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Wednesday, July 1, 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 will be 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:

  • 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, and reviewing draft material provided by Ad Astra.  
  • On June 29 and 30, Dr. Alceste Pappas and her team visited campus to meet with faculty, staff, and students about enrollment management and time to graduation.  Pappas Consulting plans to have a draft proposal available to campus for review by the beginning of September. 

Finance:

Finance 01: Revise Distributed Finance Delivery Model

  • Chazey Partners is finalizing its report and recommendations, which will be presented in the near future.
  • The Project Team is currently scheduled to visit with members of the University of Kansas Shared Services Implementation team the week of September 21.
  • Bi-weekly status meetings are being held with both beta Shared Services sites in Athletics and College of Dentistry. 
  • The beta Shared Services initiatives are already beginning to show success with faster payments to vendors and employees.

Meet the Beta Site Shared Services Staff:

Weston Marling, Brian Wildemuth and Brian Harken are the Beta Site Shared Services Staff. Marling is in the College of Dentistry, while Wildemuth and Harken are with Athletics.
Weston Marling, Brian Wildemuth and Brian Harken are the Beta Site Shared Services Staff. Marling is in the College of Dentistry, while Wildemuth and Harken are with Athletics. Photo courtesy UI Shared Services.

Weston Marling  - College of Dentistry 
Hometown: Cedar Rapids, IA
Education: The University of Northern Iowa, BA in Accounting
Employed: April 2013
Fun Facts: Fan of Iowa Wrestling. Hobbies include running and fishing. I enjoy being outdoors with my wife, Amy, and training our new puppy.
Quote for Shared Services: “The shared services model will improve transaction processing at the University. Allowing specific employees to specialize in transaction processing should improve accuracy and efficiency. “

Brian Wildemuth - Athletics
Hometown: Atkinson, IL
Education: Western Illinois University, BA in Finance and Accounting
Employed: December 2012 
Fun Facts: Have a two-year-old daughter, huge Cubs fan and love watching movies
Quote for Shared Services:  “I enjoy the challenge of doing something that is brand new to the university.  I think this new opportunity will have great potential for growth in my accounting career.”

Brian Harken - Athletics
Hometown: Cedar Rapids, IA
Graduation: The University of Iowa in December 2011, BBA in Marketing and Finance
Employed: July 2012  
Fun Facts: Fan of all things Jurassic Park and Harry Potter; Reigning Iowa City Adult Men’s Rec-League Basketball Champion
Quote for Shared Services: “I think the shared services model will improve transaction processing at the University. Allowing specific employees to specialize in transaction processing should improve accuracy and efficiency.”

Human Resources:  

HR Redesign

As we begin the examination of Human Resource roles within individual colleges and divisions, it is important to keep in mind:

  • The TIER projects were the result of a comprehensive review of our HR activities. Deloitte Consultants complimented HR at the University of Iowa on our automation of HR processes and the array of services provided to support campus. Our objective now is to continue to build on this success and further improve our efficiency and effectiveness. 
  • One of the primary objectives now is to redesign the HR Unit Representative role so it is dedicated full-time to Human Resources activities and reports to the Senior HR Leader. This will allow for a greater depth of HR knowledge leading to more effective and efficient service for everyone. 
  • The other primary objective will be to strengthen the relationship of the Senior HR Leader with the Vice President of Human Resources in addition to the leader of his/her organization.
  • It is clear that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” solution to the HR realignment in each college and division. Those most closely involved with HR work within the college/division will have the opportunity to provide input and have a voice in what the local HR structure will look like.
  • Our first pilot with the College of Pharmacy is in its final stages. The redesign team will be discussing their recommendations with the Pharmacy representatives yet this week. The team’s first meeting with the division of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development was held earlier this week. Discussions have also begun with the leaders of Continuing Education and our team will begin gathering data in the next several weeks.  

Information Technology:

Finalized Project Charters Available

The majority of project charters have been finalized and are now available on the project pages of the OneIT website. The input gathered at the listening posts and through the feedback forms on the website was valuable to the project teams. Thanks to everyone who provided comments.

Frequently Asked Questions Updated

Several Frequently Asked Questions were added to address themes that arose during the listening posts and town hall meetings. Existing questions were updated to include new details.

Subscribe to OneIT News

You can now subscribe to RSS feeds for OneIT news. There are three subscription options. On the homepage, you can subscribe to the all project news and general news feeds. Through each individual project page, under the news tab, you can subscribe to news for that specific project.

Team and Advisory Board Rosters

Many of the team rosters and advisory board members are now available on the project pages. If you are interested in being on a project advisory board, please reach out to the team leaders; contact information is on the project pages.

Project Updates              

  • Electronic File Storage: Completed migrating Public Health home drives to Files@Iowa. Provisioned IMU home drives on Files@Iowa for self-migration through summer.
  • Identity and Access Management: Testing a new directory and authentication solution for Office 365. Work will be leveraged for a sub-project (streamline operational support for Iowa domain credential management).
  • Data Centers & Servers: Planning next Chemistry cluster moves to the Information Technology Facility. Notified server room owners of the intent to inventory their spaces.
  • Project Management Office: Scheduled 20 interviews for validation of project charter and requirement gathering. Finalized interview questions and teams.

Sourcing and Procurement:

  • Board of Regents TIER leadership is currently reviewing and assessing the next steps with Huron Consulting.