University ERP: Choice and Implementation Issues
Sooner or later, each educational institution (OS) is faced with the task of automating certain processes occurring in it, and besides, now there are more than a dozen erp-solutions on the wound that have in their arsenal mechanisms for automating business processes in the field education. In the article I will try to talk about the pitfalls that can occur at the stages of system selection, as well as implementation and use. There are more than one hundred articles on erp on the hub, but in the context of system implementation at the university, I did not find a single one. The information provided in the article is based on the author’s personal experience in implementing an erp system in a public institution of higher education.
As soon as the management matures before the start of “automation” of everyone and everything, the first question-dilemma arises - choosing the right solution for the price / quality / requirements or writing your own software:
So, let's begin ... If your OS does not have clear and understandable business processes (and getting an education is also a kind of business process), then by and large you have nothing to automate, there is no point in erp at a university even in case transparency nobody needs processes (including leadership), but today (transparency) it looks like a stormy river during a flood - in muddy water, the introduction of an erp system will be nothing more than an annoying fly that only interferes with the even and unshakable structure of your swamp. By muddy water, I mean endlessly changing curricula (sometimes even several times during the school year), games with accommodation in hostels, juggling with budget and paid places, far-fetched scientific achievements of employees, withholding recovery mechanisms, and so on, I do not need to teach you. If you have something like this,
Imagine a situation that the management nevertheless decided to introduce a certain system and instructs someone to conduct reconnaissance on the subject of the cost of finished products.
It is very important to correctly make a team of those who will conduct a system search. Often this responsibility in universities is assigned to the IT department (well, it’s all connected with the computer) and they are seriously mistaken, because the end user of the system is not the IT specialist of the university, but management, deans, the educational part, the office, departments, and maybe students. Therefore, at this stage it is extremely important to determine what all these listed categories want from the ERP system, it is necessary to understand its practical significance in daily work, to see the need for automation of certain routine processes. Ideally, it is necessary already at this stage to select and approve (by order or decree) a list of persons participating in the implementation of an unselected product, however paradoxical it may sound,
Obviously, the implementation of the system is necessary at least to receive certain reports (i.e. operational information), and ideally, to increase the openness and transparency of the processes occurring in the university, to obtain a tool for management to make strategic decisions, which ultimately will affect the increase of labor productivity of divisions, reduce the number of errors in work, etc. Unfortunately, in an ordinary university they sometimes try to introduce a system only to receive certain mandatory reports to the Ministry of Education ... and that’s all. The ERP systems sales managers are well aware of this and they are trying to throw dust in the eyes of a potential buyer, stunning him with incredible amounts of ready-made standard reports - “about 100”, “up to 500”, “more than 1000” ... You should not fall for this bait, because it’s obvious that the word “typical” in the names of all reports, should tell you that they still definitely have to “finish” them. And now remember the composition of the IT department of a humanitarian university ... In a good system, the user must independently generate all the reports he needs, and not run to this IT department with round eyes. The system should have an intuitive “designer” of reports with the obligatory export of everything selected in Excel. We all know very well how often letters come from above that require “yesterday” to submit this or that information to the ministry, and now imagine that among the “more than 1000 standard reports” the 1001st report is not provided. What are you going to do? Even if you immediately order the production of the required report from the manufacturer of the system, it will take 3-4 days to produce and test it. If there is a universal tool in the system for selecting the necessary data, the user will make this report himself in 20 minutes. Do not fall into the phrases of the manufacturer, such as “with minimal knowledge of SQL, you can create any report in 30 minutes” - in this case, it is concealed from you that in addition to “minimal knowledge of SQL” you still need to study the database structure (300 worksheets) and what FastReport, for example, but this is no longer a user level! Remember, when buying a TV you are given a soldering iron in the store (just in case)? Not? So why then apply a programmer to the ERP system? that in addition to “minimal knowledge of SQL” you still need to study the structure of the database (300 sheets of commercials) and some FastReport, for example, but this is no longer a user level! Remember, when buying a TV you are given a soldering iron in the store (just in case)? Not? So why then apply a programmer to the ERP system? that in addition to “minimal knowledge of SQL” you still need to study the structure of the database (300 sheets of commercials) and some FastReport, for example, but this is no longer a user level! Remember, when buying a TV you are given a soldering iron in the store (just in case)? Not? So why then apply a programmer to the ERP system?
