Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are we doing this?

• Risks with separation from the Medical Center: There is substantial risk in sharing key business processes and core systems as two separate legal entities. 
• Increased complexity of the business of Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt has advanced on a steep upward trajectory in recent years, enabling it to attract the world’s best students, scholars and staff.  However, this has resulted in increased complexity across the university. While independently positive, our growing financial aid program, expanding research base and enhanced cross-institutional collaboration create a burden on the systems on which they run.
• Lost productivity with lagging technology: Many faculty and staff feel they are using their time inefficiently by logging in and out of separate applications that do not connect to one another. We have exceptional people, and we need up-to-date knowledge and data to enable exceptional decision making at all levels of the university.
• Strategic evolution: The cloud will enable Vanderbilt University to tie a myriad of systems together, resulting in better decision making, modern processes, and improved quality and accuracy of information. 

 

2. What are the goals we want to accomplish with SkyVU? 

 

3. What applications are part of the SkyVU go-live on Jan. 1, 2018?

 

4. What is the Oracle Applications Cloud?

 

5. Which systems are being replaced as part of SkyVU?

6.  What is the schedule for the Oracle Applications Cloud implementation?

 

7.  How will I know what is happening on the SkyVU project?

 

8.  I heard there are consultants working on SkyVU, who are they and what are they doing?

Vanderbilt has partnered with Oracle Consulting and Huron Consulting to assist with the implementation of the Oracle Applications Cloud.  

Oracle Consulting   is supplying functional and technical expertise for the implementation and integration of the Oracle Applications Cloud.

Huron Consulting   is supporting business process mapping and optimization, change management, training and community outreach.

Vanderbilt is responsible for the overall leadership of SkyVU and for staffing each work stream with subject-matter experts to advise the configuration of the cloud and to review the business processes.

 

9. Is the cloud secure?

Yes! Vanderbilt’s chosen vendor, Oracle, has taken crucial steps to ensuring that cloud security is top-notch and has established a secure cloud environment. For more information about this topic, please reference the blog post. To learn more about cloud computing and cloud security, click on the image below to watch a short video featuring John Lutz, vice chancellor for information technology.