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UMS IT update: unified catalog live, CRM timeline reset and security, storage challenges flagged
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Summary
IT director Robert Placido told trustees the unified catalog is live, online enrollment growth continues, and the advancement CRM project has been reset with a go/no‑go gate in August and a possible September rollout; trustees pressed for more written materials and partner training plans.
The University of Maine System’s IT portfolio lead, Robert Placido, gave an extended update to the FFT committee on the system’s technology work, including the launch of a unified course catalog, security upgrades, data‑storage planning and a reset of the advancement CRM implementation timeline.
Placido said the unified catalog — a real‑time cross‑campus course search and registration tool — went live in fall 2025 and is now accessible to guests and partners via maine.edu. He described the catalog as "a single real time view across all of our universities," noting more than one‑third of UMS students are fully online and that online enrollment grew 16% in fall 2025. Placido said external transfers into the system increased 29% this year and that the unified catalog reduces friction for students taking courses across campuses.
On the advancement CRM, Placido said the multi‑year implementation was formally reset last summer, new internal staff were added (a CRM administrator and a business intelligence analyst), and a change request was signed April 9. The project now carries a formal go/no‑go decision in August with a target release window in September; Placido said extensive data migration and training remain. Trustees emphasized that independent campus foundations and external advancement partners must be part of user training and testing.
Placido also flagged security and infrastructure issues: migration to a modern identity platform has begun, the emergency notification upgrade to RAVE completed April 7 (with an Alertus desktop add‑on planned), and an unexpected VMware renewal quote forced a pivot to Microsoft Hyper‑V to control costs. He said UMS is implementing data quotas and chargeback options for cloud storage as vendors end large free tiers.
Trustees asked for more written materials and advance slides; Placido agreed to distribute a portfolio summary and to provide additional briefings and training plans for foundations and external partners ahead of the CRM go/no‑go gate.
