H. David Lambert, left, vice president, Cornell Information Technologies, poses with, from left to right, Sherry F. Amos, director of higher education marketing for PeopleSoft; Frederick A. Rogers, Cornell senior vice president; Jackie Coyne, regional sales manager for PeopleSoft; and John McMaster, vice president of development for PeopleSoft.
By Larry Bernard
Cornell has contracted with PeopleSoft of Pleasanton, Calif., to provide software for an integrated suite of administrative applications using distributed computing technology on campus.
The move will enable Cornell to be more efficient, streamlined and better able to serve its clients, said Frederick A. Rogers, Cornell's senior vice president and chief financial officer.
"The availability of new, integrated information systems and the commitment of a new administration make this an ideal time to do this, which will reduce costs, improve customer service and improve morale across campus," said Rogers, who is leading the effort. "We're very excited about the prospect."
PeopleSoft, whose executives and staff have been meeting with Cornell administrators and staff members over the last few months, is a leading provider of client/server administrative solutions for higher education. It develops, markets and supports a suite of applications for accounting, materials management, distribution, manufacturing and human resources.
The choice of PeopleSoft to help Cornell develop and apply distributed computing technology comes a year into an ongoing planning process that was an outgrowth of the university's 1993 strategic plan.
"The plan calls for redesigning university work processes and organizational structures to reduce costs and improve services to increase efficiency and value," Rogers said. "The re-engineering entails taking advantage of technological advances that have recently become available and developing new techniques tailored to the needs of a university, generally, and Cornell specifically.
"Working with all of the academic and administrative units across the campus in close coordination with Cornell Information Technologies over the next four years, I believe we can build on our recent successes and make a real, measurable differ ence for Cornell. Our goal is to greatly enhance productivity, efficiency and quality in ways that benefit all of our employees and those they serve."
Rogers said PeopleSoft, which is working with a number of other colleges and universities, was deemed most capable of helping Cornell achieve strategic goals articulated last year by the university's administrative systems planning group, which identified three key elements of "an environment in which Cornell has its act together."
Rogers, David Lambert, vice president for information technologies, and others in the group met with David A. Duffield, BEE '63, MBA '64, president of PeopleSoft, to help establish the nature of the joint relationship between Cornell and PeopleSoft, a publicly held corporation that has been a pioneer in its field.
"For many years, universities have depended too heavily on local software development or on software companies that provide higher education systems exclusively," Lambert said.
"The new Cornell/PeopleSoft partnership requests a different direction -- of working closely with a company that has been successful developing information systems for a variety of industries, and bringing that value to our higher education needs. Clearly PeopleSoft will need to develop a number of capabilities unique for Cornell and higher education -- but the real value comes from finding common requirements across different industries and environments," he said.
PeopleSoft has added a new division to help Cornell achieve its goals. Paul Salsgiver, vice president of higher education, will oversee the effort for the firm. The company is developing the PeopleSoft Student Information Administration System, the first client/server student service administration system for colleges and universities in North America. It will be fully integrated with PeopleSoft's financial and human resources products, offering a comprehensive campus administration system.