In any state university, the cost of software is mistakenly at the forefront when choosing, and its developers are well aware of this, therefore they are trying hard to hide the real amount that the OS will have to pay for the purchase and implementation of the system. The policy of ownership of non-exclusive rights to the software should be transparent and understandable to the buyer, always carefully read the price lists, commercial offers, look for asterisks, footnotes and the 6th font. Some manufacturers try to keep silent about buying a DBMS, some beautifully say nothing about the limitation in connections to the database, remember this. Others try to present as many system modules as possible, covering, in their opinion, all business processes in the OS. Do not trust the latter indicator, because it is unlikely that you will introduce all modules at once in a university, especially accounting, most likely it’s already working on 1C, and this is also erp after all, and you’ll have to integrate a new purchase with it, besides, don’t forget that you still want to automate in the first place - the student contingent movement and that’s all what is associated with it or the process of negotiating contracts with suppliers. Undoubtedly - agreement of contracts is an important section of the work of any organization, but do not forget about the main task of your university - this is student training. And besides, if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly. what do you still want to automate in the first place - the movement of the student body and everything connected with it or the process of negotiating agreements with suppliers. Undoubtedly - agreement of contracts is an important section of the work of any organization, but do not forget about the main task of your university - this is student training. And besides, if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly. what do you still want to automate in the first place - the movement of the student body and everything connected with it or the process of negotiating agreements with suppliers. Undoubtedly - agreement of contracts is an important section of the work of any organization, but do not forget about the main task of your university - this is student training. And besides, if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly. if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly. if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly.
When choosing a system, be sure to demand demo access to it, and not just to click on the colorful windows, but try to reflect one or several business processes in the system yourself, for example, to evaluate the convenience of conducting a receiving campaign and the compliance of the system with the rules for receiving, creating training groups, transferring a student from full-time to part-time, drawing up a specific order, extract from it, monthly necessary report, etc. Ask Rosobrnadzor for test access to the packet data transfer to the FIS Unified State Examination and admission and try to connect your system with it (unless of course you want to save yourself from the routine entering 10,000 applications of applicants via the web). Feel free to ask for an extension of the demo period, if it is limited to the supplier, it is in your interests. If at this stage you encounter problems, which seem insurmountable to you and you don’t find an obvious solution in the instructions - it’s not shameful to ask a potential seller to show you how to solve this problem and solve it right now, online. Do not buy excuses like “this is a demo version, everything works like a clock in a real system” or “this functionality is not implemented at the moment, but by the time of purchase we’ll fix everything”, “this is already in the plans”, “we have it implemented a hundred times ”,“ it's easy to add / configure ”! Believe and remember - that which you have not seen now will most likely never be realized (well, except for your money), just feel free to put a minus on this point, because until you have signed an agreement on the purchase of this particular software - you order music you and no one else. Do not buy excuses like “this is a demo version, everything works like a clock in a real system” or “at the moment this functionality is not implemented, but by the time of purchase we’ll fix everything”, “it already has plans”, “we have it implemented a hundred times ”,“ it's easy to add / configure ”! Believe and remember - that which you have not seen now will most likely never be realized (well, except for your money), just feel free to put a minus on this point, because until you have signed an agreement on the purchase of this particular software - you order music you and no one else. Do not buy excuses like “this is a demo version, everything works like a clock in a real system” or “this functionality is not implemented at the moment, but by the time of purchase we’ll fix everything”, “this is already in the plans”, “we have it implemented a hundred times ”,“ it's easy to add / configure ”! Believe and remember - that which you have not seen now will most likely never be realized (well, except for your money), just feel free to put a minus on this point, because until you have signed an agreement on the purchase of this particular software - you order music you and no one else.
Try to involve as many departments as possible in the work with the demo version, whose work you want to reflect in this erp-system. Pay special attention to the program interface, if it seems overloaded to you - be aware that the implementation process will be delayed, because ordinary dispatchers of deans, laboratory assistants of departments, and staff of the training unit will work with the system. From a practical point of view, evaluate the appropriateness of the approach proposed in the system to creating records and filters. Remember that the system should be user friendly in the first place, he himself should want to work in it, forgetting about MS Word, as a unified database for him for all occasions.
