A innovative approach on ERP selection in Higher Ed...

Let me start by saying that this is not a blog entry for those not interested interested on how educational institutions select their ERP software solutions.  Do yourself a favor and return to where you came from as reading this will be as exciting as watching paint dry...

However, I think members of my Higher Education network will find this interesting.

Campus Management was recently invited to participate in an ERP procurement process by a consortium composed of three institutions located in the same geographic region.  Consortium procurement is not as rare as it once was, but what made this unique was the lack of similarity between the member institutions.  Normally the institutions in a consortium ERP procurement have some common characteristics that drive common requirements.  That was not the case here as the institutions were fundamentally different, yet they saw the collaborative value of coming together for a strategic decision like this.  Excellent!

All vendors were provided a nine page document that contained the consortium's high level requirements and product demonstration guidelines.  While a nine page document may sound arduous to the uninitiated, these documents can exceed 100 pages describing in detail the institution's functional requirements, vendor expectations, and demonstration scenario requirements.

Next, we were informed that the company overview, product overview, and product demonstration would be 90 minutes, followed by lunch, followed by a 60 minute question and answer period.

We were flabbergasted - a 90 minute presentation/demonstration?  Typically, a full product demonstration would take between 1 - 2 days.  That's the range we were expecting as we estimated it would take us a day to demonstrate all of the items identified in the nine page demonstration guidelines document.

Unless we could somehow warp time, it was impossible to cover anything but a small fraction of the items in the demonstration guidelines document.  We thought there must have been some type of miscommunication.  However, after several verification exchanges we realized this was indeed the format of our day in the sun with the consortium.  And it was a BIG day at that as the consortium indicated they would select a finalist to move to the next stage based on the results of the vendor "demos".

I've rarely seen anything like this in the 40+ years I've served Higher Education.  Interesting...

I thought this was just crazy.  How could you make such a long term, strategic decision with only 2.5 hours of interaction with each vendor?

This process had us way out of our comfort zone and it forced us to think about the situation very differently.

We knew we'd have an incredibly diverse audience and that every minute mattered.  We agonized over what to present, what to demo, and who to include in our on-site team.  We debated presentation topics and demonstration scenarios that would be most effective at communicating a general understanding of CampusNexus' flexibility and it's overall capabilities.  We precisely scripted our 90 minute demo/presentation down to the minute.  Each presentation, hand-off, and demo segment was rehearsed several times to ensure we could hold to the allotted time.

The same attention to detail was given to the creation of our on-site visuals, leave behind materials, and preparations for the question and answer session.

I was reminded of a quote that I had heard many years ago.  It was initially told to me as something Winston Churchill had said.  I have subsequently heard it attributed to Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, and others.  While it's hard to nail down the theme's exact lineage, this version can be attributed to Woodrow Wilson and it goes like this:

A member of the Cabinet congratulated Wilson on introducing the vogue of short speeches and asked him about the time it took him to prepare his speeches. He said:

“It depends. If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”

So, in a nut shell, we had to deal with a conflicting set of vague requirements coupled with an impossible timeline.  While we always prepare for any presentation or demonstration, this unique and rather unorthodox approach forced a highly elevated level of preparation.

The result??  I think we gave the consortium a better understanding of Campus Management and our CampusNexus solution than had we spent 2 days with them.

After speaking with members of the consortium during lunch, I realized that was intended.

The consortium leadership had done their homework and only invited finalist vendors to the demonstration stage that had a proven track record of being able to meet their basic requirements.  Therefore, they felt they could spare their team the many days required for each vendor to demonstrate those capabilities.  Instead, they structured the process to see how we each dealt with an ambiguous set of requirements and stressful situation as they expect this will be encountered during a complex implementation of three diverse institutions.  Insightful!

I think this accelerated approach has provided the consortium all the information they need to make this long term, strategic decision in a fraction of the time, energy, cost, & disruption associated with a more typical selection process.  Brilliant!

I hope we have the opportunity to move to the next stage as working with innovative institutions and individuals like this is incredibly rewarding.