Macquarie Uni asks the market to deliver core IT overhaul

Macquarie University has taken the first steps towards a core IT services overhaul that will see it task a provider with replacing the student admin and corporate systems it has been using for almost two decades.

The university's AMIS (academic management information system) - underpinned by Technology One’s StudentOne platform - and Finance One-based finance system were originally implemented more than 15 years ago.

The university wants to replace the systems with software-as-a-service platforms that provide an open architecture for integration and data exchange, as well as built-in CRM, reporting and analytics capabilities.

Macquarie Uni's senate learning and teaching committee granted approval for the project in May [pdf] on the grounds that “the current systems and infrastructure are not sufficiently agile to support a growing institution”, and following a 2015 IT infrastructure and systems review.

A report presented at the meeting [pdf] describes the current student admin system as a “high-cost legacy on-premise solution" with 30 different "fragmented satellite systems”.

It does not "provide the end-to-end management of the student lifecycle”, the report stated, partly due to the 44 key business processes that are separate from the platform.

These fragmented workflows were blamed for lost revenues due to “significant levels of [student] withdrawal" from course units attributed to poor experience with the system, as well as “at-risk students not being identified early enough for successful intervention and support” and subsequently dropping out.

Where the university has moved 41 business processes from paper forms to online workflows since 2011, it said further innovation has been “impeded by a lack of agility in the systems infrastructure”.

Going external for help

The university is also tackling an “organisational change process” in its central IT services department at the same time as it undertakes its systems overhaul.

To prevent delays on the transformation that would stem from the worker restructure, the university has asked third-party partners to help out with the project.

It has approached the market for "appropriately skilled resources" that can provide "knowledge and experience in delivering complex projects in a higher education environment".

The outsourced IT project delivery teams will have responsibility for all planning, management and implementation activities needed to drive the core systems overhaul from drawing board to go-live.

It has turned to the market to make sure it can deliver on its plans whilst also reworking its central IT services department into a more "service orientated structure”.

The university declined to provide detail on the restructure.

However, it recently created a new directorate dubbed Faculty Engagement & Systems Support to sit alongside its three existing directorates of Client Services, Infrastructure & Applications and Policy, and Compliance and PMO.

A spokesperson said the university needed to be able to respond to an "ever-changing technological environment" in order to "reach its full potential".