There is, however, a workable alternative, according to some university CIOs who have endured ERP implementations and lived to tell about it. And that is using an integration middleware layer to stitch together a number of best-of-breed applications. In this environment, the integration layer allows CIOs to plug legacy systems into newer Web-based applications. Northeastern's Weir is using this approach to provide state-of-the-art systems for NU's students and administrators.

"The beauty of the Web is that you can do it all behind the curtain, using a relatively steady interface," he says.

ERP or Bust
By the mid-1990s, most college administrative systems were a disconnected mess of legacy applications. Forward-thinking administrators knew that they needed to graduate their aging homegrown systems. College administrators loved the idea of having an HR management, financial and student administration system that could unite offices and departments. PeopleSoft was one of the first ERP vendors to promise that views into financial aid information, class enrollment and registration data, staff benefits and faculty course loads would be available in real-time, with increased efficiencies and reduced costs.

The pitch worked.

At the end of 2004, PeopleSoft could boast more than 730 college and university installations, and it was the clear leader in higher ed. However, universities also purchased financial systems from other vendors. One university that bought into the ERP pitch early on was Cleveland State, and it now serves as a cautionary tale for CIOs. In a suit Cleveland State filed against PeopleSoft, the university alleged that the vendor sold it virtually unusable software that caused Cleveland State to lose millions of dollars in revenue because it couldn't collect accounts receivables, and subsequently, it had to install other software to do the job. (On Feb. 25, Oracle—which has since acquired PeopleSoft—and Cleveland State settled; news sources estimate the undisclosed settlement at $4.25 million.)

Northeastern is another university that succumbed to the ERP siren song, initially at least. The urban Boston university had long-term plans to reinvent itself into a U.S. News & World Report top 100 institution, and at the heart of this overhaul would be PeopleSoft software. "My predecessor and his boss bought it hook, line and sinker," Weir says. Northeastern's former president and the head of IS purchased 22 modules and wanted them installed by Y2K.

In 1998, with his predecessors shown the door and an IS department in disarray, Weir took the top IT job at Northeastern. The new administration charged him with getting the derailed ERP project back on track. The first thing Weir did was bring the administration's expectations back to reality. Instead of installing 22 modules before Y2K, Weir scaled back the plan to just one: PeopleSoft's HR application would replace the noncompliant Y2K homegrown app. He further winnowed the scope down to exclude Northeastern's 11,000 part-time employees from the HR application; only the 4,000 full-time employees would be in the upgraded system for now. "We had a Y2K deadline, and we bludgeoned our way to the goal," Weir says.