Leadership, Data, and the Seat at the Table: Reflections from AIR Forum

Attending AIR Forum this year as the new Chair of the Nominations and Elections Committee was both meaningful and energizing. Forum has always been more than a professional gathering. It is a space where institutional researchers, data leaders, analysts, planners, and higher education professionals come together to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and reflect on where our field is headed.

This year felt especially important to me.

As I stepped into my role as NEC Chair, I found myself thinking deeply about leadership, service, visibility, and the responsibility we have to create pathways for others in our profession. The work of the Nominations and Elections Committee is not simply about filling leadership roles. It is about encouraging people to see themselves as leaders, recognizing talent across the field, and ensuring that AIR’s leadership reflects the depth, diversity, and strength of our professional community.

During our NEC Crossover Meeting, we were asked an icebreaker question:

“What is something you would like to expand your knowledge of in our field?”

My answer came from both my lived experience as a higher education data leader and my current work as a principal consultant and higher education advisor.

I want to continue expanding the conversation around how institutional researchers, data analytics leaders, and data governance professionals are included in major institutional transformation efforts, especially ERP implementations and system modernization projects.

More specifically, I want to advocate for data professionals to have a seat at the table early.

Not after the project is already underway.

Not after discovery has concluded.

Not after technical decisions have already been made.

Not after reporting gaps begin to surface.

Early.

Data Leaders Belong at the Table Before Discovery

Major ERP implementations and transformation projects are often framed as technical initiatives. Institutions focus on project timelines, vendor milestones, implementation partners, system configuration, testing cycles, and go-live dates.

All of those pieces matter.

But there is another layer that is just as critical: the institution’s data readiness.

Before an institution moves into discovery, design, configuration, or migration, there should be a serious assessment of data quality, reporting dependencies, system-of-record ownership, historical data needs, and governance gaps.

When that work is not done early enough, institutions run the risk of carrying unresolved problems into the new system.

Bad data does not become better simply because it moves into a modern platform. In many cases, moving poor-quality data into a new ERP environment only makes the problem more visible, more complex, and more disruptive.

A new system can improve workflows, automate processes, and create new capabilities. But it cannot automatically resolve years of inconsistent definitions, unclear ownership, duplicate records, incomplete data, undocumented business processes, or reporting practices that vary across departments.

That is why institutional researchers and data analytics leaders must be engaged before the institution begins making major implementation decisions.

The Data Quality Check Phase Cannot Be Optional

One of the most important readiness steps in any ERP implementation is a data quality check phase.

This phase should help institutions ask questions such as:

• Do we know which system owns each critical data element?

• Are key institutional metrics defined consistently across departments?

• Do we understand which reports are essential for compliance, operations, and leadership decision-making?

• Are legacy data issues documented before migration begins?

• Do we have a reconciliation process in place before, during, and after implementation?

• Have we identified historical data that must be preserved for trend analysis, accreditation, compliance, and institutional strategy?

  
  

These are not minor technical details. They are foundational questions.

If institutions do not address them early, they may find themselves cleaning data while also trying to implement the system. That creates pressure, confusion, and risk. Teams may be forced to move critical work out of scope, defer reporting needs to a later phase, or accept post-implementation workarounds that could have been prevented with earlier planning.

In my experience, this is where many institutions begin to feel the strain.

It is not always because the system itself is failing. It is because the institution did not fully understand its data environment before entering the transformation process.

The Trust Gap in ERP Implementation

One of the risks I often speak about is what I call the trust gap.

The trust gap emerges when leaders, staff, and functional teams begin to question whether the data in the new system is accurate, complete, or aligned with institutional reality.

It can show up when enrollment numbers do not match historical reports.

It can show up when dashboards produce conflicting results.

It can show up when departments define the same metric differently.

It can show up when compliance reports are not ready on Day 1.

It can show up when functional teams are too overwhelmed to validate what changed.

Once that trust begins to erode, the institution faces more than a technical issue.

It faces a leadership issue.

Data trust is central to decision-making. When leaders do not trust the information in front of them, it becomes harder to make timely, strategic, and confident decisions.

That is why ERP readiness must be understood as more than a project management exercise. It is a leadership responsibility.

What AIR Forum Reminded Me

AIR Forum reminded me that our field is filled with professionals who understand the complexity behind institutional data. We know that data is never just data. It represents people, processes, policy decisions, system limitations, reporting obligations, and institutional history.

Institutional researchers and data analytics leaders are often the people who can see across those layers.

They understand how a data definition affects reporting.

They understand how a system change affects compliance.

They understand how a business process affects the numbers leadership sees.

They understand how a small inconsistency can become a major institutional risk.

That perspective is essential during ERP implementation.

And yet, too often, data professionals are brought in once the institution already needs a report, a reconciliation, a dashboard, or a fix.

We need to shift that model.

Data leaders should be engaged as strategic partners from the beginning. Their role is not only to produce reports after implementation decisions are made. Their role is to help institutions ask better questions before those decisions are finalized.

Where My Advisory Work Fits

My work through Espinal Advisory & Analytics is rooted in this exact intersection: data, leadership, operations, governance, and institutional transformation.

Having been involved in ERP implementation work over several years, I understand the pressure institutions face from both a leadership and technical standpoint. I have seen the importance of strong project management, clear reporting strategy, functional engagement, data validation, capacity planning, and post-go-live support.

I also understand that many institutions are trying to manage these efforts while their staff are already carrying full workloads. Implementation work is often layered on top of daily operations, reporting demands, compliance deadlines, and leadership requests. That creates real capacity challenges.

This is where external advisory support can be valuable.

Institutions do not always need someone to replace their teams. Often, they need someone who can help organize the work, ask the right questions, identify risks, support technical and reporting needs, and provide additional capacity during high-demand periods.

That is the space where I bring value as an advisor, project manager, strategic thought partner, and technical support resource.

Introducing the ERP Implementation Readiness Checklist

To support institutions preparing for or navigating major system transitions, I developed an ERP Implementation Readiness Checklist.

The checklist is designed to help colleges and universities assess readiness across several critical areas, including:

• Data governance and system-of-record clarity

• Historical data strategy

• Data validation and reconciliation

• Stakeholder and operational readiness

• Staff capacity and relief planning

• Reporting, compliance, and executive decision support

  
  

The goal is not to create another project document. The goal is to help institutions pause and ask the questions that often determine whether an implementation will be sustainable after go-live.

Because this resource is intended to support meaningful institutional reflection, I am sharing it selectively through consultation conversations with leaders who are preparing for, implementing, or stabilizing after ERP transformation.

Final Reflection

My time at AIR Forum reinforced something I believe deeply: leadership in our field is not only about the roles we hold. It is about the conversations we are willing to advance.

As NEC Chair, I am honored to support leadership pathways within AIR and encourage others to step forward in service to the profession. As a consultant and higher education advisor, I am equally committed to helping institutions recognize the strategic value of data professionals in transformation work.

The future of institutional effectiveness depends on more than new systems.

It depends on whether institutions are willing to bring the right voices to the table early enough to shape better outcomes.

And data professionals need to be among those voices.

If your institution is exploring, preparing for, or actively navigating an ERP transition, I invite you to schedule a free consultation with Espinal Advisory & Analytics. As part of that conversation, I can share the ERP Implementation Readiness Checklist and help you begin identifying where your institution may be strong, where risks may be emerging, and where additional support may be needed.

ERP readiness is not just about going live. It is about being ready to lead, operate, report, and make decisions with confidence after go-live.

With purpose,

Yesenia Espinal

Founder & Principal Consultant

Espinal Advisory & Analytics, LLC

Espinal Advisory & Analytics