Your ERP Is Changing. But Across Campus, Work Doesn’t Stop.

It’s 9:00 a.m. on a Monday.

IT is finalizing timelines for a long-awaited ERP migration and implementation. Finance is preparing for increased audit scrutiny. A department administrator is submitting travel expenses from a recent conference. Across campus, the athletics department is booking team travel for an upcoming tournament.

The ERP system may be changing. But the work doesn’t pause.

That’s what makes ERP transformations in higher education uniquely complex. IT leads the modernization effort, but the impact reaches nearly every corner of campus – with teams from finance, operations, and HR feeling the impact. When managing complex projects with many moving parts, it’s worth taking a step back to strategize and think through what other systems, people, and processes may be impacted by the change.

ERP Transformation is an IT Initiative with Campus-Wide Impact

The drivers are familiar. Many institutions are moving off aging systems that no longer meet operational needs. They need better visibility into financial and operational data and stronger support for compliance and reporting and meanwhile, cloud strategies are reshaping long-term IT roadmaps.

But higher education does not function as a centralized enterprise—it is dispersed by design.

Spending happens across departments, research programs, and auxiliary units, and processes can vary widely among them. Many users who interact with software such as ERPs are not finance professionals, but faculty and staff who are occasional users, only rarely booking travel or submitting expenses or invoices.

When new systems introduce extra steps or unfamiliar workflows, the impact shows up quickly. Work slows down, and teams often create workarounds that lead to reduced visibility and control.

Where ERP Transitions Can Break Down

Even well-planned ERP programs can introduce friction across campus. Disconnected systems can cause challenges such as:

• Systems that do not always integrate cleanly, creating data gaps
• Workarounds that cause teams to rely on manual processes to fill functional gaps
• Policies that become harder to enforce consistently across departments
• Decreased user adoption when tools feel complex or unintuitive

For IT, this often means more integration complexity and ongoing support demands. For finance, it means less reliable visibility and more time spent reconciling data. Across campus, everyday work takes longer than it should. These are all outcomes higher education institutions can’t afford to endure.

The “Easy” Choice That Often Isn’t

When selecting a new ERP, it can be tempting to rely on built-in or add-on expense tools. It may feel simpler because the perception is, “everything is in one place”.

But simplicity at the system level does not always translate to simplicity for users.

These tools are typically designed for broad enterprise use, not the complexity of higher education. Over time, that can create real constraints:

• Limited flexibility for decentralized departments
• Gaps in audit readiness and policy enforcement
• User experiences that reduce adoption
• Increased reliance on manual workarounds

What looks efficient during selection can introduce inefficiencies after go-live.

A Better Approach: Modernize Without Disruption

SAP Concur integrates with virtually any ERP environment, including Ellucian Banner or Colleague, Workday, and Oracle Peoplesoft, which allows institutions to maintain consistent travel, expense, and invoice processes even as core systems change. This avoids forcing campuses into a single bolted-on ERP tool for spend management that may not be designed for the complexity of higher education.

With this approach, IT teams can simplify integration planning and reduce system complexity. Finance teams gain stronger visibility into spending and more consistent policy enforcement. Faculty and staff continue using familiar workflows, which helps maintain adoption and reduces disruption during transition.

It also reduces the risk of rebuilding processes that already work well. Instead of replacing spend management during an ERP transition, institutions preserve it and extend it across the new environment.

Built for the Realities of Higher Ed

Higher education doesn’t operate in a uniform way. Different parts of campus move at different speeds, follow different rules, and manage spending in very different contexts. SAP Concur is built to support that complexity while keeping spend management consistent and controlled across the institution.

In athletics, for example, teams operate in a fast-paced environment where recruiting, travel, and events must happen quickly. At the same time, they must meet strict compliance requirements from organizations like the NCAA. SAP Concur helps balance both speed and control.

Across campus, the benefits extend even further:

• Athletics and high-velocity programs get speed and flexibility without losing compliance or visibility
• Research and grant-funded teams maintain strong documentation and audit readiness for funding requirements
• Finance teams gain consistent, institution-wide visibility into spending across decentralized units
• Faculty and staff benefit from simple, intuitive tools that reduce administrative burden
• IT teams reduce integration complexity with a solution that works across virtually any ERP environment

Instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all approach, SAP Concur adapts to how higher education actually operates while still providing a unified foundation for spend management.

The result is better control without added friction—and consistency without limiting how campus teams work.

Don’t Let Your ERP Change Everything

ERP transitions are complex, but your spend management strategy doesn’t have to be.

By keeping SAP Concur in place and integrating it with your new ERP, institutions can reduce disruption, maintain continuity, and ensure that both IT and finance get the visibility and control they need.

Download the whitepaper: What to Expect When Switching ERPs or contact your Customer Success Manager today.