Welcome
As a leading university in the nation and the world, Cornell needs technology services that enhance our community’s pursuit of our mission “to do the greatest good.”
The Cornell Experience Modernization Initiative (CEMI) will unify and improve the university’s systems and processes to better serve our entire community—faculty, researchers, clinicians, students, staff, alumni, partners, and donors. By creating more efficient and user-friendly experiences, CEMI will enable our community members to focus on what matters most: advancing Cornell’s mission.
Get Involved in CEMI
Get involved: ask a question, suggest improvements, add your insights to a CEMI effort, volunteer for an activity, or join the mailing list.
As common as possible, as different as absolutely necessary
At Cornell, our exceptional work deserves exceptional systems. CEMI starts with a simple principle: use common technologies and processes across the university, making exceptions only for what truly makes Cornell unique.
“As common as possible, as different as absolutely necessary” is the guiding principle to reflect the CEMI vision for administrative and financial systems across our campuses in Ithaca, New York City, and Doha. Common solutions will allow information to flow seamlessly among campuses, enabling everyone to easily get the answers they need. We’ll maintain unique solutions only where truly necessary.
What’s in it for me?
CEMI sounds like “See Me” because everyone who uses Cornell’s financial and administrative systems will benefit. Our students, patients, partners, donors, alumni, parents, and others deserve intuitive, seamless interactions that help them accomplish their goals. Imagine having:
- seamlessly integrated systems with real-time access to data across colleges, units, and campuses
- streamlined workflows
- fewer repetitive and manual tasks
These improvements will allow our community to focus on what matters most, while offering opportunities to develop new skills and do their work in a modern, unified ecosystem.
Let’s get rid of the Big Red Tape
Currently, our administrative services span multiple systems across our global campuses, with different groups using different tools and processes to accomplish the same tasks. This fragmentation leads to duplicated effort, inconsistent processes, cumbersome reporting, and challenges in decision-making.
CEMI will unify these disparate systems, creating an integrated environment that
- Streamlines workflows
- Standardizes processes
- Simplifies reporting
- Enables real-time access to reliable data
- Fosters collaboration across campuses
Save time and resources
CEMI will address two critical needs: freeing our community from time-consuming workarounds and manual processes, and generating significant cost savings through system consolidation and standardization.
- Technology simplification: Many of our current systems are aging and require significant investment just to maintain the status quo. Rather than continuing to invest in maintaining multiple legacy systems, CEMI will consolidate our platforms, reducing both costs and complexity. This consolidation will also lower institutional risk and simplify regulatory compliance and security by reducing the number of systems we need to maintain and protect.
- Process simplification: Moving to integrated systems will enable the university to build seamless processes across colleges, units, and campuses, and drastically reduce the need for “shadow” systems. Determining how to standardize processes and achieve more efficient ways of working together will be key drivers. This transformation will support the university mission by redirecting resources from maintaining outdated systems to advancing Cornell’s strategic priorities.
President Kotlikoff: Why We Need CEMI Now
Latest CEMI News
Leadership Insights
Improving the user experience advances the university’s mission
Because the university’s IT environment is characterized by high technical debt, duplication of systems, and a highly distributed structure, our community is presented with a very painful user experience to accomplish their daily activities.
Through the CEMI program, we can unify and improve the systems and processes used across Cornell’s campuses to support administrative services like human resources, finance, budget, student services, research, and donor and engagement experience. Streamlined processes and future-ready systems will help advance the university’s mission.
—Curtis Cole, Cornell University Chief Global Information Officer
Unified data leads to better decisions
When data is inconsistent, categorized differently, or unable to be aggregated and analyzed collectively, it impedes our ability to make informed decisions regarding the allocation of resources to institutional priorities.
We should be able to focus on data analysis rather than data accumulation.
Through CEMI, everyone will feel the difference, not only those responsible for the reporting, but most importantly our community—students, faculty, alumni, and staff who will benefit from a much-improved process and interaction.
—Christopher Cowen, Cornell University Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Visit the Program Teams page to meet more of the Cornell community members shaping the CEMI program.
Shaped by the Cornell Community: Get Involved
Contribute your skills and experience to CEMI (“See Me”). Community members know the current processes and systems best—and what it’s going to take to change how we do things.
Get involved: ask a question, suggest improvements, add your insights to a CEMI effort, volunteer for an activity, or join the mailing list.