Glatt said she expects the full rollout to be completed within 18 months. She noted that an academic progress application still needs refinement, the portal requires enhancement and query and reporting capabilities must be expanded.

Glatt said university officials now blame the lack of an executive to oversee the project full time as a key reason for the implementation problems. "The major mistake from Day 1 was not to have a full-time project manager," she said. The first full-time overseer of the project starts work this month along with a new system-wide CIO.

Meanwhile, state government users are pleased with the system, said Mike Ressler, deputy CIO for North Dakota. "This is a first time state government and academic institution shared the implementation of one system, and we've gotten huge benefits from that," he said. "It's substantially cheaper than if we had bought them individually."

In an e-mail, Jim McGlothlin, Oracle vice president for higher eduction applications sales, said, "The project faced some complexity in an effort to meet [the] customized computing needs of the university. Oracle has not been the primary implementer of the project [but is] committed to working hand in hand with NDUS. to help them realize benefits in their technology investments."