Already, Children's officials say they may go with other vendors for new modules such as e-procurement. Several executives said separately that they are considering replacing the PeopleSoft time and labor module with software from Kronos, which specializes in such software.
If they do start a new selection process for those applications, at least they'll be doing so with the benefit of experience. As Children's learned the first time around, enterprise application deployments are not a place to learn as you go.
David Joachim is Network Computing's editor/business technology. Write to him at [email protected].
Welcome to our second 'On Location' documentary-style technology case study. This package spotlights the largest pediatric medical center in the United States, Children's Hospital Boston, which cares for more than 300,000 patients every year regardless of their families' ability to pay. Children's is also the main teaching hospital for Harvard University and home to the world's largest pediatric research facility. Clearly, the IT staff is a dedicated lot, but they've been pushed to the limit by a $14 million-plus PeopleSoft ERP implementation upper management sprung on them. In this issue, we evaluate the project to date and how IT is handling ongoing user issues. Future coverage will include print and online progress reports. You can post questions, comments and suggestions at our online forum.
In our first 'On Location' package we visited Life Time Fitness, a $150 million health club operator that was counting on its custom-built, $25 million Member Management System to pump up growth (see "And Now for the Heavy Lifting").
Role: VP for administration and human resources
At Work: Oversees human resources, materials management and other operations
At Home: 52 years old. Divorced. Hobbies include llama farming
Alma Mater: Western New England College, M.B.A. with health-care concentration; Denison University, B.A. in sociology
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