Collect and analyze all forms of documents (orders, admissions, statements, extracts, reports, etc.) accepted at your university, classify them and try to find a way to implement them in the system. If you have any difficulties, have the manufacturer help you. Immediately specify the cost of selling the functionality you are missing. Find out if the system is compatible with the GosInsp syllabus file formats, ask the developer to demonstrate the process of importing your plan into the system. Remember that the MMIS Laboratory often changes the format of the plan files and their structure, find out if your potential-bought erp is ready for this. Take an interest in the extent to which the program supports the 3rd generation FSES.
If the ERP system is a client-server application, ask how the update process of client applications is implemented. If when upgrading the system you have to send a slider from the IT department to reinstall applications from all users, think a hundred times about the appropriateness of buying this software. Perhaps, at the initial stage, you would like to limit yourself to automating business processes of the university’s senior staff and updating will not be a global problem, but what will happen if the system covers all departments? .. And if there are 100 departments in the university? And if you decide to engage student systems in your work? .. Find out if the system interacts with AD.
At the stage of choosing a system, pay special attention to the documentation, both to the technical (for setup and administration), and to the user one. All system functionality should be described in detail in mana. Do not take seriously a product whose version of the system described in the user manual does not match the current version of the software. Do not get fooled by documentation that only reflects colorful screenshots of the program’s interfaces, and their descriptions contain something like the following: “when you click the delete student button, the student is deleted”. If you see a similar approach to user instructions from the manufacturer - prepare money for endless training, trainings, seminars / webinars, consultations and more. Do not believe in promises such as “just now we are preparing a new version of the user manual” - believe me - nobody is preparing anything “just now”. If there is no clear mana, then someone needs this ...
Do not get fooled by open or partially open system code; remember, all erp systems write programmer commands. It is unlikely that the staff programmer of your university will be able to finish the system to your needs, without making any mistakes (not from your own illiteracy, but from a lack of understanding of the logic of the application and its modules). Then it will be very difficult to fix, and sometimes impossible, and everything will have to start from scratch. And besides, when upgrading the system with a high probability, all your add-ons will come to naught at best, and at worst, they will completely paralyze the system, plus you will lose the software warranty. If you really want your OS to be able to sign something on the system itself - look for erp with support for client extensions, this is the only right option in your case.
If you are inclined to any particular erp-system, be sure to check with the manufacturer about your experience in implementing this system in universities of your own profile. Yes, yes, exactly the profile, because many processes that are considered obvious at a medical university will be completely unnecessary at the conservatory, for example. If this system has not been implemented yet in any university of your profile, but is implemented only in colleges of the same orientation - expect trouble, because The educational process in a university and a university are two different things. Feel free to ask for the names of those OS where the manufacturer has already sold (or already implemented) their product. Feel free to call these universities and ask about the effects of implementation, let colleagues share their experience in operating the system, ask them to evaluate the convenience of its everyday use, they will not refuse you. If the implementation fails, ask why the system “lies” or is used by 10%, which was the reason - the developer may have failed, it is possible that the system showed itself to be not very user-friendly or did not live up to expectations from the university administration, or the end users and their low level of computer became the cause of the failure literacy. In this way you will get the most objective characteristic of the system.
In general - at the stage of searching for an erp-system for a university, you should not put money in the first place, focus on the above points and you yourself, without suspecting it, will significantly save on the implementation process.
So, the choice is made, the bills are paid, you have the distribution kit of the purchased ERP system in your hands and you are going to put the software on the server with a glow in your eyes. A couple of clicks <Next> and the system you have installed. What's next? And then the most difficult and time-consuming stage begins - implementation ... Starting from this day, the management will wait for the results every day, and you, as an implementer from the university, will receive daily lyule for delaying the process. The first myth that should be dispelled in the head of the university’s leadership, and the sooner the better - “The ERP system that we will buy is ready to work immediately after installation on the university’s server”. This is far from the case. More precisely, this is not so at all, in principle. Any ready-made solution is a constructor with a certain margin of opportunity, and this constructor does not work out of the box, it will not print all the forms you need, and it will not fill out the student database on its own, Do not upload from a third-party curriculum. Properly implement these features - and there is a well-built implementation process.
