Minnesota State trustees hear ‘critical’ risk rating as NextGen student phase advances

Board of Trustees committee members heard an update Thursday on Minnesota State’s NextGen enterprise resource planning program — the multi-year effort to adopt Workday for human capital, finance and student systems — as auditors raised the project’s overall risk rating to “critical.”

Internal audit and an outside reviewer said the principal driver of elevated risk is people and staffing: Minnesota State needs more personnel with the right skills at the right times to stabilize Workday Finance and HCM while also moving into the student implementation and a set of companion projects such as a constituent relationship management (CRM) system.

“We raised the rating from high ... to critical,” Mike Cullen of Baker Tilly said during the project risk review, pointing to shortages that affect timeline and scope across multiple, interdependent work streams. Cullen and Amy Jorgensen, chief audit officer, told trustees the committee should prioritize surging people resources and creating a “conductor” role (a NextGen program director) to coordinate the many connected efforts.

Why it matters: Workday Finance and HCM already went live July 1, 2024, and Minnesota State is now in the Workday Student implementation phase. Trustees were…