NCCI/ACE Strategic CollaborationsPartnering Across Boundaries to Leverage Impact and

ResourcesDavid Gift, Vice Provost, Libraries, Computing and

TechnologyMichigan State University

8 February 2009

Enterprise Business Systems Renewal at Michigan State

University, and the Kuali Financial and Research Administration

Projects

2

Michigan State University

Public, land-grant Founded 1855; prototype for land-grant institutions founded

under the Morrill Act of 1862 Carnegie Doctoral/Research - Extensive East Lansing, Michigan, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates 5,200 acre campus (East Lansing); 15,000 acres throughout

Michigan >200 programs of study offered by 17 degree-granting

colleges 46,000 students (36,000 undergraduate; 10,000 graduate) 4,800 faculty and academic staff 6,100 support staff $1.8 billion annual expenditures Member, CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation)

3

MSU’s “industry segments” Higher education -- instruction & research in over 100 fields;

libraries; museums; etc. Medical services -- human and animal Publishing Farming/agriculture Housing -- residence halls and apartments Hotels and conference centers Performing arts centers and events Broadcasting (public television, public radio, webcasting) Arena and flat space centers and events Athletics and sports events; golf courses Financial credit/loans Utilities (electrical power; water) Communications (regional data networking) Others…

4

• Modular functional systems (avoid single-vendor multi-functional systems); middleware integration; business intelligence layer; well-designed data models and intentional stewardship

• Have degrees of control (approach, timing, cost) where available

• Have options (for the things we can’t predict or control)

Information Systems and Services Architectural and Strategic

Direction

Community-Source software for financials and research administration

5

• Need features not provided by commercial software (“of, by and for higher education”)

• Few real integration gains from “all in one” single-vendor solutions; “black box” data models

• Differential change frequency

• High switching cost => high vendor dependency

• Gain timing options (“no disruptive upgrades”; own the source code)

Community Source model

Community Source describes a model for the purposeful coordination of work in a community.

• Explicitly defined roles and responsibilities of community members

• Specified functional scope• Specified architecture• Development standards• Standardized quality assurance and testing• Funded commitments by community members  

6

Kuali Approach -- Financials

New SystemDesign ?

Indiana Financial System

J2EEPlatform

Limited Enhancements

Defined byFunctional

Council

7

Kuali Financial System Partners

Colorado State UniversityCornell UniversityIndiana UniversityIndiana University FoundationMichigan State UniversitySan Joaquin Delta Community CollegeUniversity of Arizona

University of California UC-Office of the PresidentUC-DavisUC-IrvineUC-Santa Barbara

University of HawaiiUniversity of MarylandUniversity of Southern California Andrew W. Mellon FoundationNACUBOrSmart

8

Kuali Approach --Research Administration

New SystemDesign ?

Coeus Research

Administration

J2EEPlatform

Limited Enhancements

Defined byFunctional Council and

Coeus Community

9

Kuali Coeus Partners

University of ArizonaCornell University and the Weill Medical CollegeIndiana UniversityIowa State UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Michigan State UniversityColorado State UniversityUniversity of California – BerkeleyUniversity of California – Davis

Andrew W. Mellon FoundationCoeus ConsortiumHuron Consulting Group

10

11

Key messages

• Capability/capacity is critical to HE success and to national strategic strength

• Collaboration can build capabilities beyond the reach of any single institution, no matter how great

• Let’s collaborate to build capabilities -- we can compete on what each we do uniquely well with them

12

Key messages

• We CAN collaborate successfully

• Collaboration requires trust (several vital elements to this, including time to build)

• Collaboration requires an effort premium

• Many effective models for collaboration, and goodness is situational

13