[msy]

$1000/person is reasonable? You could literally have a secretary/admin spend _multiple days per year per person_ managing things for that much. The software administrative complex is completely mad.

[rightbyte]

Honestly I think most IT systems are net negative for most orgs. If you remove some db batch jobs like payroll it looks even worse.

Payroll, inventory ... what else? Student grades maybe. Contact info for studemts and employees. Essentially keeping a simple db schema.

[alephnerd]

As I previously mentioned, universities - especially in the US - are much more complex organizations. They aren't just "school for adults".