Implementing eRA software is a significant undertaking that requires at least some involvement from your institution’s IT team. Whether you’re designing a homegrown system or purchasing enterprise software, IT will need to have some fundamental questions answered in the early stages of the process to ensure the implementation goes smoothly and meets your organizational objectives.
Getting early involvement from IT can be a tricky balancing act, as internal tech teams tend to be overwhelmed with requests and often face a significant backlog. And yet, their expertise is invaluable during the implementation process. How do you find the right balance between drawing on IT’s assistance without overwhelming their limited bandwidth?
One of the best ways is to answer their critical questions early—ideally, before they even ask them. In this post, we’ll break down the most common questions we hear from IT teams and how to answer them.
What do you need from IT?
One of the first questions a stretched-thin IT team generally wants answered is a simple one: What is the project scope, and where will you need involvement from IT?
The answer will vary depending on your institutional requirements and the specific software you implement. At Cayuse, we advise our customers to engage IT for four basic implementation tasks. Only one of these is non-negotiable; the rest are optional, depending on the complexity of your requirements.
Admin data import
Administrative data is foundational to any eRA software, and importing it is the only essential step before going live. This data includes lists of people, roles, departments, internal organizational units, external organizations, and other people and institutions you’ll need to reference or assign.
You likely have this data housed somewhere already, such as an ERP system, an HR system, or both. IT can help extract this data from your existing systems and import it into your eRA software, though they shouldn’t be expected to do it alone. Implementation teams should still provide guidance on which data is accurate, what’s required for import, etc. IT will need institutional collaboration to ensure your administrative data is extracted and mapped the way it needs to be.
Automated updates
Administrative data doesn’t remain static, so an initial upload is only the first step. People will join and leave the organization, and you’ll engage new research partners as you evolve. You can maintain these updates manually, or engage IT to initiate automatic updates via an end-to-end script or API. This level of automation will pull data directly from your HR system and into Cayuse.
Single Sign-On
If your institution requires Single Sign-On (SSO) to log in, you’ll need to engage IT’s help to get things set up in your internal systems. IT will also need to participate in testing to ensure that everyone can log in smoothly, without a separate set of login credentials.
API configuration
An API can facilitate direct communication between your internal systems and your eRA software, but you’ll need help from IT to set it up. For example, Cayuse’s Sponsored Projects application has pre- and post-award APIs that can deliver data to other systems like ERP software. While automation like this can be a major benefit, it also requires significant input from IT, so it helps to establish early whether these additional efforts will be expected.
How long will it take?
Overstretched IT teams often feel they don’t have the time for a big implementation project, so we often get asked about the time involved. With more than 700 data migrations under our belts—at a 97% customer satisfaction rating—Cayuse’s implementation process is proven to be fast and efficient, with a highly skilled team to provide support to your internal teams along the way.
An average Cayuse implementation takes just a few months (as opposed to years with some industry vendors). We commit to on-time, on-budget implementations, with a detailed map to prepare your team for what’s expected of them and when. This plan is designed to keep the heavy lifting away from your internal IT resources.
What about data security and compliance?
Cayuse is the top-most trusted vendor by CIOs. Our system manages billions of dollars worth of research, so we have implemented industry-leading security and data privacy standards.
Our security services include:
- Identity and access management
- Detective controls
- Infrastructure protection
- Data protection
- Incident response
- Patch management
- Vulnerability remediation
- Malware management
- Security monitoring
Our cloud-based software suite applies defense-in-depth principles with layered security for entire systems, including edge networks, VPC, load balancers, computing instances, operating systems, and applications. We’ve installed redundancies at every level to ensure that a failure at one level won’t affect our services.
Cayuse is compliant with a wide range of security and regulatory standards, including SSAE 16, SOC 2, PCIA, and ISO 27001. We are also HIPPA compliant; no personal health information (PHI) is shared through our system.
Will this implementation create more work for IT?
With Cayuse, the answer is a simple No. Our software is designed to ease the workload for internal teams through simplified communication, centralized data and reporting, and industry-leading support.
If your institution decides to leverage additional automation, such as an optional API integration, IT will likely need to be involved in that process. Often, this involves writing an end-to-end script that will automatically pull data from a system like HR Connect. Less complex implementations will require less input from IT.
Cayuse is the only eRA software provider with an open status page providing real-time incident reports and 90-day historical metrics. Snapshots are taken every 30 minutes of all database servers to allow for immediate point-in-time recovery of systems and services.
Why should we buy software when we could build it ourselves?
The question of whether to build or buy software has become a common one, particularly at research institutions with so much brainpower at their disposal. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer, some teams are under the misconception that “off-the-shelf” software can’t be flexible enough to suit their institution’s particular needs.
And yet, as the 2022 Grant Management System Report shows, the use of homegrown systems for research administration has continued to decline. Many of our customers purchased Cayuse after their homegrown solution became too outdated and siloed to use. While some vendor-developed solutions can’t be flexible enough to meet the specific needs of research institutions or smaller organizations, Cayuse has designed our eRA software with researchers and configuration in mind.
Here are a few points to consider when deciding whether to build or buy eRA software:
- Ongoing IT time investment: A homegrown solution requires ongoing IT and tech team support. If your IT resources are already constrained, buying a solution is likely the better path, as outsourced support means less strain on your in-house teams over the long haul.
- Data silos: Often, custom-built software solutions lead to siloed people and processes. With data in so many different places, reporting is manual and time-consuming, and user adoption can be an arduous process. Professional eRA software like Cayuse provides one centralized location for everyone to access their data with role-specific dashboards. All research-related data is in one place, with robust reporting across the entire research lifecycle.
- System updates: Updating homegrown systems to reflect regulatory or process updates can take months or even years. Professional eRA software like Cayuse is designed to be scalable and adaptable; non-technical users can change forms, routing, and alerts in just a few clicks, without ever involving IT.
- Connections: Homegrown systems are purpose-built and often aren’t designed to facilitate connections with other systems—especially systems you aren’t even using yet. As your organization evolves, getting your homegrown system to communicate with new software and devices can quickly become a nightmare. With Cayuse, all pre- and post-award and compliance applications are connected, both to each other and to key systems like your ERP, CITI training, etc.
- Security: While in-house software allows you to define your product roadmap and make updates on your timeline, those benefits are a double-edged sword. R&D becomes your responsibility, and it can be extremely difficult to keep up with evolving technology and new security threats, making your data vulnerable to a security breach.
- Manual entry: Homegrown systems often require significant administrative effort to keep them updated and functional. Manual entry is prone to human error, preventing your team from focusing on higher-strategy tasks.
Conclusion
Keeping all stakeholders on the same page throughout implementation ensures a smooth and successful transition to your new eRA software, and this includes answering IT’s most important questions early in the process.
Cayuse is the industry leader in completed implementations of eRA software. We’ve designed and completed hundreds of data migrations and system integrations with a 97% customer satisfaction rating, and we understand the importance of working closely with in-house teams to ensure that your system is set up how and when you need it.
