Page 10 - College Planning & Management, January 2018

HIGHER EDUCATION TRENDS
TOPIC: Collaboration TREND: Toward Developing Standardized Shared Practices PREDICTED BY: Carol Smith, CIO, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
Higher education faces chal- lenges on multiple levels to provide the best student learning, reduce costs to families, and manage the continuing increase of institutional operating expenses. For colleges to successfully fulfill a vision focusing on student success, they must aim keenly toward their core purpose of providing rich, meaningful student experiences. One way to do that is to leverage opportunities ripe for collaboration, where by working together institutions gain efficien- cies that enable them to preserve energy and resources for focus on that core.
Much could be gained by col- laborating in work that is critical for our institutions but not culturally specific; that is, work that is neces- sary for running the business of the college but does not explicitly define its unique distinction in the market. Particularly in areas like back-office administration or col- laborative IT agreements, the next year presents opportunity for insti- tutions to cooperate and develop standardized, shared practices.
Whether those center on nego- tiating affordable and fair pricing models with vendors or reach even
deeper by using IT platforms to scaf- fold shared staff or office functions, leveraging the collective wisdom and commitment of collaborative partners to reduce complexity and expense of non-core functions can empower institutions to meet those aforementioned challenges head-on.
TOPIC: Purchasing
TREND: Toward Procurement Practices with Cloud or SaaS (Software as a Service) PREDICTED BY: Cole Clark, ex- ecutive director, Higher Education, Deloitte Services, LP’s Center for Higher Education Excellence, U.S.
The trend in higher education shifting away from mission-critical applications deployed locally (“on- premise”) toward subscription models where the applications are provided “as a service” by a third party is not new. Beginning with more “commodity” (but no less mission-critical) applications such as email and calendar, higher education institutions are steadily moving to- ward subscription models, followed more quickly by complex apps, such as learning management systems and basic infrastructure needs like compute cycles and data storage. As the technology has matured, a huge wave of institutions (driven largely by extremely antiquated legacy sys- tems) have moved some of the most complex and expensive applications to a Software as a Service (SaaS)
model: ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), which generally includes such functions as HR and payroll, core institutional financials, planning and budgeting, as well as the core SIS (Student Information System).
Yet procurement practices have not caught up with these changes, and mostly reflect the realities of the ’80s and ’90s, when all of these solutions were “acquired” (licensed) and run on-premise. Many exist- ing procurement practices prevent commitments longer than one year, which is not an issue when you’re licensing a software “product,” but are totally out of phase with the subscription world. Further, policies that seek to tie a single vendor to both providing software and imple- mentation and integration services (rooted in the fear that by not do- ing so, the software vendor “runs away” after selling the product) are also no longer relevant.
By entering into a subscription, administrators are connected to the software provider in a very meaningful way for five to 10
years, receiving significant financial advantages. The end result is the elimination of convoluted contracts, extremely elongated procure-
ment and negotiation cycles, and frustrated stakeholders, and the opportunity cost becoming more nimble and efficient. Expect to see procurement subscriptions gain momentum this year.
TOPIC: Facilities Management TREND: Toward Apprenticeship Programs
PREDICTED BY: E. Lander Med- lin, executive vice president, APPA: Leadership in Educational Facilities, Alexandria, VA
It may be heresy for an educa- tional association to say that not all individuals need a college degree. However, if you are representing facilities professionals at higher education institutions (as I do), the story is a bit different.
The rate of baby boomer retire- ments has escalated and tipped the balance appreciably on higher education facilities departments’
10 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JANUARY 2018
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