University of California, San Diego
Rapid Process Redesign
Identified Potential Cost Saving Opportunities
#
Process/Idea
Issue Description
1
Account and commodity codes
There are too many account and commodity codes,
many of which are ambiguous. Simplification of coding
would assist in the proper cost designation.
2
Administrative Computer
Support
Many UCSD departments do not have computer
resources and would benefit from having a
programmer in ACT who would be dedicated to
supporting department computing projects on an as
needed basis.
3
Business Office Configuration
Proliferation of very small business offices across
campus represents a missed opportunity for
economies of scale. Centralizing business offices and
developing experts would assist in improved services.
4
Calendars, Sharing of
Coordination among computing system managers and
the use of a campus-wide scheduling module would
streamline the process of scheduling meetings, which
is currently very labor intensive.
5
Class Scheduling
Scheduling classes requiring non-standard time blocks
is difficult and is not meeting department needs.
6
Cost Sharing
Campus utilization of the Cost Sharing System is low
because it is complex and difficult to use.
Consequently, many campus departments do not
consistently enter cost sharing budgets in the subsystem as required by policy.
7
Data Structures
Many of the campus data structures that are key to
successful process improvements are incomplete (i.e.,
association of Principal Investigator and financial
manager names with fund numbers); inaccurate (i.e.,
organizational hierarchies); too detailed (commodity
and account codes) or don't yet exist (i.e., association
of Principal Investigator names with individual indexes)
and need to be coordinated and properly maintained.
Effort Reporting
System/PPS Interface
The existing Effort Reporting System is extremely
error prone, which results in campus staff
frustration, time in deciphering the data, and
increased workload to make the necessary
corrections. An interface between the Personnel
Activity Reporting (PAR) and Payroll/Personnel
Systems (PPS) would increase efficiencies in
reporting requirements as well correcting the
output. In addition, the current quarterly cycle is
labor intensive and a semi-annual or annual cycle
should be investigated.
8
TIGER
Team*
Ideas are in alphabetical order.
TIGER teams have been highlighted in red.
* Improvement efforts will not be in place by July 1, 2003.
MLOsante/OC
5/29/2016/10:16 AM
D:\291238853.doc
1 of 5
University of California, San Diego
Rapid Process Redesign
Identified Potential Cost Saving Opportunities
#
Process/Idea
Issue Description
9
Electronic entry of Articulation
Agreements into ISIS using
Approximation Table
Entry into the Approximation Table in ISIS is
complicated and does not easily handle changes. As a
result, the paper petition process is still widely used
and the online approximations are incorrectly coded.
Entertainment
Entertainment & Membership forms are not webbased and must be processed on paper. Current
delegated authority levels require excessive
exceptional approvals from Vice Chancellor offices
and should be streamlined and reassessed.
Equipment Capitalization –
Increase Threshold from
$1,500 to $5,000
The current UC equipment capitalization threshold of
$1,500 is way below the Federal Government’s $5,000
limit. The UC threshold creates additional workload for
departments that are required to tag and keep track of
equipment, and increases UCSD’s risk of noncompliance to regulations regarding these items.
12
TIGER
Team*
Financial Link Development
Standard FinancialLink recording and reporting
processes have not been adopted campus wide
due to inefficient or missing functionality, limited
training/reference materials, and limited support
structures.
13
TIGER
Team
Financial Reconciliation
Departments spend too much time reconciling
transactions that are of low risk (insignificant in
value or transactions that have received the
appropriate scrutiny in another way). A risk-based
tool that allows for risk profiles, is necessary to
evaluate the proper transactions and reduce
workload.
14
Financial Reports to
Sponsoring Agencies
Closeout award reports are manually entered and
prepared in Excel to meet various agency-reporting
formats. An online system is not currently available to
automate the reporting process and to fulfill reporting
requirements.
15
TIGER
Team*
Automated Invoice
Approvals
The current invoice approval process is slow
because it requires the manual routing of paper
invoices to multiple campus and central
administrative support departments for proper
approval and disposition.
Job Classification,
Reclassifications & Equity
Adjustments
The classification process is slow, involves too many
steps, and does not meet the needs of certain
classifications where work assignments and
responsibilities constantly change.
10
TIGER
Team
11
16
Ideas are in alphabetical order.
TIGER teams have been highlighted in red.
* Improvement efforts will not be in place by July 1, 2003.
MLOsante/OC
5/29/2016/10:16 AM
D:\291238853.doc
2 of 5
University of California, San Diego
Rapid Process Redesign
Identified Potential Cost Saving Opportunities
#
Process/Idea
Issue Description
17
TIGER
Team
Job Descriptions
Preparing job descriptions is very time consuming.
Many positions are sufficiently similar across
departments and require each department to
duplicate efforts to create a job description and
workload to classify it properly.
