What Did I Forget?! Top 5 Non-Implementation Issues to Think About During a Cloud Application Transition
After living through three generations of technology that have swept through higher education administrative systems over the last 30+ years, I have added the unique experience of stepping out of the institutions and into my role as an industry analyst. Thinking about my own experiences as I listen to many of you talk about what’s […]
The Deployment Journey: Learning from the Past to Shape the Future
We learned about project management and change management at enterprise scale. We learned about conversion for very large systems. And we learned that customizing systems to meet our needs led to disastrous long-term costs, locked us into decades-old decisions, and prevented business innovation. The experiences from those years inform the work we do today in […]
Pandemic: Navigating Transformative Change
The year 2020 is like no other we’ve seen in our lifetime. When normality has fallen by the wayside and systemic change is necessary, questions abound. How will campus reopen in the fall? What changes are necessary to support students, staff, and faculty on campus throughout a pandemic? Transformative change has distinct challenges, regardless of […]
Business Process Optimization Before an ERP Project?
For many, the idea that software would drive business processes is problematic. The thinking is that software should support good processes, not drive their design. This made great sense when software was designed to meet the need from scratch or could easily be customized to meet the process design. The result, however, was custom software […]
Communicating During an ERP Implementation
Would it be surprising to say that change management is important in an ERP system implementation? The problem is that we think about change and communication as normal, everyday occurrences. Catch phrases like “Change is constant” and “You can’t over communicate” don’t have much meaning, and we take ideas like these for granted. An ERP […]
Redefining Work Roles and What’s Important, Part 1
In times of disruption, it is helpful to focus on the goal. For the higher education community, the goals are deeply rooted in teaching, learning, and supporting the community served by the institutions. Although the way we approach these goals has changed rapidly since the start of 2020 and is changing daily, higher education at […]
Are You Suddenly Managing a Remote Team?
As colleges and universities move to remote work in the coming days, it is a challenging time for leaders who need to stay productive and take care of the health and well-being of their team members. If you are responsible for a team that is suddenly remote, here are some tips to help you keep […]
Coronavirus, Compassion, and Change
I feel for my former colleagues and friends in higher education right now. Having recently left an institutional role, I can easily imagine the conversations that are happening on campuses across the United States, the difficult decisions that are being made, and the stress that COVID-19 is creating for institutions and their leaders, their faculty […]
Three Reasons Agile Works for Implementations
When considering an ERP or cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) in higher education, agile practices can be instrumental in ensuring successful and timely implementation. As an agile enthusiast, I must confess that nearly 15 years ago, when the agile manifesto and I crossed paths, it was love at first sight. For me, it explained […]
Vicki Tambellini Reflects on 2019 and Looks Ahead to the New Year
The Tambellini Group’s President and CEO Vicki Tambellini talks about unforeseen higher education trends in 2019, predictions that came true, and what surprised her in 2019. She also makes predictions for higher education technology in 2020. Highlights include: The number of major projects put on hold by higher education institutions in 2019 Higher education’s adoption […]
