Executive Forum · By Invitation

Modernization succeeds when technology, finance, and people move together.

Join higher education executives from across the HEUG community for an afternoon of candid conversation about modernization, workforce strategy, and AI readiness, grounded in data from more than 130 institutions and focused on the decisions leaders are making today.

Date Sunday, March 7, 2027
Time 11:00 AM–4:30 PM, lunch & reception included
Where Henry B. González Convention Center, San Antonio
Audience CIO / CTO / CFO / CHRO / IT & SIS leadership

Reserve a Seat See the Program

34%

of institutions surveyed are actively implementing or have already decided on a path, and describe being caught between legacy constraints and an immature replacement market.

HEUG SIS Benchmark Report, 2026

Why This Forum Exists

The biggest modernization challenges aren't technical, they're organizational.

HEUG's Pulse Survey drew 174 responses from 131 institutions across ten countries, from CIOs and CFOs to integration developers and functional analysts. It used the student system as the starting point, but what it surfaced reaches further: a quarter of institutions are still working to connect that system cleanly to Finance and HR, and the same pressures around staffing, governance, and AI readiness show up across the whole ERP stack. This forum brings that wider picture, and the peers living it day to day, into one room.

Holding the Line Rebuilding From Scratch

47%

Functional improvements only, no platform change
32%

Pursuing full platform replacement
11%

No active modernization underway
10%

Infrastructure or cloud migration only

Where institutions actually sit: the field is split almost evenly between patching the current system and rebuilding it, with a large minority stuck between the two. This forum is built for that middle group as much as either end.

88%

Run Oracle PeopleSoft as their primary student system

79%

Report significant staffing challenges, institution-wide

60%

Cite too many third-party point solutions

25%

Struggle to cleanly connect student systems to Finance and HR

Based on 174 responses from 131 institutions surveyed

The Program

Three sessions worth clearing a Sunday for.

Sunday, March 7, 2027, ahead of the Alliance 2027 Welcome Reception. No keynote marathon, no vendor pitch deck. Three working sessions built for the CIOs, CFOs, and CHROs who each carry a piece of this work, in the room together.

11:00–11:15

Welcome

Opening Remarks

A look at what this community is seeing across 131 institutions, and why the day is built around three functions in one room rather than three separate briefings.

11:15–12:30

Extended Session CIO CFO CHRO

Shared Decisions, Shared Accountability

The platform decision touches technical risk, budget exposure, and organizational readiness all at once, which is exactly why it works better as a shared conversation than three separate ones. This session opens with candid, anonymized perspectives pulled from CIOs, CFOs, and registrars across the survey, then brings in a panel of implementation partners to talk through how peer institutions are actually approaching this decision.

Panelists: Huron, ERPA, Accenture — implementation partners, not software sellers

“Managing the change before the change.” — AVP & CIO, Campus and Digital Services, Canadian polytechnic institution, on the real challenge of modernization

12:30–1:10

Working Lunch

Lunch & Networking

Served in the room. The conversation from the first session keeps going table by table before the next one starts.

1:10–2:10

Extended Session CIO CFO CHRO

Coaching and Developing Next-Gen Leaders

A practical, working session on growing leadership from within: coaching approaches, mentorship structures, and how to keep teams engaged and motivated across a multi-year modernization effort. Built around real conversation rather than a lecture, with space to talk through what's actually worked in your own succession planning, including how to lead well across generations on the same team.

51% name ERP/SIS functional analysts their hardest role to retain, making this bench-building work

2:10–2:20

Break

Coffee & Conversation

2:20–3:30

Shorter Session CIO CFO Details TBD

Turning AI Strategy into Institutional Readiness

A closing look at where AI is actually landing in SIS operations right now, and what has to be in place, governance, data quality, funding, before it scales further. Final shape of this session is still being confirmed, and may build on work already underway inside the HEUG community.

3:30–4:30

Forum Only

Executive Forum Reception

A closing hour just for this group, drinks and conversation before the doors open to the rest of Alliance.

4:30–6:30

Alliance 2027, All Attendees

Alliance Welcome Reception

Straight from the forum's own reception into the full Alliance 2027 Welcome Reception, no gap in between. See the full Alliance schedule

Program built on findings from the HEUG SIS Benchmark Report, 2026

In Their Own Words

What institutions told us

Cannot be responsive on an old system but cannot move quick enough to a new one.

Director of Systems, Technology & Analytics — Canadian research university

Adding third-party products that duplicate SIS capabilities increases cost and fragments the user experience.

Applications Development Manager — Large public research university

Limited AI capability with Oracle PeopleSoft is slowing down automation.

Director of Student Financial Services — Private 4-year university

Reserve Your Seat

Space is limited to keep the room a working session, not an audience.

With Alliance 2027 Registration

Free

Included at no additional cost
for invited Alliance registrants.

Executive Forum Only

$350

For invited executives not otherwise
attending Alliance 2027

Reserve a Seat

C-Suite