ERP Discovery for Ukrainian Catholic University: TOP Private University in Ukraine

ERP Discovery for a Major Ukrainian University

How Uinno helped Ukrainian Catholic University map a clear path from a legacy accounting system to a modern ERP solution in just 3 weeks

Key Results

Full ERP market analysis with 5-year TCO projections for 4 major platforms

Business process documentation across finance, HR, and administration

Development roadmap that turned complex requirements into an actionable plan

Fixed-price discovery that saved the university from a potential six-figure misstep

Industry: Education

Location: Ukraine

Services: Discovery Phase, ERP Consulting, IT Strategy Consulting, Solution Architecture

Timeline: 3 weeks

Team: Business Analyst, Systems Architect, Project Manager

About the project

Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) is one of the most respected private universities in Ukraine, with over 500 employees and more than 120 administrative departments. For years, the university ran its core financial and HR operations on a legacy accounting system that had become a growing strategic risk.
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The platform lacked bidirectional integrations with other tools, which meant data lived in silos across Google Sheets, Salesforce, an SQL database, and the accounting system itself.
Departments often collected their own data in separate spreadsheets without sharing it, and nobody had a clear picture of where the single source of truth actually lived for any given dataset.
Everyday workflows like leave requests, budgeting, and travel approvals were still handled manually. UCU knew they needed to move on, but the question was how to do it without burning budget on the wrong platform

What we delivered

Uinno’s team produced a set of deliverables that gave UCU everything they needed to make a confident decision about their next steps.

Analysis and Recommendations

We described all current systems, risks and flagged the limitations, with specific recommendations for the target architecture.

Solution Architecture

Target system design with data models, core entities, integration mappings, data flow diagrams, and a detailed development estimate for the Financial Requests module.

ERP Market Analysis

Four major platforms compared with real pricing, non-profit discounts, implementation timelines, and 5-year TCO projections tailored to a university context.

Salesforce Deep-dive

Evaluation of whether UCU's existing CRM could handle management accounting and financial request workflows.

Financial Analysis

Total cost of ownership modeled for each approach, including long-term custom development support costs.

Development Roadmap

Business process analysis translated into concrete, prioritized requirements for the new solution.

FAQ

How long does an ERP discovery phase take for a university?

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Uinno completed a full ERP discovery for Ukrainian Catholic University in 3 weeks. This included business process mapping, ERP market analysis with 5-year cost projections, solution architecture design, and a development roadmap. The timeline depends on the number of departments and systems involved, but a focused discovery for a mid-size institution with 100+ departments can run between 3 to 6 weeks.

Can an off-the-shelf ERP handle university-specific processes like grant accounting?

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In most cases, not without custom development. Uinno's discovery for UCU found that none of the four major ERP platforms (SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo, Oracle) support grant accounting, multi-level approval workflows for 120+ departments, or bottom-up budgeting natively. Every option requires custom modules or third-party add-ons to cover these needs.

What is included in an ERP discovery phase?

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A thorough ERP discovery includes business process mapping (typically in BPMN), analysis of current systems and integrations, ERP market comparison with real pricing, solution architecture design, financial modeling for each approach, and a prioritized development roadmap. The goal is to give your leadership team enough information to make an evidence-based decision before committing to any platform.

Should a university build a custom ERP or buy an existing platform?

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Uinno's analysis for UCU showed that the decision is rarely that binary. Every major ERP platform still requires significant customization for university-specific workflows. The real question is which platform provides the best foundation for the custom work you'll need, and what the long-term cost of maintaining that customization looks like compared to a fully custom build.