WaveWorks Project

Who is involved in this project?

Our Executive Sponsors, Steering Committee and project Team members are all apart of this project.

What support will be provided to us for our move to Oracle Cloud?

Tulane will be closely supporting all our users in the WaveWorks journey with training, embedded learning right in the WaveWorks modules, training of super user coaches in schools and departments, reference materials, and a dedicated support team to answer queries.

Do we really need to replace our current systems?

Yes! Tulane is currently managing financial and operational needs through Oracle EBS, which reaches end-of-life in 2030. There will be minimal vendor investment in this legacy product in the next 10 years. Likewise, the current financial system setup utilizes multiple applications in silos, which hampers our ability to do business in a streamlined, integrated fashion. Some units have had to create shadow systems for data retrieval and reporting to mitigate these issues. In a recent assessment, 50% of HR-related and 30% of Finance-related processes were noted as pain-points for end users and/or central administrative staff. Finally, our systems for finance, as well as for HR, were designed and configured sub-optimally, resulting in platforms that hinder process effectiveness and efficiency, do not provide necessary analytical tools, and negatively impact the services provided to all Tulane colleagues.

Oracle Cloud will offer leading edge functionality to support our HR, finance, and budgeting processes as well as the end-user experience.

What does the term "ERP" mean?

ERP stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

When will the new systems be implemented?

We anticipate going live with WaveWorks in Spring 2026. 

Go-Live dates: 

• HCM (HR) March, 20, 2026
• ERP (Finance) April 13, 2026
• EPM (Budget & Planning) May 1, 2026. 

You can view the project timeline to see more.

How to contact the team? 

You can also reach the project team on this email: WaveWorks@tulane.edu

What is Drivestream?

Drivestream, an Oracle Cloud Partner, has over 20 years working with 200+ organizations on transition to the cloud and has performed over 270 Oracle Cloud projects for clients.  Drivestream will support us across the all phases of the project, including preparation, development, testing, launch and post-go-live support.

What is the Job Architecture Project?

Tulane University is implementing a standardized job structure to bring greater consistency and clarity to how staff roles are defined across the institution. This initiative supports professional growth, internal mobility, and long-term workforce planning while ensuring that our role structure reflects leading practices in higher education. 

Over the past several months, Human Resources has partnered closely with managers and senior leaders across Tulane University to carefully review staff roles and ensure they are accurately represented. This has been a thoughtful and collaborative process grounded in fairness, consistency, and organizational alignment. 

As Tulane University prepares for the transition to Oracle Cloud, some staff job titles will be updated to reflect this standardized structure. In certain cases, titles may look different from those previously used. These updates are intended to promote consistency across the university and alignment with external benchmarks. They do not reflect a change in compensation, job responsibilities, reporting relationships, or professional standing. They also do not change the important work you do or the meaningful contributions you make to Tulane University’s mission each day.

The updated system titles will appear in Oracle Cloud at go-live on March 20. If your title is changing, you will be notified prior to that date. 

With the shift to Oracle Cloud, we are introducing business titles, which are commonly used in many industries across the country. Staff may continue to use their current approved business titles (likely your current title) in day-to-day communications and externally facing mediums.

Managers will provide additional information and are available to answer questions. We appreciate your engagement and partnership as Tulane University continues to strengthen its people practices in support of our institutional mission. 

To learn more, please visit the Job Architecture webpage.

What happens to Microsoft Office, Mailchimp, Instagram and Facebook accounts?

These will not be affected. 

What can service dept tell IT service requestors that are worried about needs during shut down? 

Service requests can be submitted through Service Wave as usual. This system will not be frozen.

What, if any, data will not be carried over to the new systems?

• Financial data will be converted as follows:
  • FY25 (July 2024 through June 2025) will have balances only converted at the account and natural account level.
  • FY26 (July 2025 through March 2026) will have all transactions converted. 

Cognos will still be available for historic financial reports. 

Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee for the WaveWorks Project will be composed from across all of Tulane, notably from our schools, centers, and department.  The Advisory Committee will meet periodically upon achievement of milestones, to hear updates on progress. to provide important input on the direction of the project and to advise on key decision points and project plans.

ADKAR
The Prosci ADKAR® Model is one of the two foundational models of the Prosci Methodology. The word “ADKAR” is an acronym for the five outcomes an individual needs to achieve for a change to be successful: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement.

Apps

"Apps” refers to the multiple interactions of WaveWorks for Tulane which will be reviewed by Workstream members to ensure that the functionality meets Tulane’s needs and that our data is successfully migrated or integrated with the WaveWorks platform. 

Drivestream
Given the breadth and complexity of the WaveWorks project, we are partnering with a leading systems integration firm, Drivestream.  We chose Drivestream as our partner after an in-depth selection process to support us across the all phases of the project, including preparation, development, testing, launch and post-go-live support.

EPM
EPM is an acronym for Enterprise Performance Management.  In the WaveWorks environment this is a module which offers functionality to support budgeting, reporting and planning.  Process supported include: annual budgeting, account reconciliation, production of financial statements, multi-year forecasting, Integrated multi-system reporting and analytics, and productivity reports.  The other core modules are ERP and HCM.

ERP
ERP is an acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning.  At Tulane and within the WaveWorks environment, ERP refers to the Finance module of the Oracle Cloud suite of solutions which support all finance functions, such as grants management, expense processing, accounts payable and receivable, capital projects, procurement, and general ledger.  The other core modules are HCM and EPM.

Executive Committee
The WaveWorks Executive Committee is the ultimate leadership group leading the project. It is composed of our project’s Executive Sponsors: Patrick Norton Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Robin Forman Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost, project leadership, senior executives from Oracle, and leaders from Drivestream. The role of the Executive Committee is to set strategic direction for the project, provides active and visible sponsorship, communicate regularly to the project team and to the Tulane community, and to provide our Executive Sponsors with insights to make strategic decisions on issues escalated by Steering Committee.

HCM
HCM is an acronym for Human Capital Management.  At Tulane and within the WaveWorks environment, HCM refers to the human resources module of the WaveWorks suite of solutions.  HCM supports all HR functions, such as compensation and labor distribution; payroll, time & attendance scheduling; recruiting, talent management, and learning; employee onboarding and off-boarding; and centralized employee data/profiles. The other core modules are ERP and EPM.

Module
We refer to the specific functionality within WaveWorks as modules. For example, modules would include functionality such as expenses or procurement within ERP or recruitment and benefits within HCM.

Oracle Cloud
Oracle Cloud is the cloud computing service and platform offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of managed data centers.  WaveWorks is powered by Oracle Cloud, the secure online system that supports the new tools and services you will use for HR and finance. After extensive research by Tulane and our intensive and rigorous request for proposal (RFP) process, involving many hours of demonstrations with the leading cloud vendors, we chose Oracle Cloud as the best fit for Tulane’s strategy, requirements and mission.

Prosci
The Prosci Methodology is Tulane's official methodology. It is recognized as a leading change management methodology utilized my organizations around the world and is being rolled out across Tulane as part of the WaveWorks project.  It is a structured, adaptable and repeatable approach to enable the people side of change and deliver organizational results. Change practitioners apply the Prosci Methodology to create change management strategies and plans that increase adoption and usage on their critical change projects and initiatives.  (Source: Prosci, Inc.)