What is the HESS Consortium Collective Program for ERP?
The HESS Consortium Collective Program is a growing group of private, non-profit colleges and universities interested in 1.) moving to a common, modern and affordable cloud-native enterprise solution, 2.) moving to world-class, multi-institutional contracts for software and services, 3.) developing a shared archive to ease migration and implementation costs and 4.) create a network of HESS Consortium Collective Program schools to share both staff resources and expertise to lower operational overhead costs and increase efficiencies.
The HESS Collective Program currently consists of 89 colleges and universities either implementing or evaluating implementing the Oracle Cloud for Higher Education solution in a collaborative model of implementation with our implementation partners, Drivestream and through licensing through Mythics.
The Collective Program’s common enterprise platform and partners – Oracle (for Oracle Cloud, Drivestream and Mythics – were evaluated by 33 HESS member institutions over the course of 18 months as a strong, modern, cloud-native platform that is affordable (15-year pricing) for small to mid-sized private colleges and universities.
Watch our Collective Overview Video (12 mins)
HESS Collective Program Partners
Why Collaborate on Enterprise Systems and Services?
There are major changes on the national higher education landscape affecting U.S. private colleges and universities related to enrollment, demographics and cultural shifts. Private higher education institutions are looking at flat or decreasing net revenues over the coming years. Enterprise administrative systems are one of the largest expenses for private institutions, many times with legacy systems that are no longer providing modern functionality. In working together as a group with a common solution provider, we find cost savings in our numbers. This is not only with our chosen common software provider, Oracle (via Mythics) and with our implementation provider, Drivestream and many other 3rd party software solution providers.
With the changes ahead, seriously impacting our private institutions, hitting hardest in 2026 and years after, our private institutions are trying to find ways to collaborate with other institutions to save money and time as well as ease staff constraints in ERP & information technology operations.
After Drivestream’s comprehensive and affordable 3-years of initial implementation and support, the HESS Collective institutions will begin to pool our support hours together. As the Collective schools pool our support hours together in larger blocks with Drivestream post-implementation, we will find great economies of scale for many years to come.
https://www.hesscollective.org
CONTACT US! If you are interested in finding out more about the HESS Consortium Collective Program, please contact HESS Executive Director, Keith Fowlkes at keith.fowlkes@hessconsortium.org.
Solution and Partners Evaluated & Price, Terms & Conditions Negotiated
by 33 Private Colleges for Total Transparency
CURRENT HESS Consortium Collective institutions implementing NOW
- Davidson College NEW! (Davidson, NC)
- Flagler College NEW!
(St. Augustine, FL) - Saint Mary’s College PILOT!
(Notre Dame, IN) - St. Olaf College NEW!
(Northfield, Minnesota) - Virginia Wesleyan University NEW!
(Virginia Beach, VA) - Wagner College NEW!
(Staten Island, NYC) - Wheaton College PILOT!
(Wheaton, IL)
Solution Platform Selection Criteria
After reviewing a number of the major cloud-native software solutions, the group made the choice to select Oracle Cloud based on
- modern product functionality in finance, human resources, financial aid and student information systems,
- initial and long-term affordability and
- the ability to partner with the HESS Collective community in its vision to create a support and resource network for participating HESS Consortium member institutions.
Click here to view the short form RFI for the Collective Program.
Steps to joining the HESS Collective Program
STEP 1: Join the HESS Consortium
Your institution must be a member of the HESS Consortium in good standing to be a part of the HESS Collective Program.
STEP 2: Register your school to participate
To access our program information and exclusive pricing for Oracle Cloud software and implementation services, click the button below to register as a participant in the HESS Collective Program. HESS will then contact you to schedule a introductory session with program pricing, contract details and product information.
*Please note that there is no buying commitment to your member institution by joining the Collective Program. Your institution is simply joining to explore the information, pricing and possible future move to Oracle Cloud with our group of HESS member institutions.
STEP 3: Contact us to get a cost estimate and contract terms and conditions for software and implementation.
Email Keith Fowlkes at keith.fowlkes@hessconsortium.org to move to the next step and do a pricing estimate session for Oracle Cloud software licensing through Mythics and implementation/support pricing through Drivestream. See below for information needed for your pricing session with HESS.
STEP 4: After this, when you are ready, you can schedule a Cloud Transformation Assessment (CTA) with implementation partner, Drivestream.
See the information below to learn more about the no-cost Cloud Transformation Assessment (CTA) session and how it can help your campus understand the implementation, configuration and engagement and what is expected of your campus community during an implementation.
