With Consultants Like These, Who Needs An Illuminator?

Last year, in the middle of a so-called "financial crisis," KY's regime hired an expensive consulting firm to ask Edison's employees questions about why the College's Datatel driven procedures don't work for squat. The answers were there for the asking, but the Empire probably didn't want the ones it would've received, and likely hoped paying for answers would make them different.

This morning, enjoy a sampling of the group's suggestions, culled from its 17-page report (we bet about a thou per page, but that's probably low), with obligatorily snarky interjections from your trusty Junta:

...The Dashboard

Since the dashboards are web based it would be our recommendation to use Google Analytics to see what dashboards are being utilized. Because dashboards are labor intensive we recommend that the utilization be tracked to ensure that resources are being allocated appropriately. Additionally, as stated in Reporting, we recommend tying in a third party reporting tool like Informer to see if it can be integrated with Xcelsius to up-date the dashboards automatically...

Apparently, the consultants assume the dashboard is intended to reflect actual objective data.

...IT

It is difficult to tell if the Information Technology Department (IT) is adequately staffed because there are a number of staff members that perform IT functions but yet are not directly allocated to the IT Department...

Ouch.

…This presents an internal control issue that must be addressed because non-IT staff members have administrator access to administrative systems. One example of this is Carol Rigola, who manages the Blackboard imports...

From several time-zones away, no less. Good thing the consultants don't work at Edison--this little epiphany would've probably got them canned.

…Currently, the Administrative and Network Computing Departments are separate which may cause a loss of efficiency...

Um, ya think?

...Moreover, there has been significant turnover in other departments…

Like most employees of the college, but only sort-of-not-really…oh, and the Academic VP, A&S's Dean, The Registrar, etc., etc...okay, fine, fine. We leak talent like a sieve. You know what could fix that? Bonuses.

…which has put additional requirements on IT for training and support. These departments are contacting IT for routine questions that they should be able to resolve internally. Each department should have documented business processes and workflows to assist newer staff in resolving minor routine issues…The IT staff is tasked with writing many queries and this is taking a large portion of their time. The staff is also bringing the patch load process back in-house and will be required to keep the environments up- to-date….In order to achieve better internal controls, we recommend that all traditional IT functions be migrated back to IT personnel...

Let us know how that works out.

…The institution must also identify if any non-IT personnel needs to be transferred to the IT department in order for IT to maintain all these functions…

Nice save, consultants! Hook 'em, Horns!

…Long-term we would suggest restructuring the department in a more traditional way as seen at a number of other institutions…

But that would mean transparency and diminished ability to just order things be done however you feel like it that day!

…The Administrative and Networking Computing Departments should be unified under a single Executive Director who traditionally reports to the CFO…

We had something like that once, back around twenty-aught-four. Then we didn't.


…Reporting

On a positive note, the institution has successfully implemented the FRx tool (at, no joke, about $4,000 per user). The institution uses FRx to produce monthly financial reports to the Board including actuals and forecasts…

But, just recently the Board was told there was no way to do up-to-date monthly reports or forecasts, and later the consultants say these reports are produced by the budget office's staff. Did somebody fib to the pricey consultants? Or did somebody fib to the board? And, at a glance, it looks like Datatel could do what FRx does--but, as shown below, it appears that nobody knows how to operate either of them, so what could it hurt? We should probably just keep buying software until we get something that keeps the books on its own.

...Financial Aid

…the techniques that are being used are old…

You can't even soften that up in passive voice.

...Business Office

There is general consensus…that Datatel is not user friendly partly because it is too large…

?!

…The staff has never been trained on how to use the Colleague AR system and struggle with anything beyond basic tasks…

Zing! Is this thing on?

…[t]hey often rely on Information Technology to write their queries…

Cause IT has nothing else to do…not that IT would ever complain or anything cause they wouldn't, never ever.

And on, and on:

…the Business Office does not have a good handle on Colleague AR…
…they were not involved in the implementation and do not understand the set-up…
…Sometimes they have unexplained issues with the billing process…

And, this whopper, which everyone knows but doesn't seem to be making its way to the Board of Trustees:

"…and have been cited by auditors for having questionable business practices…"

For crying out loud. &:

…They currently use Excel to manage…Payment Plans…

Heck, if FRx and Excel weren't both Microsoft products, you'd think they'd work together.

…they manually process the new security fee for each student…

(The Illuminator is still unsure what a "security fee" is, unless it pays for Commencement Thugs or Lot-SWAT)

…When asked why these items were not customized, the staff stated the College wanted to keep the software 'vanilla'…

Too...many...quips...can't...pick just...one....then, the intrepid consultants recommend:

…A top priority should be to do an in-depth assessment of the Colleague AR Business processes and system set-up because the staff does not have a clear understanding of the functionality…

More consulting? Yes, please!

…Once the assessment is complete, we recommend that the College re-implement deficient areas of the system and train the staff on how to implement and use the module…

Despite which they already know we'll need to hit the reset button.

