Bristol, UK, September 27 2011, UNIT4, the world’s leading provider of business software for Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC™), today announced the results of a survey undertaken by Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC), which found that many Higher Education Institutions are not meeting business-change management requirements as a result of rigid enterprise software, that is costing them between £65K and £650K to make changes after the software is installed.
According to the survey, nearly half of respondents would consider replacing their current software solutions if it would help them manage change more effectively without having to rely on costly external support. The high cost of change management initiatives appears to be the reason for this. Almost 36 percent of respondents report spending over £65K – with seven percent spending upwards of £650K – to meet post-deployment change management requirements.
Change management initiatives in Higher Education are being driven by a number of internal and external pressures. Respondents identified increased regulatory compliance requirements and internal reorganisation and restructuring efforts designed to cut costs and increase efficiency as the top change management drivers. They also indicated that software was a critical part of meeting change management requirements.
“Higher education institutions are suffering from a significant change management burden, and can be vulnerable to a fast-changing business environment,” said Gabriel Gheorghiu, TEC Research Analyst. “They are suffering from the high cost of change associated with making changes in their enterprise software post-implementation, and the cost cited in our report likely only reflects direct costs. The top drivers for change affect all levels of the organisation, and only by investing in software that easily accommodates changes will they be able to adapt and meet these challenges effectively.”
The same survey identifies a series of software modifications that might be required to meet the key change management requirements, and details how UNIT4’s Agresso Business World ERP software addresses those requirements. The findings are verified by interviews with three customers, and show that almost all modifications can be accomplished at the simplest, Graphical User Interface (GUI) level.
“The change management drivers identified in the report are common across all business sectors, and sadly we continue to see organisations in all these sectors (incl. Higher Education) suffer badly when required to change quickly,” said Anwen Robinson, Managing Director of UNIT4 Business Software Ltd. “Too many have invested in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology as the backbone of their operations, which cannot support change without significant database-level modifications that take time and require costly external consultants. That’s not something to blame buyers for – it’s a fundamental flaw in the IT industry and in fact, it keeps a whole industry afloat due to the intense service requirements after implementation. Agresso Business World is built on the unique VITA architecture specifically to support post-implementation change independently – at the right time at the right cost.”
Following dramatic sector changes in the UK recently, including Lord Browne’s tuition fee recommendations, the Government’s Higher Education whitepaper and the comprehensive spending review, UNIT4 has extended its position as the number one supplier of ERP solutions to Higher Education. “ Enterprise system agility has never been more important,” continued Robinson. “Institutions are switching to UNIT4 because its Agresso technology facilitates the need to react quickly and cost effectively to new market forces.”
TEC collected responses from 216 higher education professionals from a spectrum of roles and institutions, the majority (75%) from Universities or Colleges with more than 10,000 students. The TEC market report, “Managing Change in the Higher Education Sector”, is available for download at http://tec.ec/14H
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About Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC)
Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC), the leading advocate for the enterprise software purchaser, helps private- and public-sector organizations choose the best enterprise software solutions for their unique business needs—quickly, impartially, and cost-effectively. TEC delivers an unmatched range of online software evaluation and selection services that minimize the costs, risks, and duration of software selection projects, and bridges the gap between enterprise decision makers and the vendor/value-added reseller (VAR) community.
TEC’s proven approach combines extensive online IT research; a proven software selection methodology; state-of-the-art Web-based software selection technology; and the experience of its analysts and software selection experts.
About UNIT4
UNIT4 is a global business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic public sector, and commercial services organisations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively in a market sector it calls 'Businesses Living IN Change' (BLINC)™. The Group incorporates a number of the world’s leading change embracing software brands including Agresso Business World, our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized services intensive organisations and Coda, our best-of-class financial management software.
In the UK we focus strongly on the public sector, where we are the leading provider of ERP systems to local government and post 16 education organisations, as well as having a considerable presence in the emergency services and health sectors. We also focus strongly on professional services organisations and a range of commercial sectors including Financial Services, Retail and Media and Publishing. Overall we aim to be the UK’s foremost business software company, providing solutions that transform the delivery of public services and comprehensively support commercial organisations in their ability to adapt and prosper in rapidly changing environments.
With operations in 17 European countries, as well as 7 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Africa and sales activities in several other countries, its revenue was €421.7 million in 2010. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands and has over 4,000 employees. It is listed on Euronext Amsterdam and is included in the Amsterdam Midcap Index (AMX). For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at www.unit4.com, follow us on Twitter @UNIT4_UK
