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Infinet

Ever hear of this project? Not likely, unless you work in Morgan Hall. In October, 2000 the Board of Regents approved this $194,290 software implementation project. The purchase of Infinet software modules was intended to provide 24-hour access for students, faculty, alumni, and staff to Washburn University's information system, such as it was. Furthermore, this investment was not to be replaced when the new administrative system was implemented.

The investment.

In fact, over $250,000 has been spent on this software investment. The software, hardware and implementation cost almost $220,000, in addition to the two annual maintenance agreements paid in FY02 and FY03 for $13,599 each year. Then, in May, 2004, a $6,800 maintenance settlement payment was made to Infinet. In spite of this cost, the project was never fully implemented and it is questionable to what extent the software was ever utilized.

The result.

Although every institution has some sad stories about projects that do not meet expectations, this project was headed for trouble from the very beginning. So what went wrong?

What went wrong?

The Board of Regents was advised that there was “only one company providing a product that goes beyond merely web-enabling and interfaces with the numerous systems and databases within the existing University information technology environment.”

In fact, in March, 2000, correspondence sent to Vice-President Hill from Infinet was offering the sole source language that allows the University to avoid the competitive bidding process that is designed to insure that public funds are spent wisely.

Payments were made to Infinet for products and services never received.

In March, 2001, Vice-President Hill amended the contract, without any Board approval. The original terms indicated that payments for specific applications would be due when the application was delivered. Vice-President Hill signed an addendum (on March 26, 2001) to the software license agreement that changed the payment terms to four monthly installments (beginning February, 2001) in spite of the fact that the software applications had not been delivered. So total payments of $83,460 were made before any product was actually received.

As late as March, 2002, the University was revising the contract in an attempt to recover some of the funds that were expended for a product that was never received.

At two separate AIS Steering Committee meetings, the Infinet project was being discussed. Vice-President Hill had entered into an agreement changing the QuickPAY application from an enterprise version to an application service provider version that was going to require programming time and support to allow tuition payments to be made by credit card. However, after further discussion with infiNET, “consensus was to use what has been provided to us by infiNET but not to move forward with any new proposals which would require additional funds.” So, the funds that had been expended for a product never received (approximately $48,765) were lost, not even applied to the annual maintenance agreement cost.

There were some cozy exchanges between Infinet and Washburn University personnel that might have raised questions regarding a conflict of interest.

In April, 2001, even as the implementation of Infinet at Washburn University was stalled, arrangements were being made for a co-presentation at a National Association of College & University Business Officers (NACUBO) conference by Vice-President Hill with Infinet's CEO Harvey Gannon. They presented a case study on the implementation of the Infinet solution at Washburn University. This arrangement most likely influenced the contract addendum that was executed in March, 2001. In spite of NACUBO's request to tone down the presentation to prevent the appearance of advertising by Infinet, Vice-President Hill was promising Infinet “plenty of plugs!!”

So, is it any wonder that you haven't heard much of this project?