...customizations are minor and could be completed in a minimal amount of time by an experienced Colleague programmer…

If we hadn't blown our budget on staffing for Blackboard Imports and reporting software. Quick, Strategeric HR! Fire the entire classified staff! And any bitchy faculty members!

…We recommend that these changes be made in order to better service the Students…

Or simply to function? And we think they meant "serve" the students. But they're consultants and don't "utilize" English well.

…General ledger

Currently, the GL system is set-up in a fashion that allows Budget Officers to go over their budgets with purchase requisitions…

Like by tens of thousands of dollars for "reporting" software?

…Budget Officers can authorize Purchase Requisitions that cause them to go over budget in a particular line item without doing a transfer of funds. This practice has resulted in departments going over budget as a whole…

But…but…wasn't it faculty greed that caused Edison's financial mess? Hm. Guess not.

…Additionally, there have been cases that purchase requisitions have been charged to other line items outside of the Budget Officer’s authority…

Upper-level Administrative Professional Development and accreditation consulting junkets don't pay for themselves, bub.

…Someone from the Budget Office presently creates and distributes monthly budget reports…

Using super-expensive software, we hope.

…It appears most divisions keep shadow databases to manage their budgets in between reports…

Because nobody trusts the official books--why is it that The Junta has been drunk, collectively, in mafia-owned taverns with fewer sets of books than Edison?

…with various levels of accuracy…

As the auditors would tell you, if they told you, which they didn't, because the full report is locked away, somewhere in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills, in somebody else's name.

…The divisions would be interested in accessing their budget and encumbrance information in real-time…

As a completely unrelated riddle: Q. What's a warm, yellow astringent that smart people can use to identify bad guys? A. Sunlight.

…The institution should implement or tighten GL security and on-line authorization to force staff generating purchase requests to encumber funds on authorized and funded GL accounts. This recommendation was also made by the forensic auditor who performer a special internal control audit this past Fall. The College should implement the Datatel My Budget module for all Budget Managers so they can access real-time budget information via WebAdvisor…

Fat Chance, Consulty.

…This would eliminate staff time necessary to create and distribute monthly budget reports and allow Budget Managers to have real-time access to their budget information…

Oh my. My, oh my. And this was from people we paid, who hoped we would buy more stuff from them. Can you imagine what someone with subpoena power, a master key and open eyes might find?


4 comments:

Still Taking Notes said...

OK, we've got data and recommendations...we've always been good at gathering data. But, what are we going TO DO about these problems? I want to see some follow through, please. This is a typical Edison problem--we're into researching the problem, but rarely into fixing it.

From the dark said...

Well, thank goodness someone finally explained what all those bonuses were about! I was begining to think the Board was total inconsequential.

Won't Get Fooled Again said...

Oh where to begin.

IT Reporting to CFO's?

Only at 12% to 25% in higher ed, depending on how you look at it according to the 2007 data survey at Educause. Putting the CFO in charge of IT will guarantee we have the cheapest IT available. How do you think that will turn out? Putting the CFO in charge of IT is like putting a drug addict in charge of the pharmacy. We have already tried that remember? Maybe if the CFO was qualified in anything IT related- but alas, we go to work with the skills we have, not the ones we want or need.

My Favorite.

"It is difficult to tell if the Information Technology Department (IT) is adequately staffed because there are a number of staff members that perform IT functions but yet are not directly allocated to the IT Department..."

Ouch indeed. IT at Edison has been ravaged over the past 5 years by bleeding off resources and staff not qualified to do traditional IT functions, like manage a Website.IT cannot even log into the Website unless Dr. Yowell approves. Just think what we could accomplish if all those salaries were used for IT training or education. Instead, we hire yet another administrator to fix the website that should never have been broken and those left in IT suffer the amateurs hamstringing the systems we all need to do our jobs.

Network Security?

"…This presents an internal control issue that must be addressed because non-IT staff members have administrator access to administrative systems. One example of this is Carol Rigola, who manages the Blackboard imports..."

As far as risk, which is worse? Someone connecting to a switched Ethernet (only sees traffic to and from their machine) or someone not qualified having administrative access to Datatel? You cannot connect to Datatel unless you have a user name and password. If you don't know what you are doing in Datatel and have administrative access, you can damage our paycheck and transcript machine. Which is a bigger risk to the institution?

The solution is simple. Put someone in charge of IT whose career has been in IT. Just like we had a few years back when Edison was named one of the top 10 digital college campuses in the country. Now we are the fodder of Dilbert cartoons.

Gravity Gardener said...

One area they are now utilizing more effectively is their integration partners. Specifically their partnership in e-procurement

Using e-procurement with the Colleague Datatel integration, you benefit from the following:

1. A user friendly front end that can be accessible from any internet capable computer
2. Structured approval processes that can easily be developed to leverage the business rules within Colleague.
3. A front end portal to all existing contracts to drive contract compliance
4. Budget checking during the requisition process and Full encumbrance when Purchase Order is Created
5. Electronic Purchase orders can be sent directly to suppliers

Gravity Gardener
http://gravitygarden.com/purchasing-erp/colleague-datatel.html