Boise State reduces IT complexity using Oracle Cloud
The university deploys Oracle Cloud ERP to automate business processes and empower staff with critical insights.
“When we reviewed our options, Oracle ERP Cloud really stood out as a mature, reliable cloud solution in use across multiple industries. We are eager to experience the many benefits that Oracle can deliver to our growing university, including greater agility to adapt to the rapidly changing dynamics in higher education and at our own institution.”
Business challenges
Boise State University, located in Boise, Idaho, is a public research university offering an array of undergraduate and graduate degrees and experiences that foster student success, lifelong learning, community engagement, innovation, and creativity. As an integral part of its metropolitan environment, the university is engaged in professional and continuing education programming, policy issues, and promoting the region’s economic vitality and cultural enrichment.
Like many academic institutions, Boise State University found that its legacy on-premises enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment did not provide the agility the university required to keep pace with changing demands. In addition to ongoing investment in time-consuming and expensive upgrades, the University’s legacy systems prohibited users from quickly adopting and benefiting from powerful new application functionality.
Recognizing that streamlining operating functions and services is essential to meeting the needs of students, faculty, and staff, Boise State University is overhauling its legacy IT infrastructure with Oracle Cloud ERP, beginning with Oracle Financials Cloud.
By implementing Oracle Cloud ERP, the university will also eliminate the initial and ongoing costs of purchasing, building out, and upgrading its IT infrastructure, while reducing its data center footprint and IT burden. The solution will provide the university with a robust, flexible, and reliable financial system—enabling it to benefit immediately from the latest features and advances.
As part of the implementation, Boise State University also looks to drive new levels of precision and transparency to grants management, a capability that is increasingly important as the organization rapidly expands its research and graduate programs.
At Boise State University, our goal is to be known for providing the finest undergraduate education in the region, as well as outstanding research and graduate programs. Migrating our ERP functions to the cloud with Oracle ERP Cloud empowers us to modernize our systems faster, with less effort and cost, and achieve rapid return on new services and applications. At the same time, our faculty and staff can take advantage of the most advanced functionality, while freeing IT team members to focus on projects that drive institutional innovation and excellence, which are all critical factors that contribute to our success.
Why Boise State University chose Oracle
First, to drive greater operational efficiency and organizational effectiveness by automating and transforming business processes across the entire ERP lifecycle, including financial management and billing, procurement, grant management, project management, and reporting.
Second, to empower staff with information and critical insight when and where they need it.
Third, to reduce IT complexity and boost IT agility to meet rapidly changing needs.
Fourth, to improve total cost of IT ownership while ensuring scalability.
Results
In the first phase of its Oracle Cloud ERP deployment, Boise State University will roll out Oracle Financials Cloud to more than 500 users—including finance team members, university administrators, and academic staff. Through its intuitive user interface and dashboard functionality, Oracle Cloud ERP enables business users to access the financial and operational information they require without the need for IT team assistance, improving decision-making.
Boise State University will work with Oracle Consulting on the overall implementation.
“We are thrilled to take this next step toward a more agile and flexible IT environment,” said Max Davis-Johnson. “The benefits of moving to a cloud-based system are all there: reducing infrastructure costs, reallocating staff to areas requiring support, eliminating costly upgrades, keeping the system current, and providing the ability to grow and scale as needed. We are excited to take this step with Oracle, which has proven to be a fantastic partner and solution provider.”
“As we begin our move to Oracle Cloud ERP, we are excited by the prospect that the savings from process improvements will more than offset the costs of the solution—all while delivering reliability and scalability and enabling us to benefit rapidly from the latest features and functionality,” said Jo Ellen DiNucci, associate vice president of finance and administration, Boise State University.