New Delivery Models Open Doors to Modernization

One of the most exciting shifts we’re seeing in the higher education administrative technology industry is the service implementation partners’ role in reshaping access and opening modernization opportunities to new market segments.

Partnering closely with software providers and offering long-term engagement models, firms are creating new deployment and support systems that promise to lower costs (or, at least, offer stability for budgeting purposes), reduce project complexity, and shorten time to value. For institutions that may have felt cloud transformation was out of reach, these models open the door to modern platforms and business process transformation opportunities for some organizations in most need.

This democratization of access doesn’t just mean more schools can “go live.” It means more colleges and universities can erase years of technical debt, empower staff with better tools, deliver improved experiences for students and researchers, and set the stage for adopting new ways of working to unlock operational efficiencies after implementation.

Much of this acceleration stems from market pressure created by firms like Avaap (Avaap One, Pathways), Drivestream (HESS engagements), and ERPA (OPTIMA). These firms are positioning speed and affordability, partnered with long-term commitments, as differentiators, resulting in a new set of expectations across the sector.

How are they doing this? We’re seeing partners leverage accelerators, preconfigured templates, and AI-enabled implementation tools to compress timelines and reduce manual effort. While institutions may benefit from these efficiencies, it’s important to remember that technology alone doesn’t guarantee success, and access alone isn’t enough. Successful transformation depends on more than rapid deployment; it requires sustainable organizational change management and leadership’s commitment to setting clear, achievable goals for the project (going live) and beyond (optimization). Without these, institutions risk ending their implementations disoriented, with productivity lost instead of gained, and no clear path to a stable environment.

What’s the risk?

While these models promise speed and affordability, they aren’t without challenges. Preconfigured approaches may not fit every institution’s unique needs, and compressed timelines can expose gaps in readiness or change management. AI accelerators reduce manual work but still require your teams’ focused engagement to avoid costly errors. Institutions that stray from the tight scope required by these prescriptive models risk their teams’ capacity and higher cost; without strong post-go-live governance, sustainability, and achieving long-term value remain at risk.

However, with those critical change management and program management structures in place on top of modern technology, the opportunities to start erasing operational and organizational debt, in addition to the technical debt, are real.

Given the market pressure from these firms, we can expect other implementation partners to be preparing similar rapid deployment frameworks. Vendors like Ellucian, Oracle, and Workday themselves release “starter kits” and do-it-yourself accelerators (that carry a whole host of other risks!) that clients can leverage. If you are exploring these new models with your implementation partner, how will your institution seize this opportunity to implement modern technology and establish a platform for adoption and organizational change? If the push is just to “get it done,” but you’re not ready for what comes after, the cost of starting over could far outweigh the “savings” of going fast. Choosing the right partner (and the right partner team members) is more important than ever in these long-lasting engagements.

Free from the incentives of selling software licenses or implementation hours, we help institutions keep focus on their mission, ensure partner alignment, and build transformation strategies that are sustainable long after go-live. We stand ready to guide institutions through this journey and welcome conversations with leaders who want to explore achieving efficiency and enduring value through modernizing administrative technology.

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Originally posted by Michael Anderson on LinkedIn. Be sure to follow him there to catch all his great industry insights.