Metaformers Advises Education Week on ERP Best Practices

September 12, 2007
McLean, VA

(from Digital Directions: Payroll Problems by Andrew Trotter):

Some of the nation's biggest school districts and many smaller ones are weighing the adoption of corporate-style software, called "enterprise resource planning" systems, to run their key business functions. But problems implementing ERP systems in the Los Angeles and Chicago schools have raised cautionary flags about going down this technological path too quickly and without careful planning...

Andrew Beck, a consultant who advises school districts and other organizations about adopting and implementing ERP systems, says that a district should start by defining its requirements-the specific goals and parameters it wants the system to meet.

"There are certain requirements the organization is going to have that are set in stone, such as to meet certain legislation and the reporting they have to do," says Beck, the vice president of operations at McLean, Va.-based Metaformers Inc., which has worked with dozens of districts and specializes in implementation of ERP systems made by PeopleSoft and Oracle.

An expert in the ERP software can help a district's officials clarify those requirements, the district's current operations, and "their vision of where they want to be," says Beck.

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