Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Procurement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Portland schools brief board on bond‑funded ERP modernization, 10‑year license and multi‑vendor implementation plan
Summary
District IT and operations leaders told the board they plan a Workday‑based ERP modernization funded through 2020/2025 bond proceeds, with implementation vendors and 10 years of licensing; a phased go‑live is targeted in late 2027–early 2028 and the board will see contract approvals on the consent agenda.
Portland Public Schools staff presented a multi‑year plan to modernize the district’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and replace legacy financial and HR tools that date back decades.
Chiefs of Integrated Operations and IT described an implementation approach funded from bond proceeds (2020 and 2025 bonds) that would pair the Workday platform with implementation, program management and change‑management partners. The vendors named during the briefing included Workday (user licenses), Meridian (reseller and application support), Plantaran (program management), Accenture and Presidio (change management and training). Staff said they negotiated pricing to cover a 10‑year license period, with implementation, testing and 12 months of post‑go‑live application support included in not‑to‑exceed contract requests that will appear on a consent agenda for board approval.
Program leads described the timeline: a summer/early fall 2026 focus on business‑process design, detailed planning in October 2026, configuration and testing through 2027, and an intended phased go‑live window beginning fall 2027 and no later than January 2028. Staff emphasized the project’s broad scope — payroll, HR, finance, student data integrations and vendor/grant management — and told the board that vendor selection was guided by the K–12 experience and the need to clean and govern district data.
Board members asked about local vendor participation and minority‑owned business outreach; staff said some local firms participated in program‑management and change‑management roles and procurement followed public RFP rules. Directors also noted the benefit of locking in longer licensing to provide budgeting runway for future operating costs.
Next steps: the board was asked to approve several not‑to‑exceed contracts on the consent agenda; staff will return with detailed planning and change‑control milestones prior to any go‑live. The ERP modernization will be tracked as a bond‑funded capital program with separate operating‑budget considerations for future license renewals.
