After their former product solution, Sage Intacct, left Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter) without critical functionality, they pivoted to Oracle and chose Highstreet as their implementation partner. Phillips Exeter Academy modernizes their ERP system knowing that this decision will move their institution into the future. Ten months later the Exeter Oracle Cloud ERP project is completed on time and on budget.
Who is Phillips Exeter Academy?
Founded in 1781, Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational independent school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12. Dedicated to a comprehensive education, Exeter also offers a secondary postgraduate program. Located in Exeter, New Hampshire, they serve approximately 1,000 high school students from the United States and 33 foreign countries. Exeter is one of the oldest and most prestigious secondary schools in the United States. Exeter’s rich history has fed today’s robust academic programs. They offer over 450 courses in 18 subjects on their 675 acre campus, a teacher to student ratio of 1:5, and the chance to study abroad on five continents.
The Problem
Exeter has embarked on a five-year roadmap to replace its legacy ERP system, Colleague. The financial and accounting management environment at Exeter is the result of years of using processes and procedures that, while fulfilling their initial purpose, have become inefficient and ineffective for the Academy’s current and future needs. They’ve decided upon a phased approach to modernize their systems and ensure scalability. Having started with the replacement of their HR and Payroll modules, Exeter is now focused on transforming their Financial Management and Accounting modules.
The root of Exeter’s problems is that their current solution does not leverage the strengths of an enterprise-class system. Transparency and compatibility with existing databases, customization, scalability, tight security, and comprehensiveness are beyond the reach of their organization because of this.
The Solution
These challenges, combined with many manual processes, results in Exeter team members duplicating and re-doing work. Even this additional effort doesn’t prevent unwanted delays in information processing. Collecting accurate data to help in business analyses is critical, yet a challenging task. One of the biggest goals of this project was to ensure that Exeter Budget Managers have reliable, timely information to aid them in making vital decisions. The old system did not provide accurate or up-to-date information vital in managing budgets. Data was old. It was unreliable. As one of the most prestigious secondary schools in the country, this was no way to manage a budget. Their new ERP system provides Real-time budget reporting and analysis includes expenditures through the Budget manager dashboard. Data quality is improved and is provided in real-time. It empowers accurate and informed budgeting decisions by the Budget Managers. These improvements in budget reporting are driving Exeter into the future state of their school with confidence.
Many modules added functionality. Enhanced workflows by Fund, Cost Center for procurement, enhanced Capital projects accounting, and control via Oracle Projects module resulted in a smoother reporting environment for employees.
These improvements aren’t merely a band aid or a short-term solution. Real pain-points have been fixed. For example, former Exeter employees didn’t have the option of a direct deposit for their expense reimbursements. This is no longer the case. Exeter’s new system is maximizing their business performance both in long and short term and easing the workload of their team members. Operational efficiency, informed decision making, simplified finance management[NZ1] processes, and more are well-won results of their digital transformation.
Enhanced Inventory Issuance – without any manual intervention material will be issued to the respective departments. Punchout Process to vendors made easier the requisition process by navigating to the vendor website and reducing the catalog maintenance. Now, Exeter inventory valuation can be viewed from the costing dashboard and there is now direct deposit of expense reimbursements for employees.
Partners, not just Consultants
Great people, quality resources, and a strong partnership drove Phillips Exeter Academy to modernize with Highstreet– their trusted Oracle implementation partner. Highstreet has happy to provide them with greater efficiency, accurate data, best practices, user friendly tools, transparency, data integrity, and direct deposit, making this project an excellent first step in Exeter’s digital transformation. We make these types of transformations possible through our proprietary technology like Bridges, our industry and subject matter experts, our revolutionary Change Management and User Readiness Methodologies, and our dedication to being a true partner. Drive change in your organization and see results like Phillips Exeter Academy.
