![professional photo of Kellie Campbell, CIO](https://support.vsc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/KBC-150x150.jpg)
As we transition into the warm summer months, I hope folks take time to soak up the beautiful green and (hopefully!) blue skies ahead of us. It is a beautiful time of year to live in Vermont, if Vermont is where you call home.
Over the summer, the Information Technology (IT) team seeks rest and vacation time, yet it is also a very busy time where we are working on many projects. You can find a highlight to many of our projects in our newly released IT Strategic Plan. Our state-wide IT team came together in the summer of 2023 to develop our mission statement and build out six strategic pillars that align with the vision of the VSC institutions. We wrote a multi-year strategic plan based on the strategic pillars and you can find it on our Strategic Plan page.
There is one specific effort I wanted to take a moment to highlight.
As announced in April, the VSC is moving forward with a project to replace Ellucian Colleague, our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The scope of our assessment work included Colleague, UKG, and other software systems connected to Colleague. In the past few weeks, the Steering Committee has continued its work and is now focused on the critical pre-planning work to prepare for this large multi-year project. We are focused on ensuring we start this project with plans to mitigate risks, challenges, and concerns. We are committed to transparency in communication, and the success of this project is important to us.
A reminder of the reasons why this work is important and timely:
- The existing software infrastructure is not sustainable in the future, as identified in the consultant reports and given the industry’s migration to cloud software as a service.
- Colleague does not meet VSC business needs because it was not designed to accommodate multiple institutions.
- The current ERP solution does not meet the needs of either the system or the institutions within the VSC, including workflow management, the necessity for significant overrides and customizations, and numerous manual entry requirements.
The Steering Committee is focused on the following pre-planning work so we can build a strong foundation for the ERP project:
- Clearly documented objectives and goals
- Architecture Assessment/Requirements – making sure we understand the scope and functional needs of our institutions
- Preliminary Resource Plan – how we put additional people with capacity and expertise in place to support this work
- Governance Structure – how we make decisions as a system
- Change Planning – how we support faculty, staff, and students through this change
- Project Timeline
As always, I am extremely appreciative to my colleagues across the VSC and to my IT team for helping support the mission and vision of both CCV and VTSU every day. Our work embeds into so many areas of our organization and our ongoing priority as an IT team is to prioritize partnerships and opportunity. Your ongoing engagement and feedback to our work is always appreciated, please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Best,
Kellie
Dr. Kellie B. Campbell, Ed.D. (she/her)
Chief Information Officer
Vermont State Colleges Information Technology