ERP Support & Transformation for Higher Education

Higher education institutions are navigating one of the most challenging periods in their history. Funding pressures, the decline in overseas student numbers and years of accumulated technical debt have placed enormous strain on professional services teams. The very people expected to keep complex ERP systems running while simultaneously being asked to do more with less.

We manage the process while maintaining your internal culture.

Maritime ERP Consultant

ERP
Solutions

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Change
Management

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Process
Optimisation

How We Help

At Shape Associates, we work with universities, colleges and higher education bodies to provide client-side ERP implementation & transformational change expertise.

Whether you are running a system that has served your institution for many decades and is approaching end of support or beginning to think about what transformation looks like across all pillars, system, process and people. We are the independent client side partner that enables you to move forward.

Higher Education

ERP Landscape

Alongside finance, HR, payroll and procurement platforms, many universities and colleges rely on student systems and legacy applications that have developed over decades.

When organisations introduce a new ERP platform, the technology is often only one part of the challenge. Success depends on how effectively people, processes and cultural ways of working transition to the new environment.

At Shape Associates, we provide independent client-side support to help institutions navigate that change. Whether you are replacing a legacy system, implementing a new platform or delivering a wider transformation programme, we help ensure your people are prepared, engaged and able to adopt new ways of working.

We regularly support organisations using SAP S/4HANA, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Fusion, Workday and Unit4. As a system-agnostic consultancy, we remain focused on what is right for your institution rather than any particular software vendor.

How We Work With Higher Education Institutions

Often, higher education institutions only look to implement ERP systems when circumstances force them to. A vendor announcing the end of support, choosing to work with a new vendor or a system that can no longer keep pace with the institutional needs.

As a result, institutions are often managing significant organisational change alongside the technical implementation itself. While ERP projects are typically driven by technology, successful transformation depends on people being ready to adopt new processes and ways of working. At Shape Associates, we focus on organisational readiness from the outset, helping universities prepare for change long before a new system goes live.

OUR APPROACH

 

Change Management & Business Change

Our change management support covers stakeholder engagement, communications planning, training design and delivery, readiness assessment and adoption throughout the end-to-end programme. We also support process improvement, audit and assurance reviews, and return on investment assessments, helping institutions ensure that change is not only implemented, but fully embedded across the organisation.

 

Programme and Project Management

Shape Associates provides PMO support, programme management, and project management services for higher education ERP initiatives of all sizes. We act as your client-side delivery capability, holding vendors and implementation partners to account. We help manage risk and dependencies, providing governance and oversight throughout the programme lifecycle. Ensuring delivery remains on track while keeping your institution’s interests central to every decision.

Procurement Support

When the time comes to go to market, whether for a new system, implementation partner or support arrangement, Shape Associates provides independent procurement and RFP support. We work collaboratively with institutions to define requirements, engage stakeholders, develop RFP documentation and evaluate supplier responses. This helps ensure procurement decisions remain aligned to organisational needs rather than vendor-led agendas.

Testing and Quality Assurance

Testing is one of the most consistently under-resourced activities in ERP programmes. Shape Associates provides dedicated testing support from test strategy and planning through to hands-on execution, including test scripts and scenarios, ensuring that what goes live works for your users and your processes. We are not a client-side advisor that sits at a distance and reviews documents. We work alongside your teams, supporting data cleansing and testing throughout the programme.

ERP Optimisation

For most higher education institutions, go-live is the beginning rather than the end of an ERP programme. Once your new ERP system has been implemented, we work with institutions to assess how effectively the solution is performing, whether it remains aligned to business requirements, where opportunities for optimisation exist, and whether the anticipated return on investment outlined in the original business case is being realised.

 

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Digital Transformation with Shape Associates

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Frequently Asked Questions

No. We are entirely independent of vendors. We work across SAP S/4HANA, Oracle E-Business Suite, Workday, Unit4 and other platforms. Our advice is driven by your needs, not commercial relationships.

Not necessarily and not yet, in many cases. The first step is understanding what your system can and cannot do for you today, and what it would cost to optimise it versus replace it. We help you answer that question honestly before any procurement decisions are made.

We design training around your people and your processes, not generic system training. For higher education institutions with long-serving staff and deeply embedded ways of working, this means taking the time to understand how people actually do their jobs before designing any training intervention.

It starts with a conversation. We listen and hear before we recommend. Most engagements should begin with transformational change, including people, culture and processes. We understand your current state, your immediate risks, and your medium-term ambitions before any formal scope is agreed. 

Yes. Programme optimisation is one of the situations we are most frequently called into. We assess where things stand, stabilise the situation, and help you develop a realistic path forward.