On Friday, December 6, 2024, UCSF officially kicked off Project One with an online meeting attended by nearly 300 UCSF members slotted to support the project either directly on a delivery team or by attending design sessions to add their expertise as a subject matter expert.
Chancellor Hawgood kicked off the meeting by connecting the vision of Project One to the overall mission of UCSF.
“This is a process to move those (administrative) tools into the 21st century and to have our administrative processes support equally excellence of our clinical care, our research, our education, and our community service. So, the work that you are embarking on today will truly have a profound and lasting impact on our university. Project one will help as I've said, continue our tradition of excellence.”
During the 1.5-hour kickoff presentation, the project team shared our Case for Change, the Guiding Principles and reviewed the Keys to Success.
The groundwork for the project was set over the past two years as project members and leadership evaluated our numerous administrative systems added and developed over the past 15 years where UCSF has nearly tripled in size. Our UCSF leadership team determined best to move to a single platform to cover our Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain, Grants Management, and also a reimaging of our Student Information Systems. You can read more on our focus areas here (link).
With our decision to adopt the Oracle Cloud system, the project will now move forward with design sessions for Phase One beginning in January. Deloitte Consulting is our Implementation Partner and will lead these Design Sessions and work closely with our UCSF project members to design, build, and deliver our new system over three phases spanning the next several years. You can view the project timeline here (link).
At the kickoff, the project team stressed the importance of the Design Sessions where our UCSF team will make key decisions on how we will use our new system with best practice and world-class delivery as a key guideline.
Along with strong senior leadership involvement, how we approach our change management to assist the transition for all UCSF members to the new Oracle Cloud system is critical. Paul Raknes, who is leading our Change Management Team for Project One, presented an overview of the Change Management approach for Project One.
The Change Team will lead a comprehensive communication awareness approach and directly engage with each UCSF team working through the design and development cycle continuing through to full implementation. The Change Management Team will share more information as the design sessions are in full force beginning in January.
This kickoff meeting was just the latest milestone for a project that will last multiple years and transform our administrative systems at UCSF. In his remarks at the kickoff, Suresh Gunasekaran, President / CEO of UCSF Health, said it best, “What got us here won’t get us there.”
With the Project One kickoff complete, we are ready to move into our Design Sessions as we continue to bring excellence to all we do at UCSF.