Harvard University is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked annually as one of the top national universities. Its main campus is located in Cambridge and neighboring Allston, Massachusetts; it also has campuses in Washington, D.C., as well as Florence and Fiesole, Italy.
Harvard owns more than 25 million gross square feet in more than 650 buildings. These buildings are the responsibility of Harvard’s 11 principal academic units – 10 faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study – and many administrative units. In 2011, the Executive Vice President established a process whereby the university consolidates capital projects of schools and units into one integrated plan that aligns with academic, strategic, and financial priorities. The university invested $467 million in capital projects and acquisitions during fiscal year 2015 and $597 million in 2016.
With the new integrated planning process, Harvard anticipated the need to move away from manual spreadsheets and develop an enterprise automated solution. The solution not only had to be able to capture and consolidate five-year capital project information of almost 1,000 projects, but it also had to be available for stakeholders to update and to report plan and project data on a daily basis. Recognizing the decentralized management of its physical plant, Harvard met with its schools/units to develop requirements that met users’ needs. After its research, Harvard selected the Sequence Enterprise software platform because of its ease of use and configurability to meet all stakeholder needs.
Based on Harvard’s experience with Sequence Enterprise , key business stakeholders expanded its use to cost controls and are now looking at expanding the use of Sequence Enterprise to include contract management.
Objectives
A single repository for capital plan information for reliable data
Less time and fewer resources required to administer, submit and consolidate capital plans
Eliminate static spreadsheets and manual reporting processes
Integration of systems to provide a single point of entry for all related capital project data
Analytical tools to support the financial evaluation of the capital plans
Integration with multi-year financial plans, interim reporting and the annual operating budget
A robust set of reporting and analytical tools
Solutions
Implementation of Sequence Enterprise for developing proposed capital projects, enhancing data integrity and submitting capital plans
Both monthly and periodic progress monitoring for analysis of planned and active projects for stakeholders
Bi-directional integration between Sequence Enterprise and the university’s project approval system, actual expenditures and data warehouse
Integration of project approval process to connect project requests with approved capital plan cost estimates and funding data
Standardization of required project information, financial data and submittal format
Role-based access via the web for managers, internal stakeholders and outside consultants to access realtime project data, performance, current status and forecast
Benefits
Eliminated the current labor intensive processes for staff requiring multiple steps and repeated data entry
Introduced consistency across plans to ensure data integrity
Enables integrated management of both actuals and forecasted projections across the capital plan through a robust reporting suite, built on a single data repository, with consolidated input from other systems including project approvals, multi-year financial plans and the general ledger
Strengthens governance, risk and compliance processes for capital planning and project approvals by: fostering a culture that supports informed decision making; using intelligent IT and data management structures; providing an environment that can quickly adapt to changing requirements; and utilizing an integrated framework to support school and university academic and strategic objectives.
About Sequence Enterprise
Sequence Enterprise is the global standard for Enterprise Projects Performance software. Our easy-to-use, web-based platform helps organizations worldwide maximize their return on projects investment through optimizing project portfolios, controlling project costs and enabling proactive management of change.
