ORACLE CLOUD APPLICATIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Sierra-Cedar is a leading Higher Education implementer of Oracle Student Financial Planning Cloud, Oracle Student Management Cloud, Oracle Cloud Applications, and PeopleSoft. We are also an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, helping clients move from PeopleSoft and EBS to AWS Cloud.

What We Do

Services

Sierra-Cedar has been dedicated to higher education since 1995. Our industry-focused consultants average 13 years of higher education experience. Many have prior work experience as faculty, senior administrators, and leaders in academic, student, human resources, financial, and IT organizations.

ORACLE CLOUD APPLICATIONS

Sierra-Cedar thrives on helping its clients modernize mission critical systems. Our approach is powered by tools and accelerators that reduce effort and costs while promoting quality, success, and faster go-lives. We have delivered more than 85 Oracle Cloud Application projects. Our consultants have deep higher education experience, so they understand your unique requirements. We help institutions address today’s needs and prepare for tomorrow’s challenges.

PEOPLESOFT APPLICATIONS

We are one of the eight original PeopleSoft Alliance Partners and have been delivering PeopleSoft solutions for more than 25 years. We have served 350+ PeopleSoft Higher Education clients, supporting over 1,500 projects in PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, HCM, & Financials. Our approach focuses on empowering client teams with the skills needed to manage their technology.

AMAZON WEB SERVICES (AWS)

As an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, we have developed innovative services to help our clients leverage AWS Public Cloud for the deployment of applications, such as PeopleSoft and E-Business Suite, as well as custom-developed applications. Our experience in Higher Education allows us to understand your unique challenges and can offer proven strategies and solutions. 

MANAGED SERVICES

Sierra-Cedar has provided managed service offerings since 1999 and is one of the largest independent providers of Oracle Application Management Services. We have advanced tools and methods and currently support approximately 450 hosted Oracle (PeopleSoft and EBS) ERP environments. Our dedicated team in the US and India helps keep systems and data highly available and secure.

Oracle Specialists

Successful Projects

Certified Cloud Higher Education Consultants

Oracle Clients

350+

Oracle Specialists

2,500+

Successful Projects

50+

Certified Cloud Higher Education Consultants

500+

Oracle Clients

Featured Content

Is Your Student Information System Ready for the Future?

Have You Refreshed Your Student System Strategy and Roadmap Lately? For colleges and universities, a Student Information System (SIS) is more than...

On Cloud Nine: A Conversation with College of the Holy Cross

Sierra-Cedar's VP of Higher Education, Garth Carter, asks the Associate Director of Enterprise Applications for College of the Holy Cross, Brian...

The University of Texas at Austin Transforms the Financial Aid Experience with Student Financial Planning

The University of Texas at Austin Transforms the Financial Aid Experience with Student Financial Planning

Rutgers Improves the Student Experience With Oracle Student Financial Planning

Rutgers Improves the Student Experience With Oracle Student Financial Planning

On Cloud Nine: A Conversation with University of Texas at Austin

Sierra-Cedar's VP of Higher Education, Garth Carter, asks the University of Texas at Austin Vice Provost of Enrollment Management, Brian Dixon, nine...

On Cloud Nine: A Conversation with Florida A&M University

Sierra-Cedar's VP of Higher Education, Garth Carter, asks Florida A&M University's (FAMU) Vice President for Student Affairs, William Hudson...

Holy Cross Re-Platforms Its PeopleSoft Applications in the AWS Cloud and Implements Improved Student Experience

Holy Cross Re-Platforms Its PeopleSoft Applications in the AWS Cloud and Implements Improved Student Experience

Navigating the 2024-2025 FAFSA Simplification: Essential Insights for Colleges

Welcome to our educational blog! Today, we're diving into the significant updates slated for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in...

Pittsburg State University is Live with Oracle Student Financial Planning

Pittsburg State University is Live with
Oracle Student Financial Planning

Should States Require Completion of the FAFSA for High School Seniors?  A Positive Outcome in Alabama

While I have participated in many great technology projects throughout my career, our recent project with the Alabama Commission on Higher Education...

Client Testimonials

"Our core requirement for this project was to minimize the workload impact on our technical staff Sierra-Cedar met and exceeded these requirements with just the right amount of touchpoints and collaboration with my team to influence key decisions. My staff appreciated being able to provide input and approve progress at critical checkpoints along the way — without having to dedicate an excessive amount of their time to the project. Sierra-Cedar’s effective Transition-to-Cloud process played a significant role in helping the University meet its requirements and deadlines.”

Maurice Tyler, Chief Information Officer

- Bowie State University

"Moving to a managed services platform was strategic for Coppin State. Our IT staff now concentrates on initiatives that impact student success while Sierra-Cedar makes sure our applications are up to date.”

Chris Kennedy, Director - Applications Support

- Coppin State University

"Like most community colleges, NPC is always looking for ways to achieve more with fewer resources. With Sierra-Cedar handling NPC's PeopleSoft-related tasks, our IT team now has the bandwidth to make progress on NPC's mission-critical initiatives.” 