When buying a system, it is important to decide how (and most importantly - at whose expense) the implementation process will take place. There are only two options:
What can I say ... we went the free way and for two years did not really implement anything. No, of course, something works, we use something, but in general it is not clear to everyone why it was necessary to fence the garden, since you can live without it. I myself would not call what works for us an erp system.
Let us return to the order (order) on the list of persons responsible for the implementation of the system, which I wrote about above. We have not had such a list and still do not. As a result, all the stones fly only to one garden - to mine (and I'm just an employee of the IT department). As already mentioned, any erp-system requires configuration for the business processes of a particular university, sometimes it is not possible to achieve the desired result by simply switching the checkboxes in the admin panel, it is often necessary to make certain changes to the system, in a word, developers need to be finished.
It is important to remember that the introduction of any information system requires the participation of not only technical experts. Without the active participation of users, organization management and developers, it is often simply impossible to implement it. At the implementation stage, you will encounter the fact that most employees, even in one unit of the university, are used to doing the same work in different ways, that many business processes intersect, duplicate or even exclude each other, that the work of many departments is completely unregulated , there are no uniform standards for the numbering of documents and so on. Actually, this is why informatization and automation are so important, because make all processes completely transparent. This is because any information system is a strictly regulated and designed data structure, implying clear and obvious work procedures, eliminating any chaos. But someone likes to work in chaos, someone is profitable, someone is just used to it and does not want to change anything. Such people exist in any organization and they will in every way impede the implementation of the information system. Yes, you will have to deal with sabotage, real sabotage, primarily from those university employees who, even before the system was introduced, were not very friendly with the computer, and even more so now. The unification of all documents at the university will also be a blow to mossy antiquity and conservatism: some will have to be deleted, others will have to be processed, summarized, you may even have to change the usual numbering of the notes and so on. Most likely, at the beginning of the implementation phase, users will have to keep documentation in the erp system and with the usual MS Word and Excel which undoubtedly will not cause enthusiasm or ovation in any department of the university. You have to put up with this. And that is precisely why this very remarkable document (order or order) will be needed that will regulate the responsibility of specific individuals in departments for the implementation of the system. It may even be necessary to force administrative users who are used to working “somehow” to conduct the same work in the system. One hundred million seminars will have to be held, perhaps even with each unit individually. Unfortunately, only in this way can something be changed at times, and if the implemented system is user friendly, the implementation process will go more or less smoothly. It can also be considered an unfortunate fact that in most departments of state universities extremely computer literate people work, for whom the creation of a new document has always been a tragedy. For these 30 years of work history, these people have developed a certain stereotype in their place, which you will try to change completely. A blow below the belt will also be the fact that in order to get at least some small suitable report from the system, you must first enter a thuy heap of data - create a student database, enter all the necessary attributes of each (and there are a lot of them) , and all this will have to be done, alas, with hands, because the list of 1st year students created in Word does not lend itself to any import, where only a space was used as formatting ... in order to get at least some kind of suitable report from the system, you must first enter a thuy heap of data - create a student database, enter all the necessary attributes of each (and there are many of them), and all this will have to be done, alas, with your hands, t .to. the list of 1st year students created in Word does not lend itself to any import, where only a space was used as formatting ... in order to get at least some kind of suitable report from the system, you must first enter a thuy heap of data - create a student database, enter all the necessary attributes of each (and there are many of them), and all this will have to be done, alas, with your hands, t .to. the list of 1st year students created in Word does not lend itself to any import, where only a space was used as formatting ...
Undoubtedly, at the implementation stage, the units will need a titanic amount of effort and the event will succeed only when the dean’s dispatcher first spends 2 minutes instead of the usual 2 days to create an academic certificate, when the ministry requests by 18:00 the number of students living in dormitories and under the age of 20, and the educational part will not strain the deans with a frantic look, and within 5 minutes will generate this report from the system, when the system does not allow the secretary of the selection committee for to keep the seventh statement from the same applicant, and there are many more of these “when” ... But in order for all this university joy to be realized, much will still have to be experienced and much will depend on which erp system the university acquired, as far as it will be understood by the user
As soon as the management matures before the start of “automation” of everyone and everything, the first question-dilemma arises - choosing the right solution for the price / quality / requirements or writing your own software:
- Writing your own erp is not an easy task, which can sometimes be solved only by technical universities, forging personnel, and for oneself too, however, when deciding to write their own product, the management later encounters such a trivial situation as staff turnover, as a result Why a new programmer, sometimes, can not figure out the code of the previous one and begins to rewrite some parts from scratch, which leads to a tangle of problems. In fact, it turns out that self-written systems are developed “on the knee” and, as a rule, without documentation, moreover, developing serious things on your own is difficult, long and expensive - if you compare the development period, the costs of maintaining specialists and all the overhead, it becomes it’s obvious that it’s easier, cheaper and faster to take a good finished product and grind it for yourself.
