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Mitigating the Risks of Big Systems

2007, Business Officer Magazine

Bradley C. Wheeler, J. DeStefano

Abstract

“Some of us have seen fortunes slip through our hands as we learned how to implement these kinds of systems in universities;” John R. Curry, executive vice president, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, February 2000.

Colleges and universities are complex organizations with growing needs to manage the integrity and timeliness of information. Information technology systems have risen to address this challenge and have become absolutely mission critical for the information-intensive work of student recruiting, registration, online instruction, research administration—and most certainly for financial administration. By 2007, many institutions had either recently replaced their large-scale administrative systems or were preparing to do so. Such system decisions invoke multiyear costs and risks for institutions—sometimes in the tens of millions of dollars or more. By 2002, conservative estimates placed higher education’s investment at more than $5 billion in these systems. In this article we assess the motivations for big systems, their inherent risks, and a new strategy for mitigating those risks.

Citation

DeStefano, J. and B. C. Wheeler (2007), "Mitigating the Risks of Big Systems," Business Officer, July/August, pp. 21-26.