Three weeks later with Dennis Wenzel

Dennis Wenzel

Tricia Conway (TC): It’s been three weeks since Dennis Wenzel joined the ESUP team as the new Program Director. If you missed our first Q&A with Dennis, you can read it here. Now that he has his bearings, we asked Dennis to give us his impressions. We asked what challenges he believes ESUP faces and what he’s looking forward to between now and October 2014. 

Dennis Wenzel (DW): This has been a whirlwind three weeks. People have been very welcoming and have done a great job training 'the new guy.' 

The Program is going strong and people are doing great work. I have been most impressed by the commitment and passion of the team; people are truly committed to making ESUP a success. I also get the sense this team wants ESUP to be different--to change the way the University communicates, collaborates, and works together. It is encouraging to see so much cooperation across the University. 

Moving forward, I would like to turn my attentions to preparing the team for implementation. The Program is at a point where we can start focusing on planning for deployment. I hope to bring my experience deploying many large systems to the team. There is a lot of work to do to prepare for a smooth go live--from testing, to infrastructure set up; partnering interfaces to old system conversions and retirement; and communications, training, and sustainability. There is a lot to do, but there is a great team to do the work!

(TC): Thanks, Dennis! If you haven’t met Dennis, please join us at the next Meet n’ Greet on Monday, Oct 7 from 10 - 11 AM in 140 Nolte. Dean Elde, chair of the Executive Oversight Committee, and Dennis will answer questions submitted via our anonymous Google form. Light refreshments will be served. Please join us!