Colleague Modernization

Project Status

Estimated project completion: see Projects

Executive Summary

Ellucian provides the College with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications which include Colleague, Finance, Financial Aid, Human Resources, Reporting, Self-Service (MyMCC), and Student Planning. This project migrates from on-premise architecture to cloud architecture while providing the latest tools from Ellucian.

The current Colleague system has been overly customized causing support issues and immense technical debt. As Ellucian release software patches, Information Systems and Services (ISS) staff must thoroughly review changes and update customized applications to prevent conflicts and issues. This process can take several weeks and requires significant institutional knowledge and experience.

On 09/30/2024, The Board of Trustees approved to enter a six-year contract with Ellucian for a total of $5,919,543. This six-year contract includes all end-user functionality, software support, employee training, and migration to the latest Ellucian products. The project will require collaboration with MCC leadership and departmental stakeholders with a focus on usability, communication, training, and compliance.

Business Need & Background

McLennan Community College (MCC) invested in Ellucian Colleague and related applications including Colleague Self-Service (MyMCC), Colleague Student Planning, Colleague Human Resources, Colleague Financial Aid, and Colleague Finance for all business and student needs. Colleague provides a multitude of functions and is the central source system for managing all data related to the College.

Information Systems Services (ISS) has created custom code to add functionality not provided by Ellucian. These customizations have been added to Colleague menus and are used regularly. In some cases, Ellucian eventually adds that functionality and ISS removes that custom code. However, ISS staff have found that the removal has not always happened.

Every customization adds technical debt and documentation is not readily available and may not exist. In some cases, customizations are preventing the use of new features provided by Colleague. Eliminating custom code requires adapting College processes to match those provided in Colleague. By transitioning to a cloud platform and modernizing systems, staff will eliminate the cost of maintaining on-premises servers and no longer be responsible for patching and updating the applications.

Project Description & Scope

The project aims to move all department operations to the latest version of Colleague into Ellucian’s managed cloud service. This requires numerous engagements and conferences with Ellucian Experts and College staff to define processes, deploy functionality, and train staff. Extensive configuration and training will occur for ISS staff who will support the system after migration.

Department employees should expect meeting with ISS staff and Ellucian Experts. Each department’s process will be evaluated and documented. Ellucian Experts will recommend best practices. Once process changes are defined, ISS staff with Ellucian will implement changes. Staff will be asked to test all processes. Then, the processes will be activated in the production environment and staff will begin using the new system.

The Colleague Modernization project is expected to take two years ending in December of 2027.

Project Schedule (Original)

Project Management & Governance (Original)

Documentation

• Colleague Modernization Project Charter

Last updated: 8/10/2026