BUSINESS SERVICES COMMITTEE (BSC)
Meeting Notes
October 9, 2015
1:30 – 3:00 pm
FAC 228D
I.
Shared Services - Update (Jamie Southerland)
Jamie Southerland gave an update on how Shared Services has been going.
ATS is going pretty well. September survey responses were 96% positive.
Working with ITS to plan for a merger for next summer which is currently the
MITS team and ITS. Looking for any duplication of efforts between these teams
for efficiency.
Q. What about LAITS?
A. It’s liberal arts form of ITS. They will still remain as LAITS and will some offer
services for the Dell Medical School. Will meet with them and make it very clear
on who will take on what responsibilities and what the charges will be.
There are concerns that there are “21 different services” for just classroom help.
CBO has not been going as well. Centralizing people from different departments
under one unit and expecting efficiency is not working. Technology, culture, and
environment weren’t built to support it. Hired a quality assurance person to
check on our processes. Hired a new director for CBO, Sally Brinker. She came
from Shared Services consulting. Not much motivation to make this work
because it was rolled out as pilot and had the mentality that it could be killed if it
didn’t work.
Targeting Travel and Entertainment Reimbursement. Big area to improve on.
There should be just one system to use. Need to look at what’s in Workday to
leverage and find out best practices. Need to take advantage of Workday to make
it work best rather than make it try to fit our environment. Savings will come
from how we do business (policy, technology, department attitudes, etc).
Putting together a presentation for President Fenves that we are better served
on focusing on end-to-end redesign rather than bringing in units to a central
organization. As an example, it is confusing for the processing office because
they don’t know how to organize these people.
Q. Accounts payable is an efficiency that CBO has but other units don’t have.
Need these efficiencies available not only centrally but also everywhere.
A. There are issues with the scanning team. Meeting with other people on this.
McCombs is ready to come over.
Five areas looked at: accounts payable, receivable and collections, travel and
entertainment budget, and initial stages of procurement and reconciliation
(checking to make sure a department filled you the correct amount).
James proposed to give each department an entertainment budget rather than
signing off on every event. If they go over their budget, they won’t get
reimbursed for spending. Not done by event but by an allocated budget.
There will be new standards and expectations with this model.
Will come back with the continuation of discussion. Want an update from
Fenves’ presentation. No endorsement sought out.
II.
Change Control Process - Update (Kristi Fisher)
Kristi Fisher was unable to present today.
III.
Administrative IT Leaders Charter - Endorse (Francis McGrath)
Francis McGrath gave an update on the new charter (read out loud to the
committee, no copies made). Will be added it the website.
Endorsed unanimously.
IV.
President Fenves State of the University Address – Discussion
2015-2016 Priorities – Discussion
Both of these agenda topics cross-pathed and there was much discussion.
President Fenves is very focused on efficiency, effectiveness, and excellence..
Efficiency cannot only be about cutting people but also going out of your comfort
zone. Need a culture change.
As a university, we need to keep looking forward. We need to bring up the
investments that were made into making the university more efficient before
Workday was even here.
Also need to figure out what efficiency means to UT. Whether in money, time,
etc. Need to be prepared the capture the productivity savings. Don’t know if
you’ll see a reduction in budget but maybe in efficiencies. There are other
universities doing this.
A group was formed to develop a strategy for how to operationalize the “three
E’s (efficiency, effectiveness, excellence)” and propose metrics The group
includes Brad Bob Renee, Pat, Karen, Mary, and Jerry.
Briefly discussed the need for better communication of the efficiencies that will
be gained from the investment in Workday.
V.
ASMP Funding Framework & Strategies for Campus Transition – Discussion (Renee
Wallace)
Request was made in OIT to make a plan on an ASMP transition plan. It has been
requested before. Renee is aware that there are significant impacts to campus. There
are multiple challenges with a lot of unknowns on the ASMP side.
Will need to estimate a budget to make for consideration on what the university will
need for change efforts. After UBC approves budget, a framework on how it gets
distributed will need to be made as well. Work needs to be done with units on how
these changes will affect them and also have them understand how to transition their
teams. Need to remind units that there will be a transitioning period.
Marla’s unit got funding through a request to the CFO. Could be a potential model for
the rest of campus for submitting requests. Not many requests have been made. In
order to make a request for additional funding, there needs to be clear picture of
what the unit/department needs are. Request needs to have sufficient data and a
high level budget. Also has to be compelling reasons because everyone else is already
working more with less.
Found 30 developer positions online that will close soon without the position being
filled. It is an issue of reallocating money, not a side effect of ASMP. Need to figure out
how to do this.