/ Case Studies, Knowledgebase / By

About:  

The PA Intermediate Education Units are branches of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. . They provide specialized education services to suburban public-school districts and career and technical centers.  Funded by federal, state, county and private grants, the IUs coordinate more than 130 programs designed to help infants, young children, students, and adults. In 2020, the programs offered by the IUs served more than 200,000 students in public schools.

 Situation:

The PA Intermediate Units were operating on a legacy ERP and HCM system.  As they grew and the technology landscape changed, so did their needs.  One area of opportunity which they saw was shared services in the scope of ERP and HCM.  Through the advent of cloud technology, could they provide ERP and HCM solutions to each school district less expensively through a shared services model than those school districts implementing their own?  The answer, as it turns out, was a resounding yes.  The next question was this.  Was there a vendor that had the capability and skill to design and build such an environment?

Challenges:

The IUs had the following challenges with their legacy system.

  1.  Functional and technical capabilities could not meet/keep up with their growing needs.
  2.  Hardware cost to support applications was putting a strain on the IT  budget.
  3.  Existing application technology could not support a shared services model.
  4.  ERP and HCM systems were siloed, causing too many dual entries and manual workflows.
  5.  Legacy system had too many customizations, making upgrades/new versions extremely difficult to implement.
  6.  Ransomware was becoming more and more of a threat.

Desired State:

The IUs wanted their next solutions to be built on cloud/SaaS technology as they felt it would best achieve the following:

  1.  Eliminate the customizations so upgrades/new versions would be more manageable and less expensive.
  2.  Could easily build out the shared services model.
  3.  Would give them a modern user interface, which users are accustomed to seeing in today’s applications.
  4.  Offload the hardware infrastructure onto the vendor to lower cost of ownership.
  5.  Improved cyber-security.
  6.  Take advantage of built-in disaster recovery.
  7.  Best meet the functional and technical requirements of today and in the future.

What They Chose:

The IUs chose Oracle Fusion Cloud for the solutions and FourthSquare as the implementation partner.  The following modules were deployed over a two-year period:

ERP:  

  • Core Finance
  • Planning and Budgeting
  • Expenses
  • Project Management
  • Procurement/Purchasing

HCM:

  • Core HR/Self-Service Portal
  • Payroll
  • Time and Labor
  • Performance Management

Why They Chose:

The IUs chose Oracle and FourthSquare for the following reasons.  

  1.  Oracle Cloud provides government grade cyber-security.  No other vendor provides a higher level of security certification than Oracle.  This ensures that ransomware attacks are mitigated to the lowest level possible.
  2.  Oracle is a true cloud/SaaS based solution, giving the IUs the ability to easily build out the shared services model.  Additionally, because it is a true cloud/SaaS solution, there are no customizations.  This makes upgrades/new versions automatic and seamless, with little to no business disruptions. 
  3.  The Oracle Fusion Cloud solution is just that, a cloud solution.  There is no hardware infrastructure to maintain and support, making the solution the lowest cost of ownership.
  4.  Oracle offers built-in disaster recover. The Oracle datacenter is located in the U.S.  All the data and applications are back-up with a redundant system in another U.S. datacenter.  If the system crashes for some reason, it is automatically, within seconds, reinstated.
  5.  Both the ERP and HCM applications are built on the same platform, giving you seamless integrations.  This eliminates dual entries and manual workflows that you experience with siloed systems. 
  6.  Oracle’s R&D budget for applications is over $7 billion/year.  This ensures the IUs will have state of the art functionality and technology for years to come.  
  7.  FourthSquare has the experience and knowledge to implement a shared services environment.
  8.  FourthSquares’ methodology allows for flexibility in timelines and module implementation flow.
  9.  FourthSquares’ utilization of a ‘follow-the-sun’ work model allows you to leverage both onsite and offshore resources, thus lowering the cost and time to implement.  
  10.  FourthSquares’ RapidStart implementation plan allows for shorter timelines. 

Result:

The IUs now has their mission critical businesses of ERP and HCM running on the Oracle Fusion Cloud.  Cost of ownership is down, cyber-security measures are maximized, user engagement is up, and productivity is at a peak due to increased efficiencies. They now have the confidence that their organizations are built on a solid foundation which will last for many years.

FourthSquare can be your trusted partner too. Our practice leads have an average of 15 years of experience implementing Oracle applications.  They have the customer services skills to work with people in high pressure environments where deadlines are looming. Our resources carry multiple Oracle certifications giving them the deep knowledge of the unique K12 financial and HR needs.  

Scroll to Top