Memo

To: George Brushaber, President, Bethel College and Seminary

Brian Rosenberg, President, Macalester College

Alan Cureton, President, Northwestern College

Andrea Lee, IHM, President, College of St. Catherine

Harry Haynsworth, President and Dean, William Mitchell of Law

From: David Wheaton and Al Dees on behalf of the CFOs & CIOs

Date: October 27, 2003

RE: Status Report: Collaborative ERP System Evaluation Project

As documented on the project timetable below, work on the ERP system evaluation project is proceeding on schedule. The first of the two planned days of Joint User Group meetings was held on October 8 at the College of St. Catherine. The second set of meetings is scheduled for Thursday, October 30 at Macalester. Demonstrations by three vendors have been scheduled on consecutive days during the first week of December. A request for proposal to obtain formal bid responses from each of the vendors is being drafted and is scheduled for distribution on November 10.

Of particular note has been the engagement, spirit of cooperation, willingness to share and dedication to this project displayed by representatives from the various departments from all five colleges during the joint project team meetings held on October 8. Many of the participants and all of the IT management staff members who served as conveners for those sessions have commented very positively regarding the conduct of the meetings and the opportunity they afforded to work together with counterparts from the other colleges.

Target Completion Date	Activity/Task	Status as of October 27, 2003
August 25, 2003	Joint President/CFO/CIO/IS Director meeting (Bethel)	Completed
Aug. 26-Sept. 5, 2003	Presidents convey Key Messages to Project Team at her/his college	Completed
Sept. 15-Oct. 3, 2003	College project teams complete homework assignment for first joint project team meeting · Departments/functions from each individual institution identify their department’s “Trends, Needs, Wants” as it relates to a new ERP system · Prioritize Must Haves into top 10	Completed
Oct. 6-8, 2003	First Joint Project Team Meetings Departments/Areas: · Admissions · Financial Aid · GL & Accounts Receivable · Purchasing & Accounts Payable · Student Billing · Human Resources & Payroll · Registrar / Student Records · Student life / Career Development · Development / Alumni/ae Relations Tasks: 1. Share Top 10 “musts” identified at each college 2. Identify joint Top 10 “Musts” that vendors will be asked to demonstrate (if time) 3. Development of specifications/scenarios for how we want each vendor to demonstrate how product satisfies each “must” (if time) 4. Identification of Volunteers for Business Process Scenario Development	October 8, 2003 Half-day session for each department/area convened at St. Catherine Three groups completed all tasks. Six groups completed task 1 and at least part of task 2. Identified need to convene representatives from two additional areas: · Academic Affairs & Institutional Research Meeting held at Macalester October 23 · Non-traditional (Distance Education) Meeting scheduled for October 28 at Bethel Volunteers identified for five Business Process Flow Scenario Development Groups to convene prior to second joint team meetings
Oct 9-21, 2003	CIOs/IS Directors: · Consolidate department specific requirements · Send to team members for review/comment · Develop grid between requirements and vendor specific modules	In process
Oct. 9-31, 2003	· Business Process Flow Work Groups draft demo scenarios	In process
Nov. 3-5, 2003	Second Joint Team Meetings Tasks 1. Finalize joint Top 10 “musts” that vendors will be asked to include in demonstrations 2. Finalize business process scenarios	Meetings for six groups that did not complete Task 1 on October 8 scheduled for Thursday, October 30 at Macalester
Nov. 10, 2003	CIOs send specifications & demo scenarios to vendors
Nov. 10-31, 2003	CIOs & CFOs: · Update vendor contract information including more current/accurate license fees, implementation costs, maintenance costs and options and payment schedules · Finalise site visite locations	Doug Schroeder, Northwestern VP Finance, Gail Bliven, St. Catherine Director of Purchasing, Steve Morrow, Northwestern Asst. VP for Technology and Al Dees, St. Catherine Director Computing Services, met October 24 to identify primary components of a formal, joint request for proposal. (RFP). Gail Bliven agreed to develop draft RFP for review of CIOs & CFOs. Target schedule agreed to is: Draft Completion Oct. 31, 2003 Review by CFOs/CIOs Nov. 2—7, 2003 Distribution to Vendors Nov. 10. 2003 Deadline for vendor responses Dec. 5, 2003 CFOs are scheduled to meet on Oct. 31, 2003, discuss: · Cost estimating for the full project · Due diligence for the financial condition of each vendor · Review of Jenzabar’s financial situation
Dec. 1-5, 2003	Demos and Ancillary Data Gathering	Demonstrations scheduled at present: · Dec. 2 Agresso (with College Bd & Blackbaud) · Dec. 3 SCT · Dec. 4 Datatel Location: William Mitchell (tentative) Prior to extending an invitation to PeopleSoft to demonstrate their ERP suite, the CIOs decided to seek additional information regarding length of implementation process, costs, etc. from two colleges that have completed PeopleSoft implementations during the past several years. Bill Doyle, Bethel VP Info. Systems, and Al Dees, St. Catherine Director Computing Services, have interviewed CIOs at two client references—Academy of the Chicago Institute of Art and San Francisco Academy of Art. Chicago was one of the early PeopleSoft installations in higher education so longer than projected implementation time and higher cost was attributed in good part to that. San Francisco has just completed installation of all modules in one year--on time and under budget. Findings will be reviewed by CFOs during meeting planned for week of October 27 prior to finalization of decision whether or not to extend demonstration invitation.
December 8-19, 2003	CIOs/IS Directors & User Groups · Consolidate demo feedback · Representative group(s) visits college(s) using systems from top 1 or 2 vendors	Demo follow-up meetings of the Departmental Joint User Groups tentatively scheduled for Dec. 9, 2003 at Northwestern
Dec. 22, 2003-Jan. 9, 2004	CIOs prepare final recommendation
January 2004	CIOs deliver final vendor recommendation to each school’s decision-makers
January-March 2004	CFOs/CIOs negotiate contracts CIOs and selected vendor develop implementation and training plans and schedules (See Attachment J) Colleges incorporate funding/payments into budgets
After July 2004	Begin implementation