The governor’s proposal to consolidate an array of business functions at Idaho’s four-year college and universities includes $500,000 for a “systems integration consultant,” plus funding for a new executive officer to oversee the functions, at a salary of roughly $200,000. Matt Freeman, executive director of the Office of the State Board of Education, said Idaho has been eyeing what happened in Maine, which went through a similar process.

Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, asked how much Maine saw in savings; Freeman said that’s now being analyzed.

“This is quite an undertaking,” said Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise.

Freeman said, “Certainly it’s going to cost money to save money – there will be an upfront cost for this.”

Currently, he said, Boise State University has its own enterprise resource planning system. The University of Idaho and Idaho State University both use different versions of the Banner ERP software system. “And then Lewis-Clark State College actually uses the state controller system,” Freeman said. “So we have potentially four or three different vendors and platforms; we’re going to have to decide how that is going to merge and come together. … It will be a large undertaking.”

He added, “The presidents all agree in concept that this is the right thing to do, that it would provide significant transparency, and you wouldn’t have vendors playing you off each other that you have to upgrade to the latest version Those are big dollars we’re talking about. What the consultant will be able to tell us is does the cost benefit weigh out.”

Horman asked why the governor wouldn’t wait until he’d received the consultant’s study to recommend adding the executive officer. David Hahn, budget analyst for Otter’s Division of Financial Management, said both processes will move forward in tandem, and the state board hopes to move forward with the consulting contract on July 1. “There’s no reason in the governor’s mind why this can’t unfold in a parallel fashion,” Hahn said.

Linda Clark, board president, told JFAC, “There has been a great deal of discussion about this position and its potential. I think the expectations are very high.”

Hahn said DFM is currently developing the job description for the executive officer position.