Organizational Profile:
Founded in 1871, West Chester University of Pennsylvania is the second largest of the 14 institutions of higher learning that comprise the State System of Higher Education of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With more than 10,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students, West Chester offers degrees in the arts and sciences, teacher training and certification, advanced study preparation in fields such as medicine and law, education for specific professions, and continuing education.
Modules Implemented:
Advancement (v7.6), 6 month implementation; Admissions (v7.6), 6 month implementation
Environment:
Database: Oracle 8i, Hardware: Compaq Proliant, OS: Win 2000
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The Challenge:
At the end of 1999, West Chester University of Pennsylvania’s Advancement division decided to replace their limited, stand-alone system with a comprehensive, fully integrated system that could support institutional operating and reporting objectives. To meet their needs, they selected the PeopleSoft Advancement module.
Why PeopleSoft?
Key to the decision to implement PeopleSoft Advancement was its prospect management and campaign management functionality, as well as its ability to be easily integrated to PeopleSoft’s Student Administration modules, which the university also decided to implement.
Why CIBER Enterprise Solutions?
“We selected CIBER as our implementation partner due to their expertise with Advancement implementations and their proven successes at other higher education institutions,” said Carol Clark, West Chester University’s PeopleSoft project manager.
Project Details:
Within six months, CIBER helped the five offices and program areas of the Advancement Division of West Chester University of Pennsylvania implement the PeopleSoft Advancement module and convert approximately 200,000 gift and pledge transactions, as well as 90,000 constituent records, from the old system into PeopleSoft.
CIBER was involved with the project from the planning through the deployment stages, collaborating with members of the project team as well as members of the Steering Committee, Campus Community Committee, and the Academic Structure Committee in the design and deployment of the new systems.
WCU’s Steering Committee challenged the project team to implement the PeopleSoft Student Administration Suite without system modifications. As such, all business processes were evaluated for reengineering opportunities and to better accommodate the overall system design.
To ensure the on-time and under-budget delivery of the project, institutional buy-ins were sought throughout the project life-cycle, thus ensuring an uneventful transition to the new systems.
Implementation of the Advancement module began in May of 2000 utilizing CIBER’s proprietary IPM methodology, which features a phased implementation approach. The implementation progressed smoothly along a six-month implementation timeline. The system went live without a hitch in November of 2000.
In December 2000, immediately following the successful implementation of Advancement, work began on the Admissions implementation. The Admissions module of the Student Administration application was successfully implemented following the same IPM methodology that was used in the Advancement project. To support the phased approach, bi-directional daily integration between the PeopleSoft and Legacy databases was developed to support current business functions throughout campus and minimize business interruption.
Benefits:
By partnering with the West Chester and PeopleSoft teams, CIBER was able to create a strong relationship between all members of the team and deliver the Admissions and Advancement implementations on time and under budget.
The university can now track all activities involving its current and future alumni from one consolidated database, eliminating redundant data entry and improving its relationship with alumni and financial supporters. The university can create and manage fund-raising campaigns, track individual contributions, gifts and annual donations, as well as track alumni attendance at university sponsored events.
Future Plans:
Future plans for the PeopleSoft project at West Chester University include implementation of self-service and online registration capabilities, planned for Phase III of the project.
How CIBER Added Value:
CIBER’s functional and technical knowledge, commitment to the success of the project, and to developing strong relationships with all members of the project team were major factors in the on-time and under budget implementations at West Chester.
Said Carol Clark, "Critical to the success of our project was the functional and technical knowledge of CIBER’s consultants, their exceptional project management skills, and their team approach of working together with our staff to complete this project on time and under budget."
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