How the CSU System Is Modernizing Enterprise Systems Across Its Campuses

Disclosure: The Colorado State University System worked with Tambellini as one of several external advisors supporting aspects of its enterprise modernization planning. The views expressed in this case study are intended to describe the work performed and outcomes of the project and do not constitute an endorsement of any product or service by Colorado State University.

The Colorado State University System

The Colorado State University System comprises Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado State University Pueblo, and CSU Global. Together, they educate roughly 50,000 students annually, produce more than 9,000 graduates each year, and support a global alumni network of more than 200,000. The system operates on a $1.06 billion budget and conducts more than $340 million in annual research.

Colorado State University in Fort Collins is the flagship and the state’s land-grant institution, enrolling nearly 30,000 students. It is known for programs in business, veterinary medicine, and journalism, along with research in atmospheric science and clean energy. Through CSU Online, the university extends its programs to more than 10,000 distance learners.

Colorado State University Pueblo is a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution of about 5,000 students, offering career-focused programs including mechatronics and railroad engineering.

CSU Global is the first statutorily defined, independently accredited 100% online public university in the US, serving nontraditional adult learners.

Turning Legacy Complexity into a Modernization Roadmap

As CSU began developing its enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernization strategy in 2022, it identified the implementation of a modern, cloud-based human capital management (HCM) system as the first step toward strengthening the systems and processes that support employees, educators, and learners.

CSU entered its enterprise modernization program with a fragmented HCM environment across its campuses, including roughly 16 human resources-related products and heavily customized homegrown systems. Poor integration and limited support for modern digital workflows required staff to move information manually and rely on workarounds, constraining reporting, slowing decision making, and creating cybersecurity and payroll risk.

CSU’s modernization strategy centered on consolidating HCM functions onto a single cloud-based platform, standardizing business processes, and improving how teams use data. HCM modernization became the first phase of CSU’s broader effort to modernize enterprise systems and processes, with related work focused on finance, data, and integration.

Building the Foundation for Enterprise Platform Modernization

CSU Fort Collins began working with The Tambellini Group in 2021 as the CSU IT team was shifting from a transactional operating model toward a more proactive, strategic, and mission-driven approach. Through its Tambellini subscription, CSU technology leaders regularly reviewed technology strategy, institutional priorities, and higher education technology market developments with a Tambellini strategic advisor and worked with Tambellini analysts on ERP optimization, business intelligence, integration, and student success.

Key foundational shifts the CSU IT team carried out included:

• Mission-driven services: CSU IT aligned its services and investments with institutional priorities, including student success, research enablement, and security, while reducing duplicative work.
• Enterprise data and integration ownership: CSU established governance, common definitions, and an integration strategy to replace ad hoc reporting and point-to-point integrations.
• Capacity as a managed constraint: CSU separated operational work from transformation work and used targeted staff augmentation to protect critical operations while advancing its enterprise-wide modernization agenda.

Assessing Readiness and Building Alignment for Enterprise Platform Transformation

In March 2022, CSU Fort Collins engaged Tambellini to conduct a formal HCM Modernization Readiness Assessment that evaluated CSU’s human resources operating environment. The assessment identified what needed to change to support modernization and offered considerations to guide the university’s enterprise platform vendor selection.

Tambellini conducted 45 stakeholder interviews across CSU to document current human resources operations. Tambellini then compiled the findings into validated section reports and synthesized them into a final assessment that included:

• Gaps, readiness, and market comparison findings: Documentation of changes needed in CSU’s HR processes, systems, staffing, and data practices, along with a comparison of CSU’s requirements with available HCM vendor capabilities.
• Selection and implementation planning: Prerequisite activities and a target timeline for vendor selection and implementation.
• Budgetary estimates and resource planning: Estimates covering vendor and implementation costs, CSU staffing needs, other internal resources, and a financial model CSU could update as pricing, scope, staffing assumptions, and timelines became clearer.

The CSU IT team and Tambellini presented the assessment findings to CSU Fort Collins’ senior leadership to build institutional alignment around the enterprise platform transformation.

Scaling Technology Modernization Systemwide

CSU expanded its engagement with Tambellini to support the system’s request for proposal (RFP) development, vendor and implementation partner evaluation, and contract negotiation for an HCM system that would serve as a foundation for its broader enterprise modernization efforts.

Developing the Systemwide RFP and Selecting a Platform and Implementation Partner

Using requirements documented during the HCM Assessment, Tambellini worked with CSU campus stakeholders to draft the system’s public RFP for HCM software and implementation services. Tambellini also developed demonstration scenarios and a scoring framework that CSU used to compare proposals with its documented business, technical, and operational requirements.

