Highlights of UW Administrative Efficiencies: February 2, 2009
www.washington.edu/provost/oim/
Key UW Strategic Roadmap efficiencies generated by the Office of Information Management in partnership with schools, colleges, and central business units
including Financial Management, Office of Research, Registrar’s Office, UW Technology, Computer Science and Engineering, and the Graduate School.
Executive Summary eTravel: Travelers will get reimburse- Roadmap: Sets forth a long-term
ments faster, and staff in departments, vision and plan with five key initiatives
Improvements to the University’s infor-
Financial Services, and the central Travel to transform UW business operations
mation management and administrative
Office will save time through a new and provide information for decision
systems are saving time and money.
service that electronically processes making. Now online at:
Below are examples of major savings in
travel expense reimbursements online www.washington.edu/provost/oim/roadmap/report/
three top categories. More details follow.
and routes them for approval. Kuali Student Partnership: UW is
Reduce the Administrative Burden now a founding partner of a consortium
Provide Better Information for
for Researchers, Faculty, and Staff: of leading higher education institutions
Decision Making:
developing a next-generation student
MyFinancial Desktop: New functional-
Top 5: An effort to answer the five system that will improve educational
ity eliminates substantial manual work
most critical data questions identi- quality and the student experience.
for PIs and administrative staff, stream-
fied by Deans and Chancellors has Financial System Needs Assessment:
lines management of 40,000 budgets,
produced new reports giving units This project will collect basic requirements
and provides better information faster.
quick and secure access to their most for a new financial system that will provide
Enables PIs to see budget updates in
needed student, human resources, and access to accurate financial information,
one day, rather than an average of four.
finance data. It has also addressed key enable the ability to forecast the future,
Electronic Cost Share: Provides challenges to UW information delivery, and reduce administrative tasks by
quick access to vital cost share infor- making it easier to answer future data automating many manual processes.
mation, better analytical tools, and questions.
improved compliance data—saving
Data Warehouse: An updated infra-
time and providing better information
structure now holds student, finance,
for department staff, Grant and
and human resources data—giving
Contract Accounting, the Office of
staff wider, faster, and more secure
Sponsored Programs, and anyone
access to reports and information and
dealing with cost share information.
better positioning the UW to meet its
Web Grade Submission: Instructors growing institutional data needs.
and TAs will submit final grades online
Catalyst GradeBook: Allows faculty
with this new service, and students will
and students to track student grades
get their grades faster. The new service,
online—throughout the quarter—faster
launching Winter Quarter, will save time
and more accurately.
and money by eliminating the need to
handle and mail paper forms. Position Us for the Future:
SAGE: New functionality will allow PIs to
get their grant funding faster and make Data Warehouse: Ongoing efforts will
it easier for them to apply for research add more data for research, procure-
grants and track their progress online. ment services, finance, student, and HR.
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Saving Time and Money Now
Saving Time and Money Now PIs and their administrators receive faster, Data warehouse improvements provide
more consistent notification of award and better data access and reporting: The
account information. Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) and
Improving Financial Processes and Business Intelligence environment have
Systems Reduces time to process a request by as
much as 40 percent with a new electronic been renovated to meet growing institutional
MyFinancial Desktop functionality advance budget request form. needs. The EDW currently holds student,
creates big efficiency gains: Fiscal techni- finance, and human resources data, which
PIs can more easily monitor progress of gives staff wider, faster, and more secure
cians, administrators, principal investigators
newly awarded funding with a new and access to information for decision making.
(PIs), and other staff can manage their bud-
improved Status Checker that provides Ongoing efforts will add more data for
gets more effectively, get better information
timely and transparent status. research, procurement, finance, student, and
faster, and spend substantially less time on
administrative tasks thanks to a new MyFi- Reduces processing time of awards—some HR. What’s changed:
nancial Desktop transaction module. A top by as much as 60 percent—by replacing a A robust, stable infrastructure is now in
priority for administrators, this effort elimi- paper-based Notice to Establish Account place to meet growing business needs,
nates paper processing of expense transfers process and more than 25-year-old tech- allowing staff better data access, faster
and provides details for all budget transfers. nology with a new electronic process. report distribution, and collaborative
What’s changed: Process integration greatly reduces both report development.
