Moving to the Oracle Cloud readies University of Texas Health Center for future growth

The award-winning University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio stands as a beacon of hope and good health for the 1.3 million children and adults who live in nearby communities. Also known as UT Health San Antonio, its Mays Cancer Center is one of only four National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers in Texas. Its diverse medical staff offers effective care to its patients while its researchers develop effective new treatments against cancers and other life-threatening diseases. And, as a University of Texas teaching facility, the health science center offers about 60 academic programs to train its students to become the doctors, dentists, nurses and other medical professionals of the future.

UT Health San Antonio engaged Baker Tilly, an Oracle PartnerNetwork Member, to migrate its PeopleSoft Human Resource system to Oracle HCM Cloud in order to handle planned growth and future challenges. Representatives of the university and Baker Tilly described the center’s HCM modernization during the Alliance Conference 2023, sponsored by the Higher Education User Group (HEUG), in St. Louis earlier this year.

Planning makes perfect

The speakers began their presentation by emphasizing the importance of comprehensive planning when it comes time to upgrade information technology systems.

“We think it is important that every institution or university embarking on a cloud implementation slowdown in the beginning and align with the rest of the organization on scope, timeline and resources,” said Camille Goessl, an Oracle Cloud delivery leader for Baker Tilly.

Also speaking at the session was Brian Cartee, associate vice president for information technology services at UT Health San Antonio. He will oversee the Oracle HCM Cloud implementation that began in March 2023 and will conclude in January of 2025.

One of the biggest reasons UT Health San Antonio wanted to adopt modern systems and cloud computing, Cartee said, was to replace its current “fragmented” system that is now 20 years old.

“We just exceeded a billion-dollar budget and have around 7,900 employees with a lot of planned growth, particularly in the clinical space,” he said. “We wanted a flexible application that can keep up with that growth.” Cartee said the leaders of the university chose to move to Oracle Cloud for automated software updates with minimal team effort, ensuring that medical center staff always has access to the latest technology.