Blake R. Butler, VP for Information Technology

- National Park College

"Sierra-Cedar is our trusted partner for all things PeopleSoft. They are professional, knowledgeable, and provided excellent support while working within a very tight timeline.”

Nicola Burton, Director - Shared Financial Systems

- UW System Administration

"Working with Sierra-Cedar has been a standout experience for us. Their comprehensive planning and deep understanding of the student life cycle were crucial, but what truly set them apart was their ability to execute and maintain project discipline, especially as we navigated the challenges of being an early adopter. They integrated organization change management seamlessly and even conducted internal project audits to ensure we stayed on track, which provided us with added assurance without extra cost. Their cultural fit and instinct to help us navigate Oracle’s functionalities made them the perfect partner for our journey, and their collaborative feedback loop with Oracle has benefited not just us, but other early adopters as well."

Randall Melton, CIO

- Spring Arbor University

"This migration further disaster-proofs critical systems that help the University care for our employees and run day-to-day.”

Jay Stephens, Vice President for Human Capital Services

- Kansas State University

"As part of our recent CS 9.2 upgrade project, we included improving User Experience (UX) for students and faculty as one of our top goals. Partnering with Sierra-Cedar and following their UX methodology helped us to navigate the process while taking advantage of their design expertise. We were able to involve students and faculty early on in the process through discovery sessions and other outreach methods and have continued their involvement through multiple rounds of usability testing. We feel confident going into deployment that we will have improved end-user experience for our students and faculty."

Stacy Mitchell, SIS Associate Director

- Case Western Reserve University

“The Virginia Community College System (VCCS) has 23 colleges and over 200,000 students. VCCS operates using three Oracle PeopleSoft pillars (FMS, HCM, SIS-Campus Solutions). We partnered with Sierra-Cedar to complete a vendor-failed upgrade of our FMS to 9.2.  We engaged in a multi-year strategic effort to modernize and streamline systems and processes across the VCCS. We partnered with Sierra-Cedar because of their expertise and quickness to learn our complex organization skills. Their team of experienced higher education consultants engaged hundreds of stakeholders across the VCCS to partner in business process review and redesign efforts in HR, Payroll, and Student. Together we coordinated sessions across all 23 colleges with representation from each area. The team collaborated to review and prioritize more than 520 discrete business processes, helping the VCCS leadership team plan an upgrade roadmap with unique projects for the highest priority items. We love working with vendor partners that treat their customers as “family,” Sierra-Cedar is an organization that fits into your own “family” organization. They are knowledgeable, professional, and laser-focused on our success."

Nicole C. Stewart, Assistant Vice-Chancellor

- VCCS

"Working with AWS and Sierra-Cedar, the College of the Holy Cross has scaled our infrastructure to meet our peak period requirements during student enrollment. Course enrollment confirmations that previously took up to a minute are now completed for students in seconds running on AWS.”

Brian Bergeron, ERP Manager

- College of the Holy Cross

"We had a tight timeline and limited resources for our cloud project. Sierra-Cedar's skilled consultants and agile methodologies helped Bowie State migrate from PeopleSoft to Oracle Cloud seamlessly and efficiently.”

Maurice Tyler, Chief Information Officer

- Bowie State University

"We have simplified the Financial Aid experience for our students with the SFP Student Portal allowing them to focus on academic success with the goal of graduating in four years."

William Hudson Jr., Ph.D., Vice President for Student Affairs

- Florida A&M University

"Sierra-Cedar joined the Pitt team as a true partner, helping us understand the system fully and jumping in when needed to help solve a problem, take on extra work, or review options with us. Their expertise and support were a huge part of our success.”

Angela Neria, Associate VP of Technology

- Pittsburg State University

“Florida A&M University (FAMU) chose Oracle's Student Financial Planning (SFP) application as a proactive approach to utilize technology for positive change to better serve our students. Sierra-Cedar collaborated with FAMU to reexamine business processes that would allow our financial aid team to allocate more time to advise students and parents rather than running manual processes."

William Hudson Jr., Ph.D., Vice President for Student Affairs

- Florida A&M University

"I attribute our success to strong internal project management, a cooperative partnership with Sierra-Cedar, excellent consultants, and a dedicated project team. Without any one of these, the project could have faltered. Sierra-Cedar’s consultants have become like “family,” and they are as committed to our success as we are."

Nadine Stern, Former VP for IT and Enrollment Services

- The College of New Jersey

"Sierra-Cedar has been an important partner in helping ASU make significant progress toward our goal of enabling student success in ASU’s ongoing evolution toward the New American University by successfully migrating ASU’s PeopleSoft Campus Solutions and Human Capital Management systems to the AWS Cloud. Sierra-Cedar’s ERP and AWS expertise and their high level of professionalism made it easy to complete the migration ahead of schedule."

Jess Evans, Ph.D., Chief Operating and Digital Transformation Officer

- Arizona State University