This document provides an overview of shared services in higher education, including trends, case studies, and best practices. It begins with an agenda that covers trends in shared services, case studies of implementations at various universities, and best practices. Some key points include that shared services aims to achieve higher quality services at lower costs through consolidation and standardization. Challenges to implementing shared services in higher education include political and cultural issues. The case studies provide examples of shared services implementations in finance, HR, IT and other administrative functions at universities such as UNC, Yale and the University of Kansas. Best practices discussed include having a clear business case, change management and communication.
Shared Services in Higher Education: Trends, Case Studies & Best Practices
1. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Africa | Asia
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Š Chazey Partners 2015
Shared Services in
Higher Education:
Trends, Case Studies &
Best Practices
October 29th, 2015
2. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
2
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Who We Are
Trends in Shared Services
Higher Education Case Studies
Best Practices
Agenda
Why Shared Services?
3. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
3
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Who We Are
Agenda
4. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
4
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Who We Are ¡ Overview
5. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
5
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Who We Have Worked With
6. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
6
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Agenda
Why Shared Services?
7. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
7
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Achieve the Triple Benefits of Shared Services
Higher Quality
Lower Costs
Improved Control
8. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
8
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
What Exactly is Shared Services?
â˘Treats its internal clients as if they were an external client. Treats them with the same
level of respect and service that external clients expect
Elevator
Speech
â˘Provides non-core services to the âbusinessâ, employing a specialist team, geographically
unconstrained, and focusing on the requirements of the internal client. This involves a
philosophy and approach totally unlike traditional âcorporate-drivenâ centralization.
Definition
â˘Has the goal of providing high quality, non-core, but mission critical services (which can
include both repetitive common processes and more specialized professional services) to
the business at lower cost and more efficiently than the business could otherwise provide
for itself.
Goal
â˘Achieves cost savings and higher quality of service by leveraging organizational re-
alignment, economies of scale, technology, lower cost locations, client interaction
framework, standardized end-to-end processes, and best practices.
How-To
9. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
9
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Centralization/De-Centralization Cycle
ď Remote from
business
ď Unresponsive
and inflexible
ď No Business/
Operational
control over
costs
ď Viewed as
central
overhead
ď Prevalence of
shadow
operations
Centralized
Challenges
ď Disparate
processes
ď Multiple
standards
ď Duplication of
effort
ď Different
control
environments
ď High cost and
costs unclear
across the
business
ď Not scalable
Decentralized
Challenges
ď Responsive
to Business
and
Operational
needs
ď Business/
Operations
control
decisions
ď Customized
solutions to
meet
Business/
Operational
requirements
Benefits Shared
ď Highly client
focused
ď Commercially
driven
ď Service
Partnership
Agreements
ď Clear unit costs
ď Flexible
delivery
ď Clear
understanding
of drivers and
activities
ď Common
systems and
support
ď Consistent
standards
and controls
ď Tight control
environment
ď Economies of
scale
Benefits
Costs too high, poor
compliance environment
Unresponsive to needs of
business
10. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
10
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
State Funding
and
Endowment
Decreases
Technology
Demand
Campus
Growth
Compliance/
Administrative
Requirements
Cost of
Higher
Education
FEELING THE âSQUEEZEâ
Marketplace
Competition
Why Shared Services in Higher Education?
11. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
11
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Reduced funding and escalating cost-containment pressures are requiring
operational excellence in higher education institutions to continue to achieve
academic excellence.
Only 42% of college and university chief business officers are confident with
their financial modelâs stability over the next 10 years. (Inside Higher Ed and
Gallup 2015 Survey of College and University Business Officers)
Increasing student fees alone has not been sufficient to close the budget
gaps, and is no longer sustainble at many Universities and Colleges.
Why Shared Services in Higher Education?
12. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
12
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
13. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
13
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Agenda
Trends in Shared Services
14. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
14
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
General Trends in Shared Services
⢠Started in mid-1980âs - driven by private sector multinationals
⢠Successfully implemented Shared Services initiatives achieve
â20%-45% cost reductions from the current stateâ (The Shared
Services Roundtable, March 2015)
⢠100% of Hackettâs top quartile benchmarked enterprises
leverage Shared Services (Hackett 2013)
⢠More prevalent today in midsized companies and businesses
⢠Improved services, not just cost
15. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
15
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
General Trends in Shared Services
⢠âMoving up the value chainâ
⢠New adopters are moving directly to multifunctional/Global
Business Services model as part of their implementation
strategy (Deloitte, 2015 Global Shared Services Survey,
February 2015)
⢠Technology options continue to grow (spend on technology is
not the problem)
⢠Significant focus and growth in the Public Sector globally
⢠Slower to adopt â so far
16. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
16
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Unique
Challenges
to Higher
Ed
âPoliticsâ
Within Campus/
Across System/
State and Federal
Workforce:
Campus/Faculty/
Colleges/Depts/
Research/Health
Centers
Territorial and
Governance Issues
âTraditional Silosâ
Funding
Sources/Increased
Costs
Transparency
creates critics
âFailuresâ jumped
on
âCultureâ/Tenure/
Change
Management
Some of the Unique Challenges Facing Shared Services in Higher
Education
17. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
17
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Agenda
Higher Education Case Studies
18. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
18
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Early Adopters : Shared Services was already underway âpre-
recessionâ at many Universities
19. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
19
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Many have followed
20. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
20
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
GOALS:
Streamline campus operations and provide more
funding for academics and Universityâs core missions
Implement simpler, more responsive systems and
processes that enable informed decision-making
while complying with policies and laws
Reduce bureaucracy and create a more satisfying
work environment for faculty and staff
Carolinacounts.unc.edu
21. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
21
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Formed in January 2010 to take repeatable
common work out of departments
Consolidation of pre-existing service units to
sustainably improve cost structure, compliance
and client service
Shared Services at Yale University
Yale Shared Services Finance
HR Shared Services
HR Transactions and
Contact Center
FRMS Pre & Post Award
All shared services are single centers located on
campus
yss.yale.edu
âEstablishing and
maintaining a
relationship with our
customers was integralâŚ
our customers wanted to
be involved in the
development,
implementation, and
ongoing operation of
Shared Services and we
very much wanted and
welcomed their
feedback.â
â Ronn Kolbash, Asst VP
of Yale Shared Services
22. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
22
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Administrative Services Transformation (AST) project
Finance & HR Functions â All academic (19) and administrative (13) units
ncci-cu.org
23. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
23
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Goal: To utilize and leverage the current technology and best practices
to provide exceptional, streamlined services in an efficient and accurate
manner in order to reduce overall administrative costs by minimizing
redundancies and improving quality across campus.
