UWinsite, the University’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, will be the campus information and planning backbone. It will replace the current Student Information System (SIS) and Financial Information System (FIS) as well as introduce a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Building and maintaining a strong core solution that supports UWindsor’s strategic priorities and enhances the ability of faculty, staff and administration to provide an exceptional student experience is a considerable task.

“The UWinsite Steering Committee recognized early on that this was not a project that could be done off the corner of a few people’s desks,” says UWinsite executive director, Ryan Kenney. “It is a major initiative for the University; one that is many-faceted and will impact all areas of the campus.”

Given the complexity and scale of the UWinsite implementation, a dedicated project team approach is being used. A first for UWindsor, six staff members from across campus with in-depth systems knowledge, business process expertise and project management experience have been pulled together to work full-time on the successful implementation of UWinsite. They’ve been joined by a new staff member who brings a background in change leadership to the project.

While this new project team approach is still in the early stages, the first returns are good.

“We’ve been able to draw on strengths and relationships across the University,” Kenney says, “which has been invaluable to determining current and future needs, evaluating potential solutions, mapping existing business processes and initiating conversations about how staff and faculty will be impacted by the new solution.”

While currently focused on preparing for the implementation of UWinsite, the project team has a long-term objective of developing a best practice toolkit for future UWindsor initiatives that may provide an opportunity for a project team approach.

“We’re building our resources as we go,” says Kenney. “We want to ensure our learnings will be available for others on campus.”

To meet the UWinsite project team and learn more about the project, visit uwindsor.ca/uwinsite.