Campus Redesign Suggestions
Questions (in bold blue) have been edited slightly for clarification, grammar or punctuation. Specific names or references to people have been removed.
There has been a lot of focus recently on the new "Campaign for UC Davis" to raise 1 Billion from 100,000 Donors, but to accomplish this, UCD needs to raise its Gift Processing function out of the dark ages and move from an essentially manual process involving ENORMOUSLY DUPLICATIVE shadow control systems everywhere throughout the campus to a streamlined state of the art automated online, and centralized system. Much waste of human resources, duplication of effort and paperwork documentation, and tracking of the same information numerous times would be the benefit. However, waiting for a commitment of this magnitude, given the cost, timing, scarcity of resources, in this budget crunching environment, does nothing to alleviate the current problem short term. There are many avenues of short term enhancements and experimentations untried and agreed unproven, but which could make significant inroads in the meantime. One for instance, is to train and allow the larger gift processing functions access to AIS to input their own gift processing information, do away with their shadow systems, and let them stand on their own two legs and prove their capability and worth to the University. If unable to do so, then just move the function back to UR and proceed as "Status Quo" until automation comes. But in the meantime, there is a chance for solid progress with solid leadership! [July 2011]
Thank you for your comments. We will forward them to the “Campaign for UC Davis” leadership.
Since main account (A/P) went through a remodel about 1-2 years ago, why not have the SSC for the A/P staff relocate to the bottom floor of Research Park, paper work wouldn't have to be routed to and from mail division. [July 2011]
Thank you for your comment. We will forward it to the shared service center finance project team.
Hi, Please improve the TRAVEL PROCESS. Check this process out to, get this, book an airline ticket. http://travel.ucdavis.edu/Connexxus/Making_Reservations.cfm. Several weeks ago, after seeing an $800 ticket a co-worker had booked to Philadelphia, I searched HARD online and found a $400 ticket on US Airways to the same destination. However US Airways offers $24.50 Travel Insurance *because* they charge a MANDATORY $150 should you need a ticket change. Although I did not plan to change the reservations, I thought I should protect UC Davis from this charge. Now I am told that it is against UC Davis policy to buy travel insurance that our department should be using that site above to book tickets. I will have to pay the $24.50 myself. So: jus' sayin'--- how darn professional is THAT process. it's crazy. No private enterprise CEO would stand for this nonsense for one day... [June 2011]
Thank you for your comments. We will forward them to the shared service center finance project team and the leadership in travel and entertainment.
I would like to see more vendors and their catalogs added to UCDbuy so that we have more choices not just between Fisher and VWR. For example, the UCDMC has the ollie system where many vendors have been added. The Davis campus should implement something like that as well. [May 2011]
Thank you for this suggestion. We will forward it to the shared service center finance project team and the leadership in the purchasing unit.
Do not limit mail delivery to 3 days per week. To be a top notch research facility, how can we limit when our research is picked up or delivered? We NEED to have a dial mail pick up and we need to continue to not worry when the mail will be picked up. 3 day mail pick-up will lead to ultimate FAIL. [May 2011]
Thank you for your comments. We have made a note of your suggestion and will forward it to the leadership in Administrative and Resource Management as they continue their budget planning.
I have seen a situation where two employees are close to retirement. One is extremely effective works in a high traffic office and the units must replace her. the other one has not been an effective and instead difficult employee. She is the one that will get the VSP as she will not be replaced. That was hard for the effective employee as she would have like to do this program, but could not because her position is so important. [May 2011]
VSP parameters state that positions vacated through voluntary separation cannot be backfilled so that the department can realize the full savings of the reduction in staff. Unfortunately, not every employee is able to take advantage of the VSP for this reason. The university is fortunate to retain effective workers like your colleague.
Get rid of all of the upper management jobs and all of all the types that are doing little to no work and wasting money that could be spent in other ways to help improve the problem with the budget and to help give the staff a raise that do all of the work. [May 2011]
One of the tenets of the Chancellor’s new budget proposal for campus is to “flatten” the organization by removing unnecessary management layers. In addition, through the Organizational Excellence Initiative, staff are working to remove inefficiencies at all levels of the administrative organization.