- For deeply humanitarian universities, writing their own software product is a pipe dream because the IT department is most often represented by a head and two or three “runners” who remove jammed paper from printers in accounting departments and periodically reinstall OSes; everything else is outsourced.
So, let's begin ... If your OS does not have clear and understandable business processes (and getting an education is also a kind of business process), then by and large you have nothing to automate, there is no point in erp at a university even in case transparency nobody needs processes (including leadership), but today (transparency) it looks like a stormy river during a flood - in muddy water, the introduction of an erp system will be nothing more than an annoying fly that only interferes with the even and unshakable structure of your swamp. By muddy water, I mean endlessly changing curricula (sometimes even several times during the school year), games with accommodation in hostels, juggling with budget and paid places, far-fetched scientific achievements of employees, withholding recovery mechanisms, and so on, I do not need to teach you. If you have something like this,
Imagine a situation that the management nevertheless decided to introduce a certain system and instructs someone to conduct reconnaissance on the subject of the cost of finished products.
It is very important to correctly make a team of those who will conduct a system search. Often this responsibility in universities is assigned to the IT department (well, it’s all connected with the computer) and they are seriously mistaken, because the end user of the system is not the IT specialist of the university, but management, deans, the educational part, the office, departments, and maybe students. Therefore, at this stage it is extremely important to determine what all these listed categories want from the ERP system, it is necessary to understand its practical significance in daily work, to see the need for automation of certain routine processes. Ideally, it is necessary already at this stage to select and approve (by order or decree) a list of persons participating in the implementation of an unselected product, however paradoxical it may sound,
Obviously, the implementation of the system is necessary at least to receive certain reports (i.e. operational information), and ideally, to increase the openness and transparency of the processes occurring in the university, to obtain a tool for management to make strategic decisions, which ultimately will affect the increase of labor productivity of divisions, reduce the number of errors in work, etc. Unfortunately, in an ordinary university they sometimes try to introduce a system only to receive certain mandatory reports to the Ministry of Education ... and that’s all. The ERP systems sales managers are well aware of this and they are trying to throw dust in the eyes of a potential buyer, stunning him with incredible amounts of ready-made standard reports - “about 100”, “up to 500”, “more than 1000” ... You should not fall for this bait, because it’s obvious that the word “typical” in the names of all reports, should tell you that they still definitely have to “finish” them. And now remember the composition of the IT department of a humanitarian university ... In a good system, the user must independently generate all the reports he needs, and not run to this IT department with round eyes. The system should have an intuitive “designer” of reports with the obligatory export of everything selected in Excel. We all know very well how often letters come from above that require “yesterday” to submit this or that information to the ministry, and now imagine that among the “more than 1000 standard reports” the 1001st report is not provided. What are you going to do? Even if you immediately order the production of the required report from the manufacturer of the system, it will take 3-4 days to produce and test it. If there is a universal tool in the system for selecting the necessary data, the user will make this report himself in 20 minutes. Do not fall into the phrases of the manufacturer, such as “with minimal knowledge of SQL, you can create any report in 30 minutes” - in this case, it is concealed from you that in addition to “minimal knowledge of SQL” you still need to study the database structure (300 worksheets) and what FastReport, for example, but this is no longer a user level! Remember, when buying a TV you are given a soldering iron in the store (just in case)? Not? So why then apply a programmer to the ERP system? that in addition to “minimal knowledge of SQL” you still need to study the structure of the database (300 sheets of commercials) and some FastReport, for example, but this is no longer a user level! Remember, when buying a TV you are given a soldering iron in the store (just in case)? Not? So why then apply a programmer to the ERP system? that in addition to “minimal knowledge of SQL” you still need to study the structure of the database (300 sheets of commercials) and some FastReport, for example, but this is no longer a user level! Remember, when buying a TV you are given a soldering iron in the store (just in case)? Not? So why then apply a programmer to the ERP system?
