In Brief
Reflections on a transformation
- Butler University implemented Oracle Student Financial Planning (SFP) to bolster their digital infrastructure and student experience.
- The application of SFP led to substantial improvements such as automation of manual tasks, enhanced compliance and efficiency, and an elevated experience for students and their parents.
- Despite challenges faced during the implementation, Butler utilized a robust project team, efficient communication, and assistance from Huron and Oracle to execute the transformation effectively, with continuous refinement for future projects.
Introduction
In 2019, Butler University embarked on a transformative journey to enhance its digital infrastructure and improve the student experience by becoming the first four-year institution to implement the Oracle Student Financial Planning (SFP) system, with Huron as their implementation partner. As they begin their sixth year with SFP, several university leaders reflected on their experience with the SFP project, the significant changes it brought to campus, and the ways it continues to shape their path and strategy even today.
Butler's motivation for implementing SFP
Several key factors drove Butler's decision to be the vanguard in implementing SFP, but one thing is clear: This was not a move away from something broken, but rather a bold step towards the university's vision for the future. SFP was centered around a better student experience - a top priority for Financial Aid Director Melissa Smurdon. She aimed to enable students and parents to make informed financial decisions with confidence by providing a comprehensive view of their funding. The looming demographic cliff was on everyone's mind by design; university leadership had hosted multiple town hall-style conversations on the topic with the entire community. There was a palpable enthusiasm for all the new programs and ideas incubating on campus to meet this challenge, and SFP offered tremendous promise to support the university's needs even as they evolved.
Moreover, Butler's forward-thinking nature meant there were already institutional changes underway that made the need for a new financial aid system more urgent. The university's PeopleSoft Campus Solutions system had been live for more than two decades, making it older than most of Butler's students. While still functional, it had been designed almost exclusively around the needs of traditional residential undergraduates in full-time credit programs. Says Associate Vice President of IT and Chief Information Officer Williams, "We had already evolved beyond the institution for which that was originally designed, and we recognized that we were now setting our course toward an entirely new horizon." Butler was already rolling out new programs and planning still others, some of which offered rolling start dates or required different funding rules for aid from non-traditional sources. The legacy SIS configuration could not easily handle financial aid under these parameters, and therefore, many new programs were managed in decentralized silos, which made significant extra work for the financial aid office. As innovation was increasingly being stifled by an aging SIS, a modern, student-centered system based on best practices and emerging needs became more attractive.
While senior leadership had high hopes for SFP's ability to support their future vision, the financial aid team was also optimistic about its potential to improve current business processes. Nowhere was this more desirable than with the verification process. Melissa Smurdon recalls changing Butler's process three or four times during her first decade as director, including a foray into outsourcing, in an attempt to find a more efficient, seamless process for students and parents. Parental access had long been a pain point, and asking Gen Z digital native students to mail or fax paper forms to their parents to obtain a wet ink signature did not meet anyone's self-service expectations. Knowing that both students and parents could sign into the SFP portal and complete the verification process digitally would be a huge improvement.
SFP, then, promised several important benefits that would support Butler's mission: an enhanced student experience, more robust functionality to bolster their strategic initiatives, and more efficient and compliant financial aid processes. Williams acknowledges that while going first was a risk, he was confident that with the support of Huron and Oracle partners, the rewards would be worth it.
Implementation challenges and solutions
Despite many compelling reasons Butler had for implementing SFP, the project was not without its obstacles. The effort demanded dedicated resources from both the IT and functional offices, straining the capacity of Smurdon's small but mighty staff. In particular, significant technical resources were required to integrate SFP with the university's existing system. For example, SFP lacked built-in notification capabilities, so an external system had to be used to send emails to students. Likewise, some data reporting needs required custom solutions, such as the process that was developed to pull award data from SFP into Campus Solutions. Moreover, the Butler team was surprised on more than one occasion that configuring the system to support a given business process in SFP required much more technical skill than did the equivalent Campus Solutions functionality. For example, any user can indicate whether a fund meets need or set a spending limit in Campus Solutions, but SFP needs a Groovy script for this, which typically demands a technical resource. Challenges like this led Financial Aid Information Systems Analyst Dawnya French, to relocate to the IT department to collaborate more closely with Huron's consultants in addressing technical challenges and ensuring a smooth implementation.
Some hurdles were particular to Butler's status as an early adopter. Smurdon calls the process of learning how best to use a brand-new product where each feature seemed to be built just days before it was needed "a massive climb" and "incredibly hard." The product's newness also meant there were no experienced implementation partners and no established user communities to lean on. Furthermore, the just-in-time rollout left little or no time for training end users or creating documentation. Says Smurdon, "We learned way too much in production. We didn't have a choice."
