As the University of Iowa moves forward with the Board of Regents’ TIER (Transparent Inclusive Efficiency Review) project, the UI TIER leadership team is committed to keeping the campus informed on the latest developments in connection with the initiative.

The team will be sharing updates in Iowa Now on the first and 15th of each month through June. Information on the initiative can also be found on the UI TIER website.

Here are the latest developments on the UI’s academic and business cases:

Academic:

• Members of the Pappas Consulting team will return to campus on June 11 to further discuss e-learning at Iowa. On June 29, they will be on campus to talk with faculty and staff about enrollment management. Meeting details and schedules are in development. 

• The Office of the Provost continues to engage with Ad Astra regarding classroom utilization at the UI. Plans are in process for Ad Astra to share data with Pappas Consulting in order to better inform their recommendations.   

Finance:

Finance 01: Revise Distributed Finance Delivery Model

• The beta shared services unit at Athletics is progressing forward and is now handling all potential transactions currently under review for shared services. Additional communication with the beta units has helped to understand the goals of Shared Services. A future question and answer session with the remaining units in Athletics will be held on June 1.
• The first meeting with the College of Dentistry occurred on May 28. Chairs and support staff from the four departments participating in the beta shared services unit attended for a question-and-answer session. Additional communication will be created and shared with the faculty members in these departments.
• The project team is currently analyzing transaction timings and transaction counts to help determine the appropriate staffing level needed per various transaction or service.

Human Resources:  

Human Resources 01: Revise Distributed HR Delivery Model 

The process for the realignment of HR representative responsibilities will:

• Follow an open and transparent process.
• Provide opportunities for those most impacted to participate.
• Be supported by regular communications and opportunities for feedback.
• Recognize the uniqueness of each organization to find a solution that works best.

The redesign process will include individual interviews with college/division and department HR staff and leadership to understand the current distribution of HR responsibilities. Once the desired changes in the assignment of HR responsibilities are identified, college/division and HR leaders will work together to establish a transition plan that will guide the actual implementation.

Two initial redesign projects will be completed in the month of June. Additional organizations will begin implementation in July 2015, with completion of all colleges and divisions (outside of UI Health Care) anticipated by the fall of 2016.

Information Technology:

Reminder: Provide feedback on draft OneIT project charters by June 10

The campus is encouraged to provide feedback on the draft project charters, which are posted on the OneIT website. 

Comments can be submitted to the Program Office and project leaders using feedback forms on each individual project page on the website through June 10. The Program Office also hosted three listening posts June 3-5 and gathered a lot of great feedback. 

After the Steering Committee approves the revised charters, project teams will work to develop more detailed project plans. There will be another comment period for those drafts. Continue to check the OneIT website and watch the TIER updates in Iowa Now for notices on when draft plans are available for review.

June 15 Tech Forum to focus on IT efficiency initiatives

The UI Tech Forum is coming up on June 15 at the Iowa Memorial Union, and the theme this year is "Efficiency & Transformation in Higher Ed IT." Tech Forum will feature a CIO panel discussion on efficiency activities at the UI, Iowa State, UNI, and Michigan. There will be OneIT project updates and a poster session featuring the OneIT projects. Also offered are sessions on how the Iowa Flood Center uses high-performance computing to predict flooding, resiliency and coping with change, laptop encryption, tracking cyber criminals in online social networks, and UIeCare (a new virtual clinic option offered through UI Health Care). Any UI individual involved with technology is welcome. Tech Forum is free, but attendees must register online by June 11.

Project updates

The Data Centers and Servers Project, which was initiated prior to the onset of OneIT activities, continues to make progress. Last week, the team shut down six servers after migrating anti-virus/spam utilities to Office 365. This allows the university to leverage Microsoft cloud service and reduces the burden on local IT staff that administer email systems.

Town hall meeting

The Program Office held a well-attended town hall meeting for IT professionals May 27. Along with questions and discussion, the event featured a presentation on the OneIT project charter and project-management processes and a walk-through of one of the draft charters.

Sourcing and Procurement:

• Purchasing leads held a final meeting with Huron Consulting on May 27. Huron presented their findings and recommendations for the categories of food, scientific supplies, travel, audio visual, and print management.  
• Debby Zumbach, project lead, met with members of the Facilities Management department to answer questions related to janitorial and MRO recommendations.
• Informational meetings with campus users of these particular products and services will be scheduled in the near future to discuss the specific findings and recommendations.