In two weeks the HEUG Board of Directors will hold their July board meeting in Redwood Shores near Oracle headquarters. The board uses the July event to meet directly with Oracle executives. We will have the opportunity to meet with Paco Aubrejuan, Cliff Godwin, Rondy Ng, Keith Rajeki (filling in for Cole Clark), Mark Armstrong and others. The final agenda is still shaping up, however for the Oracle discussions we will be offering our input and discussing:
- Cloud ERP update and roadmap
- PSFT ERP and Tools update and roadmap, as well as eBusiness Solutions discussions
- Campus Solutions roadmap update
- HEUG-Oracle engagement model – priorities, structure, plan for the future, including:
• Deployment model—Cloud, hybrid, other—how PAG/TAG/BOD should focus
• International expansion
• Cloud product development—how PAG/TAG/BOD should focus
• Expanding the model and structure for sharing product/implementation IP across the HEUG
- Exec engagement model
We also take time about a day and a half to work on HEUG business and plan for the remainder of the year including:
- budget approval
- update on all conferences and events
- PAG Upgrade discussions
- Business model for global growth
- legal updates
- Strategic Planning
- and many other HEUG business related items
This is the 46th board meeting I will be attending since 1998 when the volunteer members of the Higher Ed SIG first met. In those days we were focused on building the organization, making sure that Peoplesoft was listening to the issues revolving around the Student Administration (now Campus Solutions) product and making sure the higher education voice had input to the HR and Financials products as well. We also spent a lot of time making sure plans were made for the annual conference. This is when the foundation of education and advocacy began. 16 years later this is still the foundation. Our interaction with Oracle executives continues to demonstrate our advocacy, as does our discussion regarding the PAG/TAG Upgrade process. We also will continue to review what it takes to organize and present the 10 educational conferences we hold now globally.
The fundamentals haven't changed over the years, but the complexity certainly has. What was once primarily a North American based organization has now grown to over 40 countries world wide. But again, the fundamental mission of education and advocacy prevails during all of these board meetings. I am looking forward to another successful one and will hope to update you in the July blog on the work that was done.