Eliminates substantial, time-consuming redundant budget numbers and the Newly implemented data security
manual work for more than 3,000 PIs and number of retroactive salary transfers. standards enable user authorization,
for UW fiscal technicians and specialists, provide wide access to EDW data, and
administrators, and central support staff. Improving Administration and make EDW compliant with state and
Information Management federal regulations. They also enable
Streamlines management of 40,000
budgets, reducing time expended on Top 5 effort answers key business ques- rapid deployment of enterprise analytics
individual transactions by 75 percent. tions: An effort to answer the five most critical so reports are quickly distributed, and
data questions identified by Deans and Chan- they facilitate collaborative development
PIs and staff see budget updates in just
cellors has produced new reports giving units of additional reports.
one day, rather than an average of four.
quick and secure access to their most needed New Purchasing/Accounts Payable data
Reduces administrative burden on PIs, student, human resources, and finance data. in the EDW preserves data that formerly
faculty, and staff, annually saving more The project also has addressed key challenges was lost to the UW system, and the data
than 10,000 hours. to UW information delivery. What’s changed: soon will be available to units for report-
Potential for $400,000–600,000 annual Five student reports provide easier, wider, ing and analysis.
savings University-wide. secure access to the most-needed data. Reports about finance, student, and HR
In addition, one finance report and one information save staff time by providing
Improving Research Administration HR report will be released in March 2009. better data for key UW business functions
PIs get newly awarded grant funding Produced 38 institutional definitions for including centralized payroll, benefits
faster with new electronic award and key data terms and corrected data quality administration, and labor negotiations.
account process in SAGE: Newly enhanced issues by establishing consistent rules. In the next three-to-six months, auto-
modules have enabled improvements in the
Made data available in the Enterprise Data mated reports are coming that will make
efficiency, accuracy, and transparency of
Warehouse that formerly was local or it unnecessary for staff to gather data
critical processes for approving awards and
unavailable. manually. UW Procurement Services esti-
setting up accounts for the UW’s more than
mates annual savings of $18,000 in labor
$1 billion of annual research funding. What’s Established a repeatable process that
on one invoice discrepancy report.
changed: can be used to efficiently answer future
questions.
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Upcoming 2009 Improvements
Upcoming 2009 Improvements Will eliminate need to enter and approve a data—saving time and providing better
PAS purchase order and manual routing of information for departmental staff, Grant
reimbursement forms for approval. and Contract Accounting, the Office of Spon-
New software efficiencies and improve-
Will provide an improved user interface, sored Programs, and anyone dealing with
ments rolling out Winter Quarter: A list
coordinated entry and review, and cost share compliance. The new system,
of projects rolling out in 2009, including
automatic calculation of per diem and coming early 2009, will replace a cumber-
those detailed here and more, is now online.
mileage rates. some mainframe budget screen and manual
To view upcoming project activities, deter-
processes with an interface that summarizes
mine how your business may be impacted,
Ongoing work will deliver reports more and expands details, looks up information,
or obtain contact information, see
efficiently and reduce printing costs: and calculates quarterly UW cost sharing (the
www.washington.edu/provost/oim/rollout.1.22.09.pdf
OIM and UW Technology are working with UW’s share of the cost of research). What’s
business units to identify ways to reduce changing:
Improving Financial Processes and
Systems the distribution of printed reports from UW Will simplify managing and reporting UW
administrative systems—eliminating reports share of research costs (over $110 million)
eTravel will generate huge efficiencies that nobody needs anymore and identifying for more than 1,300 budgets in over 122
and faster reimbursements: Travelers will those that can cost-effectively be delivered departments.
get reimbursements faster, and staff in UW electronically. What’s changing:
departments, Financial Services, and the Will facilitate accurate application of the
central Travel Office will save time through Distributing salary revision worksheets UW’s indirect cost rates.
this new service that electronically processes electronically already has eliminated the
travel expense reimbursements, routes them need for staff to walk to the Budget Office Integration with Grants.gov will make it
for online approval, and replaces paper travel to pick up worksheets, saved paper, and easier to apply for new research fund-
expense vouchers (TEVs). The new eTravel made life easier for administrators. ing: PIs will be able to complete grant appli-
service will begin rolling out in February, Since November 2007, 32 percent of cations through Grants.gov faster and track
eventually replacing the paper-based manual units have opted out of receiving monthly the status of their applications with critical,
process. What’s changing: Budget Activity/Summary Reports on real-time information using a new Grant Run-
paper, reducing print volume by 18 ner module coming Summer 2009 in SAGE.
