Updates to the university's financial software have required budget increases of almost $10 million to cover consulting costs this year, based in part on recommendations from the same consulting firm Northwestern is paying to help with the project.
The initiative, called Project Café, began work in 2005 to implement a new system for NU's internal financial processing. With a launch scheduled for September, the cost for the current fiscal year has increased to $29.1 million after a report recommended an additional $12.3 million for consultants.
The project cost ended up increasing by $9.6 million from $19.5 million. No figures were provided by project management for the actual amount spent on consultants.
An NU employee who had performed work on the project said the high level of spending on consultants may be because the same consultants were involved with the project's management and review.
Though budget overruns are not uncommon in software development, the possibility of a conflict of interest raises questions, said the employee, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
"You go in and try and replace your old systems, and it'll cost more once you get into the details," the employee said. "But it just doesn't look good when you have a consultant in the driver's seat."
Peter Eschenbach, who is responsible for quarterly reviews of Project Café, is also a managing director at Huron Consulting, a firm that provides a substantial number of consultants for the project.
Eschenbach has recommended increasing outside resources for the project. In his quarterly reports both before and after the budget increase, Eschenbach said it was questionable whether or not the project had adequate resources, and asked for more consultants to be hired full time.
The initiative's director, Jason Schober, said concerns about the possible conflict of interest had been brought to his attention and were not unwarranted. However, the committee of university executives that oversees the project - the Enterprise Systems Executive Committee - is comfortable with the arrangements, he said.
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