Often new 3rd Party systems are necessary to improve business operations. The selection and implementation of these technology tools is a critically important task and many questions need to be answered for before the purchase of any new system:
Can the business need be solved within our current ERP (Banner)?
How will the new system integrate into existing infrastructure?
Do we already have a system that satisfies this need and don't know about it?
Will new hardware need to be purchased and what are the initial and maintenance costs?
What effect, if any, will the application have on other departments or staff?
What is the annual cost of the system including estimated FTE cost in support and training?
Is there available FTE to support the new application or will new FTE be required?
How does adding the support of this new system affect available support for existing systems?
How will this system share data with other systems such as Banner?
These questions and more should be addressed in the feasibility analysis of any new system. Many of these questions can only be answered by CIS. CIS's involvement in the decision making process for any new software system purchase is critical to the success of the project.
Any new systems purchases must comply with theEnterprise Software Acquisition Policy to receive CIS support. It can be helpful to review and consider the requirements at the ideation phase of your product selection process.
If the new software or system needs imports of Institutional Data or may generate new institutional data, please review the Institutional Data Policy to understand your obligations. If the data you need for your system to operate is steward by a separate business unit, you must obtain approval to use that data from that unit.