration providers
- Managing software demonstrations
- Managing implementation/integration provider oral presentations and interviews
- Providing the Evaluation Committee support
- Facilitating and supporting contract negotiation
In conjunction with a separate engagement, ISG conducted a Readiness Assessment in compliance with the University and the State of Washington Office of the Chief Information Officer.
In conjunction with a subsequent on-going engagement and in support of a concurrent implementation of HCM and financial management (FM) software services, we provided services including:
- Conducting a monthly assessment of project status, risks, and issues, and providing recommendations to mitigate risks and resolve issues
- Reviewing a selected set of project activities to gauge their effectiveness and making recommendations, as appropriate
- Reviewing each Deliverable Expectation Document which defines the format, scope, and content of a deliverable, and each deliverable itself, and providing written feedback, as appropriate, to improve the scope and content
- Presenting the monthly QA assessments to the project Steering Committee and posting it to the State of Washington CIO online dashboard
- Preparing and presenting a capstone Lessons Learned document
Future Made Possible
- Streamlined processing of administrative transactions (e.g., appointments, faculty and staff transfers, time reporting, payroll processing, purchases), freeing up staff to provide more personalized service to faculty, staff, and students
- More timely and accurate reporting of budget-to-actual information to departmental administrators, research administrators, deans, campus and university leadership
- Enhanced compliance with regulatory requirements
- A Modernization Initiative team prepared to continue the evolution of WSU’s administrative processes to take advantage of new technology and innovations
