Program
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.
Current Challenges
Cornell leaders across our campuses have identified four critical challenges, known as the “4 Ds” — debt, duplication, distribution, and data:
Debt
Our aging systems require significant upgrades and maintenance, creating a burden of “technical debt” that grows more costly over time.
Duplication
We maintain multiple systems that perform similar functions. For instance, we use both Kuali and SAP for financial operations, SuccessFactors and Workday for HR functions, and hundreds of custom tools that fill gaps.
Distribution
Cornell’s distributed nature is a strength, but over time it has led to wide variations in what could be common functions across our teaching, learning, research, and administrative operations.
Data
The lack of unified data and data definitions across systems hinders our efficiency and effectiveness in decision-making.
As common as possible, as different as necessary
“As common as possible, as different as 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.
Solution
Cornell’s administrative systems touch everyone in our community—from researchers managing grants to students accessing financial aid to staff processing payroll. To better serve the university mission, CEMI will transform how we work together by creating more integrated and efficient ways to support our community.
When we modernize these core functions, our people will spend less time navigating multiple systems and more time on meaningful work. They’ll have opportunities to grow new skills, access better data for decision-making, and work more efficiently with colleagues across campuses.
Our focus will be on these essential administrative areas:
Finance & Budget
Human Resources
Research Administration
Student Services
Donor & Engagement Experience
Data & Analytics
Shaped by the Cornell Community: Get Involved
Contribute your skills and experience to the Cornell Experience Modernization Initiative (CEMI). Community members know the current processes and systems best—and what it’s going to take to change how we do things.
Use the new community interest forms to ask a question, suggest improvements, get involved in a CEMI team, or join the mailing list to stay informed.
The CEMI hub for these forms is managed through Salesforce and is accessed via campus login: https://cornell.my.site.com/cemi/s/.
Visit the Program Teams page to meet more of the Cornell community members shaping the CEMI program.