The Huron consultants worked closely with Butler's IT and financial aid teams to address technical challenges and ensure a smooth implementation, asking pointed questions about Butler's priorities at key moments: Do you want to keep this process as close to out of the box as possible? Replicate how it works in your existing system? Or find a best practice that's somewhere in between or perhaps something totally different? The team focused at least as much on Butler's success and maintaining their strong relationship as on hewing closely to the relevant chapter and verse of the contract. Together, the Butler and Huron teams developed creative workarounds to make SFP do certain tasks that weren't yet addressed by delivered functionality, such as awarding non-federal funds.
In other cases, leveraging SFP's increased automation required as much of a cultural shift as a technical one. The financial aid team had long taken its batch process-driven PeopleSoft functions for granted, rarely thinking about the control they had when a process didn't run and students couldn't view their information until a user kicked off a job. In SFP, where 90% of processing is automated, and most tasks happen at the individual level instead of in batch, these same processes happened, and students saw the results almost immediately. Working alongside their Huron partners, Butler ultimately learned to leverage SFP's automation in the way that made most sense for the institution, at first setting more holds to permit a higher level of manual review, and then releasing these controls and allowing more automation as their understanding of and trust in their new system grew.
To meet these challenges, Butler drew on two key ingredients: the right team and the right methodology. They were very intentional about building the project team, creating a technical SFP team centered in financial aid rather who could become experts in the more technical aspects of the product, and liaise effectively with their IT-based colleagues when even deeper technical skills were required. The full financial aid staff were trained and looped in as needed at strategic points, rather than being expected to focus fully on learning SFP and performing their regular jobs at the same time. Smurdon also underscores the importance of grit and resilience, calling the project team "a group of people [who] just were not willing to let things fail."
This team was supported and empowered by strong, capable leadership. Project managers were appointed on both the Butler and Huron teams and regular meeting cadences established, and given the choice, the project leaders and sponsors erred on the side of overcommunicating every chance they got. Prompt decision-making was modeled and encouraged. Smurdon champions the use of the RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix in project management, noting, "There's no substitute for people who want to live in the responsible part of the matrix." Huron also helped to facilitate effective communication between Butler and Oracle, ensuring that key issues were resolved and new functionality delivered in time to meet Butler's needs.
Huron played a pivotal role in the successful implementation of SFP at Butler University. Even before the project's official launch, Williams cites Butler's positive long-standing relationship with Huron, along with the historical support they'd received from Oracle, as influencing the initial decision to implement SFP. "Huron was committed to ensuring our success."
Impact on campus
Ultimately, tackling these challenges and implementing SFP brought significant positive changes to Butler. Some wins, especially within the financial aid office, were evident almost immediately. For instance, importing Direct Loan files from the Department of Education's Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) system and reviewing subsequent ISIRs, both of which had previously been manual and highly labor-intensive processes, now happened automatically. Similarly, when a student withdrew, the once paper-based Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4) calculation was performed and unearned funds returned to COD promptly within SFP. For the first time, SFP allowed Butler to easily revise students' cost of attendance based on enrollment changes and repackage their aid accordingly. Says Smurdon, "We're probably better, and more accurate and compliant than in the past." This benefit alone, in a time of constant regulatory changes and increased scrutiny around fiscal stewardship in student aid, cannot be overstated.
Beyond financial aid, the move to a cloud-based financial aid system has had positive ripple effects on Butler's technology strategy and infrastructure."Previously, Butler, like many institutions, sometimes sacrificed the ideal of staying fully up to date on all SIS releases to other compelling priorities, implementing only the highest priority critical updates so as not to overtax their resources. In SFP, this is no longer an option; updates are deployed on a schedule, regardless of the institution's readiness. This has led Butler to shift from a maintenance strategy to one of continuous improvement, operating according to best-in-class business practices, and asking difficult but important questions about how to maximize SFP's value to the institution, expand its capabilities, grow the university's knowledge of the product, and build and maintain the staff needed to make all these things happen. Some of the pressures this imposes have been offset by the robust support Oracle offers as new functionality is released. Williams says, "You have a dedicated team behind you, fully backing you up. They bring a broad, strategic perspective, engaging with countless clients beyond our organization. This is their expertise - they live and breathe it every day. We can harness that expertise to our advantage."
There has also been a clear and lasting impact on the campus culture, both within and beyond the financial aid office. Initially, there were high hopes that the reduced administrative burden that came from moving to a cloud-based "calculator in the sky" would translate directly to more time for focused student counseling and outreach. The actual benefits, though no less real, have unfolded somewhat differently. "The scope and caliber of our work have evolved, delivering greater value to financial aid and advancing our institutional strategy," Williams explains. "We're constantly enhancing our efforts, driving progress, and leveraging our team's talent for higher-level functions that directly benefit our students." This higher-level capacity, paired with the challenging but ultimately rewarding and successful experience of going through the implementation process, enabled the IT and financial aid teams to grow and evolve in ways consistent with Butler's unique culture. Collaboration and growth are prioritized, as is prompt decision making by the people closest to an issue. Transparency and empowerment are evident throughout the university, with staff at all levels regularly reposting announcements of open positions on LinkedIn and testifying about how working at Butler has impacted their careers. "Williams recalls a story shared by the family of a student about arriving on campus as an excited new admit. Just after submitting their deposit, they met a staff member who, upon learning of their assigned residence hall, offered to show them their new room, even helping measure it while sharing their own love for Butler. 'It's inspiring to be part of a mission that empowers you to make a positive impact in such a meaningful way.'
