The University of Dayton Accelerates Implementation

Challenge

The University of Dayton has a long history of research excellence, with an R1 designation and a research institute ranked first among U.S. colleges for sponsored materials research. While the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI), a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, performs approximately 95% of UD’s sponsored research, the remaining 5% of sponsored research still plays an important role at the university. That’s why in September 2024, UD opened a new Office of Academic Research to support all scholarly work not associated with UDRI.

As staff in the Office of Academic Research began working more closely with faculty, staff, and students, they realized that academic researchers had unique needs that were not being properly addressed. In particular, the university used research management software designed for DoD contractors specifically. While the software worked for teams at the UDRI, it was not designed for traditional university research and placed additional administrative burden on faculty, staff, and those in the Office of Academic Research.

In addition to lacking effort and travel reporting options appropriate for academic research, the software also lacked quality of life features like visibility into real-time spending and was generally described as “unwieldy”, “time-consuming”, and prone to error. “I didn’t have great confidence in the data we had in the previous system,” Dayton’s Vice President for Academic Research recalled, indicating that both researchers and administrators were eager for a better management system.

The department looked into several vendor options, and Cayuse seemed like the most comprehensive solution. In addition, when they asked peers at other institutions for recommended software providers, the number one response was overwhelmingly Cayuse. 

“We put general questions to the listserv, asking who others used. The answer overwhelmingly came back as Cayuse.”
Vice President for Academic Research, University of Dayton

Ultimately, the Office of Academic Research purchased Sponsored Projects, Proposals (S2S), Human Ethics, and Animal Oversight to manage full lifecycle sponsored research, grant proposals, IRB protocols, and IACUC protocols, respectively. With an April 2025 purchase date, the team opted for an accelerated implementation so the software would be ready to launch by the start of the school year in August.

Implementation Process

Concurrently implementing four software solutions in just as many months was never going to be simple, but the Dayton team was up to the task, and Cayuse’s implementation workflows and specialists helped make the process as straightforward as possible while hitting the agreed-upon go-live date.

“We started in May as school was wrapping up, and then we worked really intensively all Summer; our goal was to launch on the first day of school, August 18th.”
Vice President for Academic Research, University of Dayton

Operating with a full-time team of just seven faculty members and several IT specialists, the Office of Academic Research worked closely with Cayuse over the summer to configure, test, learn, and launch the new solutions. The Cayuse team understood that this would be a large undertaking for such a small office, and eased the implementation through ongoing support and advice backed by dependable experience overseeing implementations at other institutions.

Cayuse’s implementation package, built on industry best practices and a fully-mapped schedule, helped the team prepare for the work required. However, their assigned Professional Services Consultant (PSC) proved to be one of the most helpful assets to the implementation, serving as a subject matter expert on the new solutions, a guide for any questions or uncertainty, and an advocate for the Office of Academic Research.

“Working with [our PSC] just made it so easy for members of the team to know exactly what they had to do and get the help they needed when they didn’t.”
Vice President for Academic Research, University of Dayton

As the team’s primary implementation contact, the PSC broke down steps, milestones, and processes in a way that could be easily understood to help keep the project on schedule and ensure that everyone knew what was expected of them, why it was important, and when it needed to be ready. When deadlines approached, the PSC sent helpful reminders wherever tasks seemed to be running late, and when questions arose, he was quick to provide helpful answers.

Even when the still relatively new office did not have processes in place that would need to be established for software workflows, the PSC provided suggestions backed by reliable best practices at similar institutions. And when the team neared the end of their implementation, an on-site visit by the PSC proved enormously helpful, providing concentrated time to ensure everything and everyone was prepared to launch.

Outcome and Advice

With the new solutions successfully online for the start of the new school year, the team at the Office of Academic Research had time to step back, take a quick breath, and assess both the accelerated implementation in retrospect and the ongoing use of their new software.

When it comes to the software itself, the administrators and researchers are very pleased with their new systems. Where they were once plagued by time-consuming, opaque, and sometimes inaccurate workflows, the new Cayuse solutions provide welcome user-friendliness and transparency. Data that was once unreliable is now dependable, and processes that once took hours or days now take hours or minutes to complete.

“I have confidence in the data that I did not have before.”
Vice President for Academic Research, University of Dayton

While the department had planned for several faculty training sessions on the new software, they were surprised to see that users only needed a few open sessions before they were able to figure things out on their own. “It’s just so intuitive,” the Vice President for Academic Research noted.

“Now, faculty see how easy it should have been for their entire careers to get a proposal into a system or see everything for a project.”
Vice President for Academic Research, University of Dayton

As for the implementation itself, the team had a busy summer but are ultimately glad that they were able to launch before the school year started. “We knew it was a heavy lift; we knew we’re trying to go fast,” the Vice President for Academic Research said of the processes, “but it’s done, and I think there’s a benefit to not dragging it out.”

While an accelerated implementation may not be right for everyone, it’s an excellent option for teams and institutions running on tight schedules or those that can’t afford to implement one solution at a time. Dayton’s Vice President for Academic Research had three pieces of helpful advice for anyone considering an accelerated Cayuse implementation, or any Cayuse implementation for that matter:

1. Have your internal business processes well-articulated in advance: While new software implementations can be a good opportunity to reassess workflows, teams should have these documented ahead of time to help establish what these processes should look like once the software is live and ensure the solutions are appropriately configured from the start. 
2. Establish a good partnership with your IT team: IT teams handle a bulk of the implementation work, but the process can be difficult if your team never interacts with the IT team. Regularly communicating with the IT department and understanding their roles and requirements will not only accelerate implementation but also establish more cross-department trust. 
3. Thoroughly review expectations and prepare your team for their responsibilities: Understanding the workload involved in an implementation can help staff balance their responsibilities and prevent burnout, especially if their standard workload remains high in addition to their new implementation duties. Communicate clearly and frequently to make sure your goals are achievable and your team is consistently prepared.