In any state university, the cost of software is mistakenly at the forefront when choosing, and its developers are well aware of this, therefore they are trying hard to hide the real amount that the OS will have to pay for the purchase and implementation of the system. The policy of ownership of non-exclusive rights to the software should be transparent and understandable to the buyer, always carefully read the price lists, commercial offers, look for asterisks, footnotes and the 6th font. Some manufacturers try to keep silent about buying a DBMS, some beautifully say nothing about the limitation in connections to the database, remember this. Others try to present as many system modules as possible, covering, in their opinion, all business processes in the OS. Do not trust the latter indicator, because it is unlikely that you will introduce all modules at once in a university, especially accounting, most likely it’s already working on 1C, and this is also erp after all, and you’ll have to integrate a new purchase with it, besides, don’t forget that you still want to automate in the first place - the student contingent movement and that’s all what is associated with it or the process of negotiating contracts with suppliers. Undoubtedly - agreement of contracts is an important section of the work of any organization, but do not forget about the main task of your university - this is student training. And besides, if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly. what do you still want to automate in the first place - the movement of the student body and everything connected with it or the process of negotiating agreements with suppliers. Undoubtedly - agreement of contracts is an important section of the work of any organization, but do not forget about the main task of your university - this is student training. And besides, if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly. what do you still want to automate in the first place - the movement of the student body and everything connected with it or the process of negotiating agreements with suppliers. Undoubtedly - agreement of contracts is an important section of the work of any organization, but do not forget about the main task of your university - this is student training. And besides, if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly. if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly. if you successfully implement erp at the student contingent level, no one will forbid you from introducing any additional functionality. One way or another - priorities must be set correctly.
When choosing a system, be sure to demand demo access to it, and not just to click on the colorful windows, but try to reflect one or several business processes in the system yourself, for example, to evaluate the convenience of conducting a receiving campaign and the compliance of the system with the rules for receiving, creating training groups, transferring a student from full-time to part-time, drawing up a specific order, extract from it, monthly necessary report, etc. Ask Rosobrnadzor for test access to the packet data transfer to the FIS Unified State Examination and admission and try to connect your system with it (unless of course you want to save yourself from the routine entering 10,000 applications of applicants via the web). Feel free to ask for an extension of the demo period, if it is limited to the supplier, it is in your interests. If at this stage you encounter problems, which seem insurmountable to you and you don’t find an obvious solution in the instructions - it’s not shameful to ask a potential seller to show you how to solve this problem and solve it right now, online. Do not buy excuses like “this is a demo version, everything works like a clock in a real system” or “this functionality is not implemented at the moment, but by the time of purchase we’ll fix everything”, “this is already in the plans”, “we have it implemented a hundred times ”,“ it's easy to add / configure ”! Believe and remember - that which you have not seen now will most likely never be realized (well, except for your money), just feel free to put a minus on this point, because until you have signed an agreement on the purchase of this particular software - you order music you and no one else. Do not buy excuses like “this is a demo version, everything works like a clock in a real system” or “at the moment this functionality is not implemented, but by the time of purchase we’ll fix everything”, “it already has plans”, “we have it implemented a hundred times ”,“ it's easy to add / configure ”! Believe and remember - that which you have not seen now will most likely never be realized (well, except for your money), just feel free to put a minus on this point, because until you have signed an agreement on the purchase of this particular software - you order music you and no one else. Do not buy excuses like “this is a demo version, everything works like a clock in a real system” or “this functionality is not implemented at the moment, but by the time of purchase we’ll fix everything”, “this is already in the plans”, “we have it implemented a hundred times ”,“ it's easy to add / configure ”! Believe and remember - that which you have not seen now will most likely never be realized (well, except for your money), just feel free to put a minus on this point, because until you have signed an agreement on the purchase of this particular software - you order music you and no one else.
Try to involve as many departments as possible in the work with the demo version, whose work you want to reflect in this erp-system. Pay special attention to the program interface, if it seems overloaded to you - be aware that the implementation process will be delayed, because ordinary dispatchers of deans, laboratory assistants of departments, and staff of the training unit will work with the system. From a practical point of view, evaluate the appropriateness of the approach proposed in the system to creating records and filters. Remember that the system should be user friendly in the first place, he himself should want to work in it, forgetting about MS Word, as a unified database for him for all occasions.
