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Community Colleges and Technology >> Getting the Edge on Institutional Goals
3/31/2005
Putting it mildly, there was real user resistance, recalls Tony Tortorice, LACCD’s CIO. “We knew there was a problem when we realized we had to have ‘how to use a mouse’ training. The technology worked,” he remembers; “we just had to find a better way to get it to users.” It was then that administrators decided to upgrade their license to the complete mySAP Business Suite family of business solutions. The primary motivation was the desire to use SAP Business Intelligence (SAP BI) and SAP Enterprise Portal (SAP EP), both components of the SAP NetWeaver platform. By improving usability through better data integration and via the Web, administrators believed reluctant users would come around faster and more readily accept an enterprise-wide application system. What’s more, they decided, moving to the integrated suite of applications would give LACCD a stable enterprise platform, signaling the beginning of an organizational transformation to more efficient processes. The school system would finally have better financial control and be able to initiate more rapid decision-making; the reporting system would also be modernized, with increased access to information that users would find easy to obtain and view.
Administrators opted for a gradual installation of suite components, to not only minimize user resistance in general, but also to pave the way for more rapid adoption of the forthcoming HR solution, mySAP ERP Human Capital Management (HCM), which they plan to roll out later in 2005. Initially, HCM will enable employee self-service such as downloading HR forms or accessing an FAQ (frequently asked question) document—all functions that translate directly into cost savings.
Gentle adoption via the portal. Like the financial package, the portal itself was implemented in small stages. The first step was to attract employees to the use of knowledge management features and search capabilities by migrating all of the community college district’s employee forms and documentation to the portal. Over time, says Tortorice, “We will explore using the portal to integrate SAP R/3 with other specialized applications, in a way that is seamless to users. When Human Capital Management g'es live, employees will already be accustomed to using the portal. This should substantially reduce the change management effort,” says Tortorice.
The second step was to make the portal a central management reporting repository by moving all online reporting from SAP data warehousing functions (in financials and HR) and WebFOCUS (legacy student information systems) into the enterprise portal.
“We easily converted WebFOCUS reports into portal information views and incorporated them into SAP EP,” explains Tortorice. “Rather than signing on to separate applications, managers can sign on once, and get access to nearly all of their management reports.”
BI, bit by bit. As for LACCD’s implementation of SAP Business Intelligence, it took a mere 120 days, says Tortorice, thanks to consulting support from the SAP Services Partner, BIS America (www.bisamerica.com), and by concentrating on creating just 10 reports across the mySAP ERP financials and legacy HR data sources. Tortorice chose to limit the scope of the reports in an effort to get the technology right, but will expand them, going forward. After HCM g'es live, he says, LACCD plans to migrate all of its management reporting and analysis into the data warehousing functions of SAP BI.
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