Foreword

Among the many helpful recommendations of this handbook, two are worth emphasizing here. First, there is no single formula that can lead to success. This handbook stresses the importance of devising the most appropriate strategy for meeting your institution's unique and specific needs.

Second, meeting the challenges successfully requires a strategy based on teamwork and partnership--which are much more often applauded in theory than observed in practice. Our culture's popular arts don't celebrate the "glamour" of collaboration, let alone its necessity. At every step in the development of this project, and in the product itself, we have sought to emphasize the need for real and continuing partnerships. Effective use of this handbook also requires a partnership between financial executives and information resources management executives.

NACUBO and CAUSE are grateful to the authors for this thorough, valuable contribution to the field of higher education management. We believe this handbook can be an indispensable tool for both veteran and newly appointed financial officers and information technology managers in understanding the process and grappling with the challenges of making financial management decisions for the future. A noteworthy attribute of this handbook is the applicability of the process described herein to any type of system implementation, financial or otherwise.

Given the increasing complexity of the rapidly changing technology landscape, NACUBO and CAUSE look forward to continued work as partners to provide additional information and assistance to enable our institutions' leaders to craft the best possible decisions, informed by the thinking of some of the best minds in our collective communities.