>There are others with this problem, so perhaps you might want to contact
>someone in IT at West Chester University in PA where I understand they have
>a similar problem with PeopleSoft. I apologize in advance, but I don't have
>a contact there to help point the way, yet it seems like they have similar
>issues. Equally fascinating is SAP/R3 whose role in trying to enter the
>education IT market seemed when I last heard a demo by them is to peddle
>vaporware ("sign the contract with us and we'll develop that (e.g.
>institutional advancement) software module on the fly").
Although I am not directly involved with the decision-making, I know that
Columbia has backed away from SAP or Peoplesoft to replace its 25 year old
legacy Personnel and Payroll applications. Basically a lot of the
algorithms built into these applications can not be plugged into SAP or
Peoplesoft, especially anything involved with tuition exemption, etc. We
are moving toward developing web front ends to the old systems which is
both less expensive and easier to implement. Generally speaking, tactical
is the watchword for administrative information systems. We have had a lot
of success with the system I work on. We put a Foxpro windows front end on
a Sybase database to handle financial transactions like purchase orders,
etc. Each day we download data from the mainframe into Sybase, allow over
1000 users to enter transactions and then upload it to the mainframe in the
evening. I am involved in supporting the Sybase piece. Eventually we'd like
to move the Foxpro frontend to the web.
The last time Columbia got involved with an ambitious partnership with a
consulting company, we got burned. American Management Systems developed a
Facilities Management System over a 5 year span that eventually did not
meet expectations. Both sides made noises about legal action, but nothing
came of it. I think everybody just wanted to move on. I should mention that
the system used object orientation, a technology that was overhyped 10
years ago the way that e-commerce is being hyped today.
Louis Proyect
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