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:

Finance:

University Shared Services:

College of Dentistry

The College of Dentistry is hosting follow up meetings with the four beta departments.  Four individuals were able to take advantage of ERIP and only three positions were replaced.  Initial responses from the first two department meetings were very positive, with reports of money being saved by using a contracted vendor, and orders arriving faster than before. Processes on how to handle transactions and what transactions are included continue to be refined and adjusted. The beta sites are providing great insight into how Shared Services can be successful. We want to thank the staff and faculty within the College of Dentistry and specifically, Associate Dean Scott Arneson and Dean Dr. David Johnsen, for their continued support of this endeavor.

Athletics

The athletic department is moving full speed ahead with the beta implementation. With the start of fall sports, the two Shared Services staff are getting very involved in setting up trips, completing travel expense vouchers, reconciling procurement card vouchers, and many other tasks. Follow-up meetings with the various departments will be scheduled in the near future. We want to thank the staff and coaches within the athletic department—specifically, Associate Athletic Director Mary Curtis, Sr. Accountant Greg Davies, and Athletic Director Gary Barta—for their continued support of this endeavor.

Staffing guidelines created by the subcommittee for Shared Services Staffing Methodology were presented and approved by the University TIER Leadership committee. 

Kevin Ward, Dick See, and Debby Zumbach met and discussed requests from campus to have joint project implementations. At the request of a College or Org Unit, HR and Finance agreed to consider joint project implementations. Data from both projects is being gathered into a Transaction Dashboard. The Transaction Dashboard will enable the individual projects and orgs to use the information in decision making. 

Human Resources:  

HR-01 Revise Distributed HR Delivery Model

Division of Vice President of Research and Economic Development and the Oakdale Campus

The teams from Finance Shared Services, HR, and the Division continue to meet weekly. Finance has created a new database showing the transactional work completed by both the Finance and HR staffs. This information will be helpful as the group continues to work on determining future staffing levels. The HR redesign team joined another listening post Sept. 8. 

The complexity of this first integrated project has delayed the implementation start date for several organizations.  We are committed to creating a successful process for an integrated implementation that can be carried forward to other organizations. 

University Libraries

The information gathering discussions with employees were conducted. The team is scheduled to meet with the Senior HR Leader Sept. 15 to gather some additional information before finalizing its recommendations. 

College of Law and ITS Division

The HR redesign leadership has completed their introductory conferences with the leadership in both the College of Law and the division of ITS. The next step will include a meeting with the HR redesign team and the implementation team of each organization to outline the steps of the project.

Information Technology:

Volunteers Lining up for Office 365 Migration

Several departments added their ranks to the growing list of volunteers for early migration to the Office 365 cloud platform. English, Philosophy, Rhetoric, the Division of Performing Arts, Communication Sciences and Disorders, and the College of Law volunteered for migration after discussing the benefits (increased quotas, improved Web interface, etc.) and success of previous departments’ migrations.

DCS Team Shuts Down Chemistry Chiller; Saves Money

The Data Center and Server (DCS) team successfully migrated and decommissioned enough servers in the Chemistry data center to shut down a 20-ton air chiller—a significant sign of progress in the consolidation of data centers across campus. A few servers still remain in Chemistry, but the shutdown of the large chiller spells big electrical and mechanical cost savings for campus. The team estimates that shutting down the cooler will save $32,000 annually.

DCS Macro-Audit Hits 50% Milestone

The Data Center and Server (DCS) project team reached the 50% completion milestone on their macro-audits of campus server rooms and data centers. These audits, which include a comprehensive inventory of services and servers in a given facility, are a key first step in consolidating data centers across campus. The macro-audits will continue through October.

IAM Begins Door Automation Implementation with Engineering

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) team recently began discussions about automated de-provisioning and provisioning of access controls for select campus door controllers. Currently many electronically locked doors require a staff member to manually add/remove faculty, staff, and students to room-access lists. The team is working with the College of Engineering IT staff and ITS application developers to increase the number of doors that can be updated automatically based upon a change to a person’s employment, student status, or other factors.

More IT News Available on OneIT Website

Members of the campus community who are interested in OneIT activities can monitor or subscribe to the news feeds on the OneIT website. There are three RSS subscription options: On the OneIT home page, you can sign up for “All Project News” or “General OneIT News” feeds. On each project page, you can choose to receive updates on the specific projects that interest you.