ESUP is Listening...Survey Results from the University

Through the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP), the University is improving its technology and streamlining procedures related to its three largest PeopleSoft applications: Finance, HRMS, and Student while building a new portal and enhancing reporting capabilities. The Program is a major endeavor with significant changes, and one bound to elicit different interests and opinions. To understand its stakeholders better, ESUP surveyed the University community for the second time in fall 2013, and plans two more surveys during the course of the program.

Results from the second survey:

• More than 2,000 people responded for a response rate over 30 percent
• Awareness and support for the program and readiness for change are strong - around 80 percent
• Knowledge of what the program entails and the business reasons for ESUP are not as high - around 60 percent
• Respondents who know ESUP team members personally have greater confidence in its success
• Many stakeholders think the program will succeed but it may take some time to work out the kinks or details
• History of past enterprise projects still on the minds of stakeholders with low confidence

ESUP’s response:
As part of an educational institution, ESUP is trying to demonstrate what it has learned by taking several steps based on knowledge gained from previous enterprise system implementations and survey results, including: 

• Establishing its current governance model and functional structure
• Incorporating reporting and data management as an integrated project within the overall program
• Committing to an enterprise communications, change management, and training strategy
• Launching The Upgrade newsletter to improve reach of communications and provide more depth of information

Thank you to those of you who completed the survey. Please watch for future opportunities to provide feedback as we move closer to implementation. If you have questions or would like more information about the survey, please email the program at esup@umn.edu.