The true cost of a legacy SIS: a 340-institution cost model
Licence fees are the smallest line. This report breaks down infrastructure, DBA time, upgrade projects, integration maintenance and the staff hours consumed by reconciliation.
Key takeaways
- Licence fees average 31% of true annual cost
- Integration maintenance is the fastest-growing line item
- Reconciliation labour averages 1.8 FTE at institutions under 5,000 students
- Deferred upgrades create a step-change capital cost every 6–8 years
What institutions actually spend
When we modeled total cost across 340 institutions, the annual licence accounted for roughly a third of real spend. Infrastructure, database administration, integration scripts and the labour of reconciling systems made up the rest.
The most under-counted line is reconciliation labour: staff hours spent making two systems agree. At institutions under 5,000 students this averaged 1.8 full-time equivalents.
- Licence and maintenance: 31%
- Infrastructure and DR: 19%
- DBA and platform engineering: 16%
- Integration maintenance: 14%
- Reconciliation labour: 20%
The upgrade cliff
Self-hosted systems accumulate deferred upgrades that eventually require a capital project, typically every six to eight years. Because this cost is lumpy, it rarely appears in annual operating comparisons — which is precisely why cloud comparisons look less favourable than they are.
How to build your own model
Start with a two-week time study of reconciliation work across the registrar, business office and advancement. It is uncomfortable reading and it is the most persuasive document in the eventual board paper.