18
TIGER
Team
LASR – Distribution of
Leave Activity Summary
Reports
Leave Activity Summary information is not
currently available on the web. Numerous
resources are expended in the production,
handling and mailing of multiple (and
unnecessary) copies to the same campus
contacts.
19
Letters of Credit
Timely recording (or accurate estimating) of certain
expenditures would permit earlier cash draws from our
letters of credit, and would generate additional STIP
income.
20
Low Value Purchase Orders
Many low value purchases are not entered into the
procurement system. This results in unauthorized
purchases that create a workload burden to
departments who must investigate these expenditures.
Unpaid invoices, inaccurate budget forecasts, and
delayed payments to vendors also occur.
21
Outside Consultants, Use of
Considerable resources are expended annually for
consulting services that may be available internally.
22
TIGER
Team
Paper Use and Disposition
Duplicate printing and distribution of many
financial reports (operating ledgers, encumbrance
ledgers, invoices), timekeeping information
(LASRs), and other general interest information
(Staff Education catalog) waste valuable resources
and time. On-line systems are currently available
for much of the information that is being manually
distributed.
23
TIGER
Team
Payroll Expense Transfers
The payroll expenditures transfer (PET) process has
not been automated to enable online review, approval
and direct input into the payroll system.
24
Performance Appraisals
New appraisal tools are much more cumbersome and
time consuming that the previous performance
evaluation form.
25
Petty Cash Reimbursements
Too many personal reimbursements are required
because of current $50 limit. Increasing the limit to
$75 or $100, would allow for a reduction of personal
reimbursement requests submitted to Disbursements.
Ideas are in alphabetical order.
TIGER teams have been highlighted in red.
* Improvement efforts will not be in place by July 1, 2003.
MLOsante/OC
5/29/2016/10:16 AM
D:\291238853.doc
3 of 5
University of California, San Diego
Rapid Process Redesign
Identified Potential Cost Saving Opportunities
#
Process/Idea
Issue Description
Recharge Centers
Some recharge centers may be unnecessary and may
be incurring inappropriate surplus/reserve balances.
Overhead costs affiliated with unnecessary recharge
centers may impact cost rates charged to customers.
Recruitment – Job Hiring
The on-line job description and job requisition
systems are not integrated yet they contain
common fields, requiring duplicate key entry of the
same information when recruiting to fill a vacancy.
Also, the application screening process is slow
and inconsistent. By providing more thoroughly
screened resumes, Human Resources can reduce
the number of resumes to be reviewed so that the
hiring official can perform the review.
28
Recruitment – Re-Hire
Process
The current employee appointment system does not
allow for short breaks in service. This requires
departments to re-submit all rehire paperwork to
Human Resources, which is time-consuming especially
when dealing with teaching assistants, readers/tutors
and the like.
29
Reimbursements – Travel,
Entertainment, Pay Auths
The current process does not take advantage of UC
policy and IRS regulations that allow for the
reimbursement of expenses up to the $75 to be done
without having substantiating documentation or
receipts and treats all requests the same, regardless of
dollar amount. Enormous duplication of effort between
departments and central campus occurs in clarifying
trivial information.
30
TES Floaters – Fiscal Floaters
Access to IFIS
TES employees are hired by departments to perform
tasks that require access to IFIS, PPS, EmployeeLink
and FinancialLink however getting these employees
access to the modules is difficult.
31
Training Justification and
Anticipated Costs
The TJAC system is used to serve various unrelated
purposes, such as reimbursements, discounts, and
advance payments for various staff educational
opportunities, which causes confusion and delay in
processing requests.
Travel
The entire process is not interconnected or flexible.
Duplicate entries are inherent since trip setups and
travel advances are separate processes utilizing the
same information. Also, reconciliation of travel activity
is very manually intensive to maintain.
26
27
TIGER
Team
32
TIGER
Team
Ideas are in alphabetical order.
TIGER teams have been highlighted in red.
* Improvement efforts will not be in place by July 1, 2003.
MLOsante/OC
5/29/2016/10:16 AM
D:\291238853.doc
4 of 5
University of California, San Diego
Rapid Process Redesign
Identified Potential Cost Saving Opportunities
#
Process/Idea
Issue Description
33
Work Groups, Committees,
Focus Groups, Teams
Staff resources committed to supporting these
activities, however worthwhile, is a strain on
departmental resources. A reduction in the number of
meetings would improve staff’s ability to focus on core
business functions.
34
Work Schedules & Office
Hours
Flexible work schedules are administered on a limited
departmental basis. Expanded and standardized flextime programs could provide significant cost savings
for utilities, and would enhance the quality of life for
employees not currently participating in these
programs.
Ideas are in alphabetical order.
TIGER teams have been highlighted in red.
* Improvement efforts will not be in place by July 1, 2003.
MLOsante/OC
5/29/2016/10:16 AM
D:\291238853.doc
5 of 5