County Office and staff praise ERP rollout; board probes cloud backup risks and reporting tools

San Mateo County Office of Education executives told the Board on Nov. 19 that a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) financial system launched July 1 and is now supporting districts across the county.

Dhanya Unni, Executive Director of District Business Services, and Deputy Superintendent Kevin Bultema presented the implementation report, describing the system’s role in consolidating financial tools and enabling multi-year projections, salary-and-benefit modeling, and site-level cost breakdowns. Bultema said the platform already serves “around 43 counties,” which he described as contributing to shared resilience.

Board Member Susan Alvaro pressed staff on reliability and contingency planning after cloud outages disrupted other platforms. Alvaro asked how to “back up a backup” rather than relying entirely on cloud hosting. Deputy Superintendent Kevin Bultema said the vendor provides built-in redundancies and the County Office has added local safeguards, but on-site servers would bring increased cybersecurity risks. “There is always some risk with the provider’s servers,” Bultema said.

Board Member Mike O’Neill asked whether the system can support scenario planning — for example, modeling declining enrollment, school closures or labor negotiations. Bultema said the ERP provides detailed financial modeling tools, including cost reports and linked staffing data, that can be configured to generate forecasts and site-level analyses without extra licensing fees. Executive Director Unni confirmed districts can access the existing tools based on account configuration and report setup.

Board President Hugo Torres and several members praised staff for the rollout and for ongoing communications during implementation. Members described the launch as successful and asked staff to continue reporting on system performance and any post-launch issues at future meetings.