Catamount LEAP (Leverage – Empower – Align – Progress) is UVM’s multi-year effort to align our people, processes, and technology to create a more connected and agile UVM. This initiative empowers our community to rethink how we work – reducing barriers, embracing digital tools, and building systems that support our community.

Two parallel activities make up Catamount LEAP – an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) component which represents an investment in our core enterprise-wide systems (like PeopleSoft and Banner), and an Operational Excellence component for addressing operational barriers through targeted projects that represent strategic operational improvements. 

UVM has heard consistent feedback from faculty, staff, and students that our current systems are outdated and create extra work. Independent reviews confirmed that they no longer meet the university’s needs. As UVM enters a new phase of strategic planning, this is the right time to invest in modern systems that can better support teaching, learning, research, and day-to-day work—now and in the future.

Catamount LEAP is guided by a cross-campus governance structure that includes senior leaders, faculty, staff, and subject matter experts from across the university. This shared approach ensures that decisions reflect a wide range of perspectives and meet the needs of the campus community.

Everyone at UVM. Students, faculty, and staff will see simpler processes, more reliable tools, and fewer workarounds—freeing up time for teaching, learning, research, and the work that advances UVM’s mission. Over time, Catamount LEAP will help UVM become a more connected, future-ready institution where technology supports student success, strengthens the employee experience, and helps the university adapt and thrive.

UVM is engaging in a request for proposals to understand the investment required to replace its major administrative systems, often known as Enterprise Resource Planning—or ERP—systems, over several years starting with HR and Finance (PeopleSoft) and then the student information system (Banner). When funded, these will be transitioned to modern, cloud-based tools that reduce manual work and improve integration. We expect other systems outside of the core ERP to also be part of our alignment strategy to better support our community of stakeholders.

Vendor evaluation for an ERP replacement is currently underway. This spring we will be finalizing the evaluation and preparing for a discussion and vendor selection with our Board in the spring. If approved to move forward, this project will happen in phases over several years to ensure a smooth transition. A more detailed timeline with key milestones will be shared on the website in the coming weeks. All materials we will prepare for Board discussion will be developed with the understanding that a clear and transparent internal resource plan needs to be prioritized.

Operational Excellence focuses on improving the way work gets done across UVM by simplifying steps, reducing duplication, and making processes easier for students, faculty, and staff. A cross-campus governance group is guiding this work, and more than 100 project submissions from units across UVM helped identify the areas where process improvements could have the biggest impact.

Operational Excellence includes projects that:

• simplify forms, workflows, and approvals
• reduce repetitive or duplicative work
• strengthen student-facing services and improve overall service management
• digitize paper-based steps and eliminate workarounds
• make common tasks faster and more consistent across units
• invest in infrastructure such as identity management to improve services
• improve communication and outreach tools
• reduce complexity and redundancy of systems
• improve operational services such as printing, wireless, tools for file sharing 
• address challenges in current Finance and HR systems, all connected to ERP

Some ideas submitted are efforts we are seeking to support now, others will be dependent to the timeline and decision around our ERP strategy.

Projects are prioritized based on factors such as:

• impact on students, faculty, or staff
• alignment with UVM’s goals and the LEAP program
• effort and feasibility
• whether the improvement reduces risk or removes major bottlenecks
• the value of implementing the change now versus waiting

This approach helps UVM focus on improvements that will make the most meaningful difference across campus. Units and employees will continue to have opportunities to provide input as Operational Excellence projects move forward.

The sub-group of our steering committee that has been reviewing the 100+ submissions has shared their initial proposal with LEAP sponsors for feedback and is reviewing with the full steering committee in February. Based on feedback, we will be organizing a broader group of stakeholders to support rapid discovery around key projects to ensure efforts are properly scoped and resourced. Our goal is to have a final list of prioritized projects and project teams by end of the spring term. The steering committee membership will be responding to all submissions as appropriate to ensure communication and feedback.

Faculty, staff, and students can share feedback or ask questions by engaging with any member of our steering committee or directly reaching out to the University Project Management Office (UPMO) at upmo@uvm.edu. We are planning further open forums and sessions to ensure ongoing communication and conversation are prioritized – stay tuned.

Catamount LEAP updates will be communicated regularly through:

• the Catamount LEAP website
• campus‑wide emails (as appropriate)
• governance groups and committee updates
• unit level communications‑level communications

The program is committed to providing clear, timely information as major milestones and decisions develop.