Collect and analyze all forms of documents (orders, admissions, statements, extracts, reports, etc.) accepted at your university, classify them and try to find a way to implement them in the system. If you have any difficulties, have the manufacturer help you. Immediately specify the cost of selling the functionality you are missing. Find out if the system is compatible with the GosInsp syllabus file formats, ask the developer to demonstrate the process of importing your plan into the system. Remember that the MMIS Laboratory often changes the format of the plan files and their structure, find out if your potential-bought erp is ready for this. Take an interest in the extent to which the program supports the 3rd generation FSES.
If the ERP system is a client-server application, ask how the update process of client applications is implemented. If when upgrading the system you have to send a slider from the IT department to reinstall applications from all users, think a hundred times about the appropriateness of buying this software. Perhaps, at the initial stage, you would like to limit yourself to automating business processes of the university’s senior staff and updating will not be a global problem, but what will happen if the system covers all departments? .. And if there are 100 departments in the university? And if you decide to engage student systems in your work? .. Find out if the system interacts with AD.
At the stage of choosing a system, pay special attention to the documentation, both to the technical (for setup and administration), and to the user one. All system functionality should be described in detail in mana. Do not take seriously a product whose version of the system described in the user manual does not match the current version of the software. Do not get fooled by documentation that only reflects colorful screenshots of the program’s interfaces, and their descriptions contain something like the following: “when you click the delete student button, the student is deleted”. If you see a similar approach to user instructions from the manufacturer - prepare money for endless training, trainings, seminars / webinars, consultations and more. Do not believe in promises such as “just now we are preparing a new version of the user manual” - believe me - nobody is preparing anything “just now”. If there is no clear mana, then someone needs this ...
Do not get fooled by open or partially open system code; remember, all erp systems write programmer commands. It is unlikely that the staff programmer of your university will be able to finish the system to your needs, without making any mistakes (not from your own illiteracy, but from a lack of understanding of the logic of the application and its modules). Then it will be very difficult to fix, and sometimes impossible, and everything will have to start from scratch. And besides, when upgrading the system with a high probability, all your add-ons will come to naught at best, and at worst, they will completely paralyze the system, plus you will lose the software warranty. If you really want your OS to be able to sign something on the system itself - look for erp with support for client extensions, this is the only right option in your case.
If you are inclined to any particular erp-system, be sure to check with the manufacturer about your experience in implementing this system in universities of your own profile. Yes, yes, exactly the profile, because many processes that are considered obvious at a medical university will be completely unnecessary at the conservatory, for example. If this system has not been implemented yet in any university of your profile, but is implemented only in colleges of the same orientation - expect trouble, because The educational process in a university and a university are two different things. Feel free to ask for the names of those OS where the manufacturer has already sold (or already implemented) their product. Feel free to call these universities and ask about the effects of implementation, let colleagues share their experience in operating the system, ask them to evaluate the convenience of its everyday use, they will not refuse you. If the implementation fails, ask why the system “lies” or is used by 10%, which was the reason - the developer may have failed, it is possible that the system showed itself to be not very user-friendly or did not live up to expectations from the university administration, or the end users and their low level of computer became the cause of the failure literacy. In this way you will get the most objective characteristic of the system.
In general - at the stage of searching for an erp-system for a university, you should not put money in the first place, focus on the above points and you yourself, without suspecting it, will significantly save on the implementation process.
So, the choice is made, the bills are paid, you have the distribution kit of the purchased ERP system in your hands and you are going to put the software on the server with a glow in your eyes. A couple of clicks <Next> and the system you have installed. What's next? And then the most difficult and time-consuming stage begins - implementation ... Starting from this day, the management will wait for the results every day, and you, as an implementer from the university, will receive daily lyule for delaying the process. The first myth that should be dispelled in the head of the university’s leadership, and the sooner the better - “The ERP system that we will buy is ready to work immediately after installation on the university’s server”. This is far from the case. More precisely, this is not so at all, in principle. Any ready-made solution is a constructor with a certain margin of opportunity, and this constructor does not work out of the box, it will not print all the forms you need, and it will not fill out the student database on its own, Do not upload from a third-party curriculum. Properly implement these features - and there is a well-built implementation process.
