cloud computing

4 smart strategies to make your cloud transition smooth


Here are some strategies to help universities transition to modern-day campuses

Despite tightened budgets and fewer resources, universities are under increased pressure to sustain enrollment, maintain a competitive edge in attracting students and staff, and subsequently meet growing student and staff expectations. According to a report by the University of New Hampshire, funding for public two- and four-year colleges in the U.S. is nearly $10 billion below recession levels. This challenge has left administration and campus leaders wondering how they’ll navigate this new era of higher education.

To overcome such obstacles, leading universities have turned to a unified cloud-based infrastructure that can deliver the data and insights needed to keep pace with the demands of students, faculty, researchers, and other institutional stakeholders. Like many other sectors, changes to the education landscape are driving the transition to the cloud and making digital transformation an absolute necessity for thriving, growing universities.

While many colleges recognize the need to upgrade legacy systems and processes, unanswered questions often put these initiatives into a holding pattern. How big is the project? What technologies should they be looking into? How much budget will this take? What are the first steps? What to do with legacy systems? Are these new technologies secure? And what will they need to think about once new technologies have been implemented?

Here are some strategies to help universities take that first leap towards the cloud and transition to modern-day campuses.

1. Get management to buy in early. When implementing a campus-wide cloud transition, it’s important for the cabinet-level leadership and other key stakeholders to fully understand and support the transition. However, getting management buy-in can be one of the toughest, yet most critical, steps in the digital transformation. To ensure the immediate and long-term success of the cloud transition, all university leaders must understand that operating in the cloud isn’t a “nice to have,” but a de-facto standard for a modern campus.

Clearly communicate the benefits of operating in cloud-based platforms to management so they recognize the existing challenges and issues the cloud can help address; are aware of the up-front costs and investments required, the resulting benefits, and specific KPIs the cloud can positively impact. With a good understanding of the transition, management will help foster the support needed to ensure the project runs smoothly and is ultimately successful.

(Next page: More strategies to ease your cloud transition)

2. Create a change-management team.
A large cloud platform deployment will surely come with some growing pains. Will staff willingly adopt these new platforms or resist the change? What will the university do with the new arsenal of data and will it require training for new skill sets or additional staff? How will the cloud transition impact students and the overall campus ecosystem?

Having a change-management team that has equal representation from all relevant departments to ensure that everyone’s voices and concerns are addressed throughout the process can help you navigate through the entire process and manage some of these variables. The team should be the sole hub communicating all key plans, updates, and messages about the cloud transition to relevant parties, staff, and students as appropriate. They should also be responsible for making sure that students and staff know how to use the new platforms (e.g., student-service portals, faculty communication boards, benefits, and HR portals, etc.).

3. Pick a partner who understands your goals.
Transitioning to the cloud is an ongoing initiative and requires very specific expertise before, during, and after the implementation. Universities need to partner with vendors that can help plan the transition, configure and extend systems to enable unique needs and provide support after the transition.

Post go-live, the right solution provider will help institutions realize the most return on their solution investment. One of the many benefits of the cloud is having the latest solution updates without your IT department having to maintain and update systems themselves. Be sure to find the right partner that can support your specific needs and be there over time to assist with growing campus needs and ongoing technology adoption.

4. Start with finance and HR supported by platform and infrastructure.
The secret behind any successful organization, university or otherwise, starts with solid collaboration between its finance and human resource teams. These departments handle some of the university’s most important assets: its people and its financial resources. Because the two areas are so closely interconnected, it’s important they work off a single version of the truth to inform individual and joint strategies.

Cloud-based ERP and HCM systems offer the integrated, decision-making data and insights needed for finance and HR leaders to be aligned on strategies to drive overall university goals. With cloud-based platforms, teams across the university can analyze the same type of information, resulting in more efficient collaboration between the two functions. As a result, both HR and finance are able to focus on more strategic decisions such as student grant distributions, faculty/staff salaries, and other operational items. When one university recently moved its HCM applications to an Infrastructure as a Service model, the move resulted in a 30-percent cost savings.

The cloud isn’t all that you need to be a modern university, but it’s certainly the foundation for a smarter, more efficient, and impactful institution. The cloud not only better manages current needs but can also help you prepare for and be better equipped to manage future changes and requirements. That said, it’s important to make sure the transition is handled properly. As long as the right steps are taken, universities will not only see the financial benefits, but they will reap the rewards of a more collaborative and efficient campus community that will attract talented staff and students for years to come.

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