Applicants ?rst to see software overhaul

UNC’s Information Technology Services staff spent the summer doing what their boss calls the hardest and most expensive thing the office has ever done.

That work and money have resulted in launching the first pieces of ConnectCarolina — a new software system that will interlock administrative and student functions across campus.

Prospective students were the first to see the program in action, with the admissions system going live this summer.

The student component alone will cost UNC roughly $50 million, with additional costs for the human resources and finance pieces.

About 90 people are working on the project, including members of Deloitte Consulting, who were brought in because they have experience working with the Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise program that ConnectCarolina is based on.

Chief Information Officer Larry Conrad led the implementation of a similar program at Florida State University. He said not everyone was happy about the shifts in organization and interface.

“You’re changing the way people do business,” he added. “Not everybody likes that.”

But Conrad’s experience taught him to prepare for problems when — not if — they arrive.

One major challenge was an overhaul of the PID creation system required by the new software, which Conrad compared to replacing the transmission in a car.

Conrad said he knows more skeptics will come around once they see the benefits of the new programs.

For example, a document management system at Florida State University reduced the wait times on purchasing requests from two weeks to two days, while at the same time saving paper by keeping documents online only.

“That’s when you start to see the real power and value,” Conrad said. “The University will be better off.”

Each piece of the integrated management system increases the portions of campus that will now be able to share information with unprecedented ease.

Undergraduate admissions has already been converted to ConnectCarolina, as well as new document management and payment gateway systems.

This summer’s launches also have included a campus community portal, which Conrad said will become a focal point for how students access services. “That’ll be the front door,” he said.

The system has been in the works for the past two years, and its implementation will continue for the next 14 or 15 months. But that’s no time compared to the age of the systems it will replace, some of which are more than 20 years old.

The next major milestones for ConnectCarolina will be the go-lives for financial aid in February and Fall 2010 registration in March.

Countless hours, dollars and pages of information will have gone into the creation of the system. But once they finally go online, it should be as simple as flipping a switch.


Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.