Titus Johnson explains that Nova Southeastern University's transition to a new cloud-based card production system was a natural evolution of its long-standing relationship. For a decade, Nova has worked with Vision Database Systems so moving the company’s older IDMS solution to the new EliteID product was an obvious choice.

Because of that partnership, the team was able to communicate specific needs, customize the platform, and work closely with together throughout the migration process.

Taking a phased approach to implementation

Rather than moving everything at once, Nova adopted a phased rollout strategy. The team first defined requirements, tested extensively in a development environment, migrated only the data they wanted to keep, and then gradually moved into production. This approach helped identify issues early and allowed adjustments before full deployment.

Deciding what data to keep

One of the more time-consuming parts of the migration was determining which records to move into EliteID and which records to leave in IDMS. The team chose to migrate only current students, faculty, staff, vendors, and partners while retaining older alumni and affiliate records in the legacy system.

The importance of vendor relationships

Johnson's biggest takeaway is the value of building strong relationships with technology vendors. He emphasizes that organizations should communicate both current needs and future goals so vendors can better tailor solutions, provide meaningful support, and help organizations plan for long-term success.

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TRANSCRIPT:

We've been partners with Vision Database Systems for over ten years, so the transition was only natural.

We were with IDMS (card production solution), and they came to us and said, “hey, this is our new system, and it's EliteID.” Because of the relationship we have with them, we can say, “this is what we're looking for … this is what we need,” and they'll go work on it. They'll build it within the system, and we're able to have it customized for us, which helps out greatly.

It was really easy going from A to B. We moved because of the flexibility, the options that were provided, and because we were able to customize and tailor the system to what we needed at Nova.

When we went live, it was during the summer, and we had two large orientation events. Issues surfaced during that time, but we were able to address them in real time.

We took a phased approach. First, we identified exactly what we wanted within the system. Once we had that figured out, we worked with EliteID to build those requirements. Before going live, everything went into a development environment. We tested it, worked through issues, gave feedback, and had updates made. That development phase took a couple of months.

Once we felt comfortable, we launched that portion of the system. After that came importing the records. When we first moved to production with EliteID, we didn't fully use it for a couple of weeks because we wanted to see how things operated and determine whether we needed to go back to development. We were able to work out the kinks.

The second phase involved uploading data, which took time because we were deciding what to keep, what not to keep, and how to import everything efficiently. We also wanted to avoid slowing down the software.

Phase one was development. Phase two was data migration. Phase three was going live.

When we went live, it was during the summer, and we had two large orientation events. Issues surfaced during that time, but we were able to address them in real time.

One of the biggest benefits of the phased approach was that it allowed us to understand exactly what we were working with. It gave us the opportunity to determine what features we wanted to add and what features we didn't need. In many cases, we realized some of the things we originally wanted weren't necessary.

It's like building a car. Before a car reaches the market, it gets tested over and over again. The phased approach allowed us to test extensively, determine what would work for our environment, and identify improvements before fully launching.

The phased rollout gave us time to evaluate what worked and what didn't. It also helped Vision because they could go back, make adjustments, update code, and improve the system based on our feedback.

It's like building a car. Before a car reaches the market, it gets tested over and over again. The phased approach allowed us to test extensively, determine what would work for our environment, and identify improvements before fully launching.

Throughout development, we discovered issues we were able to fix. As a result, if we ever have to migrate to another system in the future, we'll know exactly what to do based on our experience moving from IDMS to EliteID.

The biggest advice I would give is to develop a strong relationship with your vendors. Be able to talk to them, express your needs, and explain the importance of what you're trying to accomplish.

A lot of vendor relationships become transactional: “We need this.” “Okay, here's a product.” But when you build a relationship, you can have conversations about what you need, what you don't need, what should be added, and what should be removed so the system truly supports your operation.