STEP 5: Let HESS know when you are ready to move forward and engage in the Program
After your campus is satisfied with the conversations, pricing and planning with all of our partners – Oracle, Mythics and Drivestream – let HESS know you are ready to move forward. We will bring all the parts into place to start your licensing and implementation through the contract.
STEP 6: Join a HESS Collective Cohort Group & Start Implementation!
We will put you into an implementation cohort group (optional) to help your institution connect with other HESS institutions moving into the Oracle Cloud product. Joining a cohort group will help your campus learn from others going through implementation, share and solve challenges and work with our partners to resolve issues…. together.
Still have questions? Contact Keith Fowlkes, Executive Director of the HESS Consortium at keith.fowlkes@hessconsortium.org today.
What is a Cloud Transformation Assessment (CTA)?
The first step to introduce your campus to the HESS Collective Implementation Process with partners, Drivestream.
The Drivestream Cloud Transformation Assessment (CTA) is a highly interactive, informative, and structured workshop that will help HESS member institutions to clarify their strategy, identify business value, and lay out a roadmap for migrating to Oracle Cloud applications. It will help members to determine their overall readiness for migrating to the Oracle cloud.
CTA is one of Drivestream’s Strategy & Advisory service offering with costs that range from $50K to $100K depending on size and complexity of the institution. However, as a special promotion for HESS Consortium members this is being offered at NO COST.
Completing a CTA Workshop is the first step towards a holistic cloud transformation. After completing the workshop, Drivestream will provide a report that:
- Maps current systems (for example: Ellucian/Banner) and processes to the Oracle cloud
- Identifies Oracle modules that will improve current state functions and processes through transformation and adoption of best practices
- Defines the project scope, implementation approach, and project timeline
- Identifies change and provides guidance on optimizing adoption
- Identifies project risks, if any, and provides a mitigation approach based on lessons learned
- Articulates the overall value of the cloud transformation for the member institution
- The end result is that HESS members will be well prepared for a successful transformative journey to the Oracle cloud.
(scroll down to see news releases)
What will you need for your HESS Collective Program Pricing Estimate Session?
HUMAN RESOURCES
- How many people at your institution get W-2 (including students)?
- How many people are in your HR department (including payroll)?
- How many people are involved with submitting, managing and approving departmental budgets?
- How do you keep up with health and safety incidents for federal reporting?
- Do you currently have an employee portal solution? (benefits, W-2s, etc.)
- Do you currently use an online recruiting service/portal solution?
- How many hourly employees do you have now (including students)?
ERP- FINANCE, ACCOUNTING AND PROCUREMENT
- How many people work in the system now in your business office?
- How many people at your institution do online purchase requisitions, approve orders and other departmental procurement activities?
- How many people in your organization will need to enter budget requests, manage budgets, approve budgets outside your business office? Department heads, deans, etc.
- How many executive-level people in your institution will need access to online dashboards and other online reports?
- Do you have a full-time procurement person(s)? If so, how many?
SFP AND SIS – STUDENT FINANCIAL AID AND STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
- What is your student headcount (IPEDS)?
How many students are on financial aid at your institution? - Do you have a third party student success software solution?
- What are you using for admissions and advancement CRM solutions?
HESS INSTITUTIONS PARTNERING IN ORACLE DEVELOPMENT
One of the most important aspects of the HESS Consortium Collective Program is collaboration between our private, non-profit institutions and our business partners. With our Collective program partners, Mythics and Drivestream, participating institutions will be working together to develop integration resources and implementation templates for Oracle CRM products that need customization for use in our institutions.
Building integrations with other campus systems
ALL integrations built by Drivestream for HESS Collective members during implementations will be shared at no cost to all other implementing members. This cuts thousands of dollars and months of time from the process of integrating other systems at your institution with the Oracle Cloud software platform.
Building CRM for Private Colleges and Universities
Institutions will be working together with Drivestream on building customized installation and operational templates for the Oracle CX CRM and Eloqua marketing software for advancement, institutional marketing and admissions. The Oracle CX and Eloqua software is included in our negotiated pricing and Drivestream will be offering these templates at very low pricing to institutions partnering to build the new framework for our private, non-profit colleges and universities.
CONTACT US: If you are interested in finding out more about the HESS Consortium Collective Program, please contact HESS Executive Director, Keith Fowlkes at keith.fowlkes@hessconsortium.org.
