Oracle has a longstanding commitment to higher education and promoting the successful use of SaaS products in this space. One of the entities we have supported over the years is the Higher Education User Group (HEUG), the worldwide community enabling the sharing of knowledge and practices to maximize institution investment in Higher Education Information Systems. HEUG President Jason Wenrick shares his views below on the benefits of this organization and his vision for this truly valuable community.
Having now been on the Board for four years and now as President of the HEUG, I am proud that our organization has strengthened our partnership with Oracle and believe that as higher education moves more into the cloud and SaaS products, “partners” needs to be the critical word we have when working with our vendors in order to ensure long term success. I believe that we will continue to collaborate and represent the entire global higher education position as it relates to technology, which will be even more imperative as more and more of our membership move various Cloud products.
Online Discussion Forums
As a global organization with representatives from over 37 countries, our discussions (online / via email / in digest) have thousands of members on them at any given time, ready to answer questions as they occur. One of the greatest attributes of working in Higher Education is that we are collegial by nature, and if we can help a fellow institution save time or money with a quick answer we will. We have experts for a large variety of technologies and at every stage of the adoption curve, so there is always someone not just willing but enthusiastic to share their knowledge and provide support. Last year we had over 16,000 posts. The HEUG file libraries have thousands of files available for download at any time (every webinar, all the past conference presentations, and files shared by members) and we had over 120,000 files downloaded this past year alone.
HEUG Events
Our annual Alliance Conferenceis the largest gathering of higher education institutions and users of Oracle products in the world. With 3500+ attendees, over 400 sessions, across 26 unique tracks. While Alliance is our biggest event, we have an additional 12 regional events around the world. Over 3,000 attendees come to our regional conferences in the US (six of them throughout the country), EMEA(Europe, Middle East, Africa), Canada, Latin America, Southern African, Australia/New Zealandand Asia Pacific. Our conferences are often the first interaction our members have as they begin their path with the HEUG, meeting people, networking and helping solve problems for their institution. All of this combines to ensure that every member, regardless of their title or level at their organization, has an opportunity to learn and connect with peers.
Online Education
The HEUG’s year-round online educational programs for our members are built to facilitate training and learning all year round. In the past year we have had over 150 webinars across all areas of interest. From 4-week deep dives, to small panel discussions, to short product and module specific presentations, the HEUG strives to deliver new and interesting content regularly and presented by fellow members who are doing and using the same products.
We thank Jason for sharing what he sees are the core benefits of being a member of the HEUG. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!