I suggest we look at a phased retirement program. A lot of people are retiring early. This puts added burden on the retirement system and loses a lot of expertise from UC. If a partial retirement program were rolled out, the cost burden of retaining the expertise could be coupled with the retirement system only having to pay out some, but not all, of what a person would make at retirement. And the person would be able to work part time. Conditions could be set to make this option favorable to all 3 parties, such as continued withdrawal of retirement contributions from salary, locking in a monthly income vs. allowing a cash out at full retirement, and continued valuable expertise to get the campus through a crucial reorganization period. I know 3 people who are on call-back. This program is working for them and for the programs they work for. Yet, as an official program this is not even talked about. I believe a regular program would be attractive to employees, beneficial to departments, and could be designed for a favorable impact for the budget. [May 2011]
Thank you for providing this thoughtful suggestion. Chief Human Resource Officers throughout the UC system in partnership with the Office of the President are evaluating a potential phased retirement program. We will keep you informed as these discussions continue.
Could travel expenses be more streamlined for approval. (i.e. direct supervisor or direct department manager). Right now my expense report goes through several steps before approved. I receive 6 emails for every trip, meaning 6 different people are looking at these things. That seems a little redundant and inefficient. [April 2011]
Travel and entertainment expense reimbursement is just one of the activities that the project teams and campus subject matter experts are looking at to identify opportunities for streamlining and standardization.
This morning I received this email from one of my staff members who handles purchasing and payment of bills (re: the payment for a hotel stay): “We are NOT to pay hotel’s invoices on VI’s (Vendor Invoices) anymore. We are to create the hotel arrangements for a speaker/traveler on a PO, then cancel the PO after the person stays at the hotel. We then pay the hotel stay on a hard copy TEV (Travel/Entertainment Voucher), AND on a Dafis doc TEV. Route the hard copy TEV to the department head for signature. Bundle the hotel invoice (marked with the Dafis TEV number), hard copy TEV (after signatures are secured) and send to Accounting for payment.” the breakdown of this process: 1. Create a purchase order in Dafis 2. Create a hard copy Travel/Entertainment Voucher 3. Create a Dafis Travel/Entertainment Voucher 4. Route the hard copy to department head (manually) for signature 5. After signature is secured bundle the hotel invoice (with the Dafis TEV document number written on it) and hard copy TEV and send to Accounting 6. Go back into Dafis and cancel the original PO This is unbelievably labor-intensive and there must be an easier way. [April 2011]
Thank you for pointing out this specific process in need of streamlining, as process improvement is a primary goal of the Shared Service Center (SSC) initiative. Travel and entertainment expense reimbursement is one of the areas that project teams and subject matter experts are looking at for standardization and redesign.
Mediaworks is a high profile unit currently located within Academic Technology Services (ATS, part of IET) that provides media production, event support, and campus audio visual services. Our primary clients are Student Affairs (the ARC, ICA, etc.) and University Relations (University Communications). However, our current budget is inadequate, resulting in a cumbersome recharge business model that is damaging our lines of business and capacity to serve the campus. Can the principles that are guiding the development of the campus Shared Service Center/Operational Excellence Initiative help us to realign our organizational structure? My specific suggestion is for Mediaworks to become part of Student Affairs and University Relations; since SA and UR are our primary clients, they could augment our permanent budget with their funds and thereby streamline our administrative processes by eliminating the need to recharge. [Feb 2011]
We believe the principles that drive the SSC/OE Initiative are applicable across the entire campus and can be extended to guide services whether or not they will be provided through the Shared Service Center. While orchestrating organizational changes (such as moving Mediaworks to Student Affairs and/or University Relations) is beyond the immediate scope of our initiative, it is clear that campus leadership is actively reassessing how campus service providers are organized and changes that would make improvements. ATS and IET leadership are part of this effort and we encourage you to discuss your observations and suggestions with Liz Gibson, Dave Shelby, and Pete Siegel.