From: Gross, Louis J Sent: Tuesday, July 6, 2021 7:38 PM To: Lemon, Tammy Cc: Gross, Louis J Subject: Re: Accenture Focus Group - Employee Self-Service Ms. Lemon, I am sending this note in my role as UTK Faculty Senate President. Though I will plan to attend the session with Accenture, I prefer to have some knowledge of the current status of the ERP planning transition prior to this and have been unable to find any details of the process on the System website. I cannot even tell what business processes are intended to be incorporated in the new ERP at this stage. Following the presentation by CFO Miller to the Board of Trustees in June 2019, I composed a response to the planning and sent it to the UTK Chancellor (I was on the UTK Advisory Board) and to the CFO. My comments were posted publicly – they are at http://lgross.utk.edu/Senate/CommentsUTBoardPresentationsJune2019LJGross.pdf I have no idea if my suggestion regarding being clear throughout the process of developing an ERP that “Software should not drive policy” has been implemented. I certainly hope so or we will again find ourselves in similar situations as we have had with IRIS over its long gestation regarding hosts of “work-arounds” that are inefficient and counter-productive. On another point, I have not heard of any previous request over the last two years since the CFO presentation for faculty input from across the System into the planning process for the ERP. For example, are there similar focus groups meeting as for employee self-service that include faculty with extensive research portfolios and cover the issues that researchers have in dealing with external funded projects in the current system? Without knowing the extent of the processes to be included in the ERP it is difficult for me to suggest other groups to meet with, particularly if the system is to be designed to incorporate academic processes such as student t information and course registration. Stay well, Lou -- Louis J. Gross (he, him, his) Chancellor’s Professor and Alvin and Sally Beaman Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics Director Emeritus, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS.org) Director, The Institute for Environmental Modeling University of Tennessee - Knoxville President, 2006-2007, 2021-2022, UTK Faculty Senate Past-President, 2003-2005, Society for Mathematical Biology http://lgross.utk.edu/ From: "Lemon, Tammy" Date: Wednesday, July 7, 2021 at 1:01 PM To: "Gross, Louis J" Subject: RE: Accenture Focus Group - Employee Self-Service Good afternoon, Lou – Thank you for reaching out. We will provide materials with insight on the project, including the business processes being examined and sessions already held, prior to the focus group on July 30. I have read through the information you provided and plan to go back through it in detail to make sure the materials will answer the requests and questions below. Have a great week! Kind regards, Tammy