Big savings in time for staff, with the What’s changing:
Travel Office saving an average of 30 percent.
minutes per TEV and Financial Services Starting this month, the Budget Office PIs already can submit NIH grants directly
17 minutes per TEV. UW departments will distribute monthly Operating Budget through Grants.gov using Grant Runner
could save an average of 50 minutes per Detail reports electronically rather than forms. More grant sponsors will be
TEV, including easier handling of complex on paper to administrators across the UW. supported soon.
reimbursements. In addition, reimburse- These efforts will save an estimated Up-front data validation soon will reduce
ments will get to travelers faster. 360,000 printed sheets of paper per year, the number of applications returned for
Will eliminate manual routing, automati- generating overall annual savings of about error correction.
cally calculate per diem and mileage rates, $40,000. The time to complete an application will
and coordinate data entry and review. be cut by 50 percent, according to data
Estimated to save 1.5 hours of staff time Improving Research Administration from pilot submission participants.
per TEV. With about 25,000 TEVs pro- Electronic Cost Share module means big PIs and their administrators will monitor
cessed per year at the UW, this will result improvements in managing cost-share applications online with real-time status
in potential annual time savings of 20,800 information: The new module will provide provided by Grants.gov and NIH, eliminat-
hours, or $800,000. quick access to vital information, better ing unnecessary phone calls and saving
analytical tools, and improved compliance time.
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Improving Administration and (Roadmap) is now online, along with a new strategic importance to the UW and
Information Management Web site providing more details and informa- should move forward.
tion. The Roadmap sets a long-term vision UW staff have been assigned to the
Web Grade submission saves time and
and comprehensive plan, with five major project and are starting to gather
money: Instructors and TAs soon will be
initiatives and an action plan. See: business requirements.
able to submit final grades electronically,
www.washington.edu/provost/oim/roadmap/report/
and students will be able to get grades faster A next-generation student system could
What’s next:
with a new online service launching Winter substantially improve educational quality
Quarter. The new service will also save staff The Office of Information Management is and the student experience with better
time and money. What’s changing: working with stakeholders to reevaluate tracking of educational outcomes and new
Roadmap priorities in light of the current tools for finding courses and navigating
Faculty already can enter and manage
budget climate. Its goal is to identify ways programs. It should also be cost effective
class assignment and test grades online
to make progress on the most important since there are no licensing fees, and it
through Catalyst GradeBook, and stu-
priorities. should significantly streamline processes
dents can track their progress throughout
the quarter. Recent discussions with key stakeholders and reduce the cost of software custom-
have affirmed that two projects of stra- izing and support.
Faculty soon will be able to enter and
tegic significance to the UW should move
manage their final quarterly class grades
forward. The projects are the Financial Financial System Needs Assessment
online, rather than on paper that then
System Needs Assessment project, which Project moving ahead: This project is
needs to be hand carried to the Regis-
is the first step in replacing the UW’s the first step in replacing the UW’s legacy
trar’s Office. Students will get their final
financial system, and the Kuali Student financial system, which was identified as
grades faster.
development effort, which the UW joined a key Roadmap priority by stakeholders.
The new service eventually will save time last year as a founding partner. These The project will collect the UW’s basic
and money for Registrar’s Office staff by projects (described below) were named requirements for a new financial system.
eliminating paper forms and printing and by key stakeholders last year as the top What’s next:
handling costs. It will decrease campus Roadmap priorities. Recent discussions with key stakeholders
mail and give other authorized UW staff
have affirmed that the project is a key
access to student data. UW Joins Kuali Student Partnership to strategic investment essential to the UW’s
The underlying Student Web Services infra- develop new student system: UW has future and should move ahead.
structure and security model can be adapted become a founding partner of the Kuali
Student partnership, joining a consortium Over the next several months, the project
to quickly develop other UW Web Services.
of leading higher education institutions to will bring together focus groups to provide
When the Web grade submission service feedback on the UW’s current general
develop a next-generation student system.
completely replaces paper grading forms, ledger and chart of accounts, document
The UW joined the partnership after
estimated annual savings will be $53,000 “as is” business processes, and seek
receiving approval from the UW Board of
in printing, distribution, and processing. stakeholder input on the opportunities
Regents and the state Information Services
In addition, it will save faculty time by and challenges of a new financial system.
Board. Joining Kuali was identified as a key
eliminating the need to mail paper forms.
short-term Roadmap priority by stakeholders. A new financial system eventually will
UW is contributing technical and subject automate many manual processes now
Planning Our Future
Planning forfor Our Future matter expertise to the five-year effort. For used to collect revenue, purchase and
information on partner institutions and the pay for goods and services, and budget
project plan, see: http://student.kuali.org for future needs. It will provide access
Strategic Roadmap with vision and
What’s next: to accurate financial information and the
action plan for the future now online:
Recent discussions with key stakeholders ability to forecast the future.
The UW Strategic Roadmap for Information
Management and Administrative Systems have affirmed that this project is of
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