Negotiating Agreements with the Vendor and Implementation Partner

After CSU selected an HCM platform and implementation partner, Tambellini worked with CSU’s business, procurement, and legal teams during contract negotiations. The work included:

• Reviewing commercial terms and identifying negotiation options involving pricing, credits, and contract provisions.
• Reviewing the detailed scope to ensure that the software and implementation partner scopes were aligned and would meet CSU’s needs.
• Developing a total cost of ownership model covering acquisition, implementation, operations, exit costs, and material risks.
• Leading negotiation discussions with the selected HCM vendor and implementation partner on CSU’s behalf.

Assessing Finance Processes and Future Needs

Alongside its HCM transformation, CSU engaged Tambellini to conduct a Finance Assessment and develop a readiness roadmap for future finance modernization. The assessment examined CSU’s distributed finance environment, where data spread across multiple systems made timely, reliable information difficult to access.

Tambellini’s assessment documented interdependent issues related to conversion risk and transformation cost and organized readiness activities into a phased roadmap. The roadmap outlined steps to support CSU’s goals of simplifying the systemwide operating model, strengthening coordination across divisions, and providing more consistent data for budget, staffing, and procurement decisions while maintaining payroll, research accounting, and other critical operations. It included:

• Redesigning CSU’s chart of accounts to support clean conversion, reporting, and multi-institution finance practices.
• Aligning policies, standardizing processes, and reducing manual workarounds across procurement, travel, approvals, and facilities and administrative cost distribution.
• Planning for backfill and targeted staff augmentation to preserve critical operations while shifting qualified staff to conversion readiness.
• Defining position budget controls, staffing rules, and actual-versus-budgeted payroll reporting to reduce cutover risk, conversion time, and cost while improving auditability.
• Documenting complex research accounting and grants requirements through stakeholder interviews.
• Prioritizing remediation of fragmented procurement systems and contract review backlogs.
• Strengthening data strategy, governance, and integration so financial data is easier to connect, trust, and use across the institution.

Assessing CSU’s Enterprise Data Architecture

In a separate engagement, Tambellini completed a Data Architecture Assessment for CSU to inform leadership decisions about the future direction of its enterprise data platform. Tambellini reviewed system inventories, architecture diagrams, data repositories, known pain points, and business requirements; interviewed leaders from IT, institutional research, finance, and other units; and mapped CSU’s current environment against a reference architecture covering data sources, integration, data storage, semantic and business models, analytics, governance, and security.

Tambellini’s assessment documented CSU’s existing enterprise warehouse and reporting practices, growing use of Power BI and Microsoft Fabric, and interest in establishing a more consistent source of institutional data. It included:

• Current-state and gap analysis: Tambellini documented gaps across CSU’s data architecture, with severity ratings, root causes, and recommended actions. The findings identified opportunities to strengthen CSU’s data architecture, governance, and reporting capabilities as the institution plans its next phase of modernization.
• Future-state architecture options: Tambellini identified three paths for CSU leadership to consider: stabilize the existing enterprise warehouse while expanding Microsoft Fabric; transition to a Fabric lakehouse; or adopt a federated data mesh. The assessment evaluated each option based on time to value, five-year cost, organizational impact, reporting continuity, scalability, and vendor flexibility.
• Implementation planning: Tambellini proposed next steps for phased implementation, data governance, report migration, resource planning, and total cost of ownership analysis.

Applying Research and Advisory Support to Targeted Needs

CSU’s Tambellini subscription provides the system with access to higher education technology research, market perspective, and specialized advisory services that support its modernization planning and execution. CSU uses Tambellini’s advisory services as a source of additional capacity for targeted needs, including contract review and vendor portfolio management.

Recently, CSU requested contract and pricing reviews for selected renewals, including agreements related to Adobe services and its IT service management system. Tambellini’s reviews considered CSU’s systemwide governance and modernization timeline and identified potential consolidation and negotiation opportunities ahead of CSU’s contract renewals.

Maintaining Payroll Continuity, Consolidating HR Systems, and Advancing the Next Phase of Transformation

The CSU System reached a significant milestone in its transformation agenda when it went live with Workday HCM and Payroll in January 2026 and maintained payroll continuity through the cutover. Because CSU manages more than $800 million in payroll, the transition required extensive risk mitigation, including multiple rehearsals and dry runs with its implementation partner. CSU also sequenced the transition by running a smaller biweekly payroll before the broader monthly payroll.

The CSU System has moved from a fragmented, 16-system HCM environment to a single shared platform, standardizing core human resources processes across campuses. Further, CSU has established governance and sustainment practices to facilitate the adoption and ongoing optimization of the cloud platform. With HCM modernization complete, CSU is advancing finance and data readiness initiatives focused on improving processes, strengthening data access and governance, and preparing for future modernization efforts.

Photo courtesy of Colorado State University System