Most importantly, SFP has brought about an improved experience for students and parents. For the first time, applicants can view and submit financial aid information on a streamlined, user-friendly tablet- and mobile-friendly portal that meets mid-21st century digital self-service expectations, and parental access is customizable and easily granted by the student.
Families have a clear, comprehensive view of students' financial aid picture for four years at their fingertips, which has enhanced their ability to make informed decisions."Williams believes this is especially important for first-generation college students and their families. "Navigating the financial aid process for the first time can be a challenge. With SFP, it's like moving through a series of red and green lights - you just need to follow the sequence and turn each red light green. This approach simplifies and gamifies an otherwise complex process, which can be incredibly helpful." More broadly, by leading the first wave of SFP adopters, Butler was able to position itself as a forward-thinking institution better equipped to attract and retain students in a competitive higher education landscape. Senior Director and Assistant CIO Mary Reiman is confident that SFP has helped students and parents understand college costs better and credits the greater speed and transparency with helping Butler remain a competitive, attractive option even compared to the public institutions in the region.
Lessons learned and future directions
Butler's experience with the SFP project provided valuable lessons for future initiatives. Chief among these is the importance of allocating sufficient technical resources and planning for backfill. Williams, Reiman, and Smurdon all cited adding additional staff to help complete the project and maintain the new system after go-live as one of the first things they'd do differently if they had to implement SFP again, and indeed, the university has done so on the NextUp project, which is currently underway to move its financial and human resources systems to the cloud, with Huron as Butler's implementation partner.
Similarly, the SFP implementation underscored the importance of change management. There were no dedicated change management resources on the implementation project, which meant Smurdon frequently spent more time than she'd anticipated in the weeds helping the team learn important project lessons. She recalls telling her team shortly after go-live, as they grew increasingly frustrated at discovering errors for the first time in production, that this was to be expected in a new system, and that the many exception reports they'd been accustomed to reviewing in Campus Solutions had been created to address the issues that cropped up after that system went live. Both she and Williams advised other schools that are just embarking on their cloud journey to plan for it to be tough at times, and trust that with time and open communication, the right team and a maturing system will evolve into a well-oiled machine.
Butler continues to refine its use of SFP, exploring opportunities to further streamline processes and enhance reporting capabilities. For example, SFP's R2T4 process is more compliant and far more efficient than the paper-based process it replaced but is still only as accurate as the student records data it relies on. Even today, five years after the initial go-live, Butler and Huron remain in regular contact, collaborating, sharing knowledge, and providing information that helps both parties optimize their use of SFP and address any emerging challenges. Williams and Smurdon both noted that Oracle and SFP have gained tremendous momentum in their five years with the product, and that the system's capacity and functionality have grown by leaps and bounds. Nowhere was this more evident than during the complex and error-ridden rollout of the simplified 2024-25 FAFSA. Says Smurdon, "[Oracle] nailed FAFSA simplification." While Butler and SFP weren't immune to the issues that plagued this process, the enhanced guidance Oracle provided on best practices and workarounds as errors were identified, and the opportunity to vote on proposed enhancements on Customer Connect, made the process dramatically easier than it could have been, and Smurdon has high expectations that a less tumultuous 2025-26 processing cycle will bring fewer surprises and more time to plan for changes. Williams is similarly optimistic about what the SFP experience means for the future of IT, and Butler as a whole:
"We gained invaluable insights into our teams and built strong relationships with incredible partners and friends. We've channeled that momentum into new projects we're now tackling with Huron and Oracle. Each time we face a new challenge, we come back stronger, together. We can step in confidently, knowing, 'We'll find the answer. We'll get it done.' Our team brings a heightened resilience and determination to every endeavor. There's a shared spirit among our team and partners - a collective confidence that, no matter the challenge, we'll handle it." With this proven strength and camaraderie, SFP and NextUp are only the beginning.
"We have an outstanding innovation team alongside strong academic leadership, both of whom are developing new degree programs and driving exciting initiatives. I'm thrilled to see how this evolves, especially as we align our financial aid strategy with our future goals."
Conclusion
The implementation of Oracle's Student Financial Planning system at Butler University, supported by Huron, has transformed the campus by enhancing the student experience, improving compliance and efficiency, and positioning the institution for future success. The lessons learned from this project continue to inform Butler's ongoing efforts to innovate and excel in the ever-evolving landscape of higher education. Says Williams, "I feel profoundly grateful for the unwavering dedication of our partners in Butler's financial aid and IT teams, as well as Huron and Oracle. Their herculean efforts and commitment were essential to our success, and we are fortunate to have achieved this together with such remarkable collaborators."