Monday, June 15, 2015
Written by: Office of Strategic Communication

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 has been sharing updates in Iowa Now on the 1st and 15th of each month. 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:

  • Dr. James McCarthy with Pappas Consulting was on campus June 11 to continue the discussion regarding e-learning and distance education. He met with Provost Butler, Associate Provost and Dean of Continuing Education Chet Rzonca, and other faculty and staff who work with distance education at Iowa. On June 29, Dr. Alceste Pappas will return to campus to meet with faculty, staff, and students about enrollment management and time to graduation.
  •        The Office of the Provost continues to work with Ad Astra regarding classroom utilization at the UI. They are in the process of finalizing the classroom and lab space inventory lists.

Finance:

Finance 01: Revise Distributed Finance Delivery Model

  • A question-and-answer session with the various sport staff in Athletics was held June 10. Staff from the various sports departments discussed their concerns and asked thought-provoking questions. Similar sessions with Athletics and other departments will be extremely important to the overall success of this project.
  •       June 15 marks the beginning of the beta shared services site at the College of Dentistry. These beta sites provide the project team with insight on how shared services will work on the rest of campus. Support from the College of Dentistry and Department of Athletics is critical to the success of shared services and their entire units as other staff position responsibilities change.
  •        Analysis of transactions is 80 percent complete. The project team will be reaching out to each Org Unit in the next two to three months to set up preliminary meetings. Org Units will be requested to assign a Project Sponsor for their unit as well as an implementation team that will work with the project team throughout the implementation.
  •        A subcommittee will be engaged to design and document the process that will be used to “lift and shift” individual employees from their current department to University Shared Services. The proposed process will be reviewed and approved by the Financial Advisory Committee and the TIER Leadership Committee.
  •        Jason Hornberger, associate provost at the University of Kansas, provided an overview of their implementation with Debby Zumbach. Hornberger will be working with Zumbach on potential dates for a one-day session with key implementation personnel from each institution. The University of Kansas has successfully implemented shared services for 70 percent of their campus.

Human Resources:

Human Resources 01: Revise Distributed HR Delivery Model 

The redesign process that will be used in determining the changes in the Human Resource (HR) structure for each college and division will follow a similar process. University HR analysis will:

  • First consult with college/division leadership
  • Collect information from individuals in the organization through surveys and/or interviews
  • Analyze the information received
  • Formulate recommendations based on that data to achieve HR redesign goals
  • Discuss the recommendations with college/division leadership to determine the best alignment of HR services
  • Engage organizational change consultants with college/division leadership to develop an effective implementation strategy.

Throughout the redesign, the goal is to:

  •       Maintain an open and transparent process
  •       Recognize the uniqueness of each organization
  •       Provide opportunities for individuals impacted to participate in the process
  •       Support change through effective communication

An initial pilot project is currently underway. University HR will apply best practices in design and implementation to other participating colleges and divisions over the next 15 to 16 months.

Information Technology:  

Regents’ IT Leaders Retreat to Discuss IT Efficiency

IT leaders from the UI, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa met for a daylong retreat June 10 to strategize about how the three state institutions can collaborate to further institutional efficiency goals. Workgroups comprised of service representatives from each school identified opportunities for collaboration and reported findings out to their peers and the CIOs.

Successes of the day included: information sharing on encryption strategies for mobile devices, end-user support practices, and discussions of licensing and procurement opportunities. UI CIO Steve Fleagle said he was impressed by the potential opportunities that arose in the discussions.

OneIT Charters Conclude Feedback Cycle

Last week, leaders of the OneIT projects wrapped up a successful project charter feedback campaign. Well over 100 faculty and staff participated in three listening posts held at locations on campus and online, and numerous comments and questions came in through feedback forms on the OneIT site. The revised charters will be posted to the OneIT site when they are finalized.

Program Office Member Chris Clark was pleased by the turnout, remarking: “We had easily 50 to 60 faculty participate in our listening posts, which I count as a real success. It demonstrates the passion and commitment our faculty have for their research, instruction, and service.” 

Project Updates: Teams Begin Developing Project Plans

Project teams are beginning to develop detailed project plans. These plans, like the project charters, will be available for campus comment. Draft plans will be posted to the OneIT website, and comment opportunities will be announced through several communication channels, including Iowa Now, the OneIT site, the UI Calendar of Events, and various email lists.

Project leads have been working to define sub-projects and adding members to their teams. Team member names have been added to the project pages for Website Hosting, IT Governance and Visibility, Project Management Office, and Classroom and Collaboration Space IT Support, and we will continue to add rosters as they become available.

The teams are also working to identify stakeholders and form advisory groups for their projects. If you have interest in being part of an advisory group, please contact the team leaders and managers; contact information is listed on the project pages.

The website hosting project team has begun assessment interviews. The Data Centers & Servers, High-Performance Computing, and Electronic File Storage teams are working closely to coordinate inventory/assessment activities since the three projects are inter-related.

UI Tech Forum June 15

On June 15, over 250 IT professionals from across campus converged on the Iowa Memorial Union for a daylong event focused on “Efficiency & Transformation in Higher Ed IT.” The event featured a CIO panel discussion on efficiency activities at the UI, Iowa State, UNI, and Michigan. There were OneIT project updates, and a poster session featuring OneIT projects. Also offered were 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).

Sourcing and Procurement:

  • Huron Consulting presented their findings to the TIER Board of Regents Management team later this month.
  •        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.