When buying a system, it is important to decide how (and most importantly - at whose expense) the implementation process will take place. There are only two options:
- the first (free) - the university independently introduces the product, in consultation with the system developer,
- second (costly) - the developer provides the university with paid services for the implementation of the system.
What can I say ... we went the free way and for two years did not really implement anything. No, of course, something works, we use something, but in general it is not clear to everyone why it was necessary to fence the garden, since you can live without it. I myself would not call what works for us an erp system.
Let us return to the order (order) on the list of persons responsible for the implementation of the system, which I wrote about above. We have not had such a list and still do not. As a result, all the stones fly only to one garden - to mine (and I'm just an employee of the IT department). As already mentioned, any erp-system requires configuration for the business processes of a particular university, sometimes it is not possible to achieve the desired result by simply switching the checkboxes in the admin panel, it is often necessary to make certain changes to the system, in a word, developers need to be finished.
It is important to remember that the introduction of any information system requires the participation of not only technical experts. Without the active participation of users, organization management and developers, it is often simply impossible to implement it. At the implementation stage, you will encounter the fact that most employees, even in one unit of the university, are used to doing the same work in different ways, that many business processes intersect, duplicate or even exclude each other, that the work of many departments is completely unregulated , there are no uniform standards for the numbering of documents and so on. Actually, this is why informatization and automation are so important, because make all processes completely transparent. This is because any information system is a strictly regulated and designed data structure, implying clear and obvious work procedures, eliminating any chaos. But someone likes to work in chaos, someone is profitable, someone is just used to it and does not want to change anything. Such people exist in any organization and they will in every way impede the implementation of the information system. Yes, you will have to deal with sabotage, real sabotage, primarily from those university employees who, even before the system was introduced, were not very friendly with the computer, and even more so now. The unification of all documents at the university will also be a blow to mossy antiquity and conservatism: some will have to be deleted, others will have to be processed, summarized, you may even have to change the usual numbering of the notes and so on. Most likely, at the beginning of the implementation phase, users will have to keep documentation in the erp system and with the usual MS Word and Excel which undoubtedly will not cause enthusiasm or ovation in any department of the university. You have to put up with this. And that is precisely why this very remarkable document (order or order) will be needed that will regulate the responsibility of specific individuals in departments for the implementation of the system. It may even be necessary to force administrative users who are used to working “somehow” to conduct the same work in the system. One hundred million seminars will have to be held, perhaps even with each unit individually. Unfortunately, only in this way can something be changed at times, and if the implemented system is user friendly, the implementation process will go more or less smoothly. It can also be considered an unfortunate fact that in most departments of state universities extremely computer literate people work, for whom the creation of a new document has always been a tragedy. For these 30 years of work history, these people have developed a certain stereotype in their place, which you will try to change completely. A blow below the belt will also be the fact that in order to get at least some small suitable report from the system, you must first enter a thuy heap of data - create a student database, enter all the necessary attributes of each (and there are a lot of them) , and all this will have to be done, alas, with hands, because the list of 1st year students created in Word does not lend itself to any import, where only a space was used as formatting ... in order to get at least some kind of suitable report from the system, you must first enter a thuy heap of data - create a student database, enter all the necessary attributes of each (and there are many of them), and all this will have to be done, alas, with your hands, t .to. the list of 1st year students created in Word does not lend itself to any import, where only a space was used as formatting ... in order to get at least some kind of suitable report from the system, you must first enter a thuy heap of data - create a student database, enter all the necessary attributes of each (and there are many of them), and all this will have to be done, alas, with your hands, t .to. the list of 1st year students created in Word does not lend itself to any import, where only a space was used as formatting ...
Undoubtedly, at the implementation stage, the units will need a titanic amount of effort and the event will succeed only when the dean’s dispatcher first spends 2 minutes instead of the usual 2 days to create an academic certificate, when the ministry requests by 18:00 the number of students living in dormitories and under the age of 20, and the educational part will not strain the deans with a frantic look, and within 5 minutes will generate this report from the system, when the system does not allow the secretary of the selection committee for to keep the seventh statement from the same applicant, and there are many more of these “when” ... But in order for all this university joy to be realized, much will still have to be experienced and much will depend on which erp system the university acquired, as far as it will be understood by the user