In March 2014, a small group of private, non-profit college and university chief information officers and chief financial officers began discussing the need for a new organization focusing on the rising costs of technology in higher education, specifically in the ERP industry.   Since that time this informal group has grown to the Higher Education Systems & Services Consortium or "The HESS Consortium" which is a fully incorporated 501c3 non-profit, membership-run organization of which TICUA is a part. The HESS Consortium is focused on collectively lowering costs and increasing collaboration between specifically private colleges and universities in the area of administrative systems and services.  The HESS Consortium is made up of chief financial officers, chief information officers as well as technology and finance directors in a diverse group of schools committed to finding efficiencies and cost savings by working with other like-minded institutions.  

As you may know, 33 institutions are a part of our "HESS ERP Collective" group and are a subset of the 200+ HESS Consortium members across the U.S. have been working toward: 1.) moving to a single and modern, cloud-native ERP/SIS solution, 2.) moving to a common contract vehicle through a partnership with E&I Cooperative Services for software and services, 3.) developing a shared archive to ease migration and implementation costs and 4.) creating a network of HESS Collective schools to both share staff resources and expertise to lower staff costs.  Recently that work came to fruition!  The HESS Collective group has come to a decision on the Collective’s single ERP/SIS platform and will be publicly announcing details early this week on products, services, pricing and implementation costs. The working groups believe that all of our members will be amazed at the offer exclusively to our members.  And, one of TICUA’s own is a member of the Collective.  Joel Robertson, the CIO at King University and member of the TICUA Procurement Committee, has been active with this project and states:  “I am astounded by the pricing model that has been secured…this is a potential game changer.”

If you are a current HESS Consortium member institution and interested in joining the HESS Collective Shared ERP Services Initiative, please click here to fill out the questionaire and application form.  If you have any questions about the HESS Consortium, this HESS Collective project whitepaper and the information contained here, please contact Keith Fowlkes at keith.fowlkes@hessconsortium.org.

The Tennessee Accreditation Network is a resource for accreditation and assessment professionals at SACSCOC-accredited Tennessee-based higher education institutions. The network is facilitated by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) and institutions across the state. The mission of the Tennessee Accreditation Network is to support the accreditation efforts of Tennessee higher education institutions through the collective knowledge, ongoing experiences, and shared resources of its members.  the Tennessee Accreditation Network, will accomplish our mission by:

The network provides a listserv through THEC.  Membership is open and not limited to those on campus whose primary responsibility is accreditation.  To join the listserv, please contact:  Julie A. Roberts (Julie.A.Roberts@tn.gov)  or Jeffery Norfleet (Jeffery.Norfleet@tn.gov). 

Steering Committee members representing TICUA member institutions include:

Join IMA & The Coalition for a webinar Thursday, February 25th at 1pm CT / 2pm ET, discussing the Current State of the Property & Casualty Insurance Market. IMA’s Higher Education practice has a 100% success rate in driving down colleges’ net cost of their Property & Casualty Insurance Program.  Register here.

The webinar will cover:

Paymerang’s Invoice Automation Solution utilizes artificial intelligence to read captured invoices and extract data points which minimizes the amount of manual data entry. The product increases workflow efficiency through the ability to electronically route and approve invoices. Invoices can be ingested in bulk and split appropriately after they are loaded thus cutting down on time spent inputting invoices into the system. All actions taken on a given invoice are captured and documented, providing an electronic audit trail.

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Brian Cook I Senior Vice President – Higher Education, 804-317-9229, bcook@paymerang.com