Human Resources - Increase strategic services:
⢠Technology - Automate processes
⢠Comprehensive strategy to align short and long-
term initiatives
⢠Clarify roles
⢠Redesign governance
Finance -
⢠Establish staffing levels
⢠Clarify roles
IT Transformation -
⢠Strengthen collaboration between
distributed and central IT teams
⢠Streamline the delivery of commodity
technologies
⢠Plan for future technology innovations
24. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
24
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Completed the build phase in August 2013 and began
implementation with the intent to role out five SSCs before the
end of fiscal 2016.
ssc.ku.edu
25. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
25
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
IT Shared Services Goals:
Build 3 New Data Centers
Transform University IT Systems
Unlock Efficiencies
Share Excess Capacity
Increase Mission Focus
Lessons Learned
University-wide buy-in on cost efficiencies requires selling
Monetizing IT savings can be difficult
Retained Staff needs to understand the future
Must plan administration of consumption pricing and billing
Virtual and Fractional Staffing Models present unique challenges
26. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
26
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Institute of Food and Agricultural Services (IFAS) shared service
centers developed to consolidate and streamline the
administrative functions such as Human Resources, Finance and
Accounting, and Grants Management.
IMPLEMENTATION STRUGGLES
Major challenge with primary customer: faculty
Faculty did not understand scope of service or shift in model
Confusion around detailed processes, client interaction framework
No clarity on how to measure service levels
Staffing challenges
Status quo was tight-knit with close proximity: Pushback on centralization
Lift and shift without standardization, workload optimization, space
planning or evaluating skillsets
27. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
27
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Case Study â City of Houston HR
Problem: City facing $50-70M Budget Deficit
Opportunities: Centralization; reduce liabilities; improve efficiency; eliminate redundancy
Plan: Implement Shared Services
Process:
Step 1: People â Redefine Roles and Responsibilities
Anyone spending over 51% of time moved to Central HR
Step 2: Process Standardization
Focus on quality of service and transparency
Step 3: Technology Adds Capability
Reduce reliance on expensive and unnecessary add-on solutions
Results
HR Staff to Employee ratio improved from 1:38 to 1:119
Improved quality of service
More efficient, better placed staff
Self-service functionality
Improved understanding of customer issues
Enhanced use of SAP Capital Management Module: $650k of annual savings
28. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
28
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Agenda
Best Practices
29. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
29
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
⢠Having a Business Case is key
⢠Consider functions, processes, sub-processes, locations, regions, operating units
and entities
⢠It is really important to distinguish between âsolutionsâ vs âquick fixesâ
⢠Multifunctional now often the chosen way to proceed
⢠Consider how far up the value chain you want to go
⢠Senior level Executive sponsorship is key - executives must understand and
support the roll-out
⢠Remember always that the project does not end with âgo-liveâ
30. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
30
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Roadmap: Key Activities & Deliverables
Financial
Business Case
Organizational
Structure
Operating
Model
Governance &
Policy
Frameworks
Change
Management &
Comms Plan
Implementation
Plan
Report &
PresentationBaseline Opportunity
Matrix
Project
Initiation
Baseline
Reports & Data
Stakeholder
Interviews
As-Is/Client
Interaction
Workshops
Activity Based
Analysis
Technology
Landscape
High-Level
Benchmarking
As-Is Leading
Practices
Diagnostics
To-Be Leading
Practices
Diagnostics
Technology
Assessment
Location
Analysis
To-Be Design
Principles
Stakeholder
Analysis
31. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
31
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Client
⢠Service orientation in place
⢠Structured way of dealing with customers
⢠Customer satisfaction levels understood
⢠SPAs in place
⢠Reality versus perception
⢠Account management
Process
⢠Processes documented
⢠Standardized, controlled & repeatable activity
⢠Recharging methodology
⢠Benchmarking â internal/external
⢠Metrics: Control Based; (ii) Efficiency &
Effectiveness
Technology
⢠ERP implemented
⢠Document Scanning Solution
⢠Workflow
⢠Automated Payments
⢠Elimination of Side Systems
⢠Self services tools
⢠Automated Score Cards
People
⢠Skilled Leadership in place â do not compromise on
competencies
⢠Team shape & stability â process shaped/spans of
control/staff â perm v temps
⢠Team members â culture, values & behavioral competencies
assessed
⢠Team morale, reward & retention
⢠Working environment conducive to team working
32. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
32
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Client Interaction Framework
Account
Management
â˘SSO to client; via reporting,
interaction, escalation &
communication
Client Contact
Management
â˘Client to SSO; to manage
and resolve queries and
drive learning/improvement
Service Partnership
Agreements
â˘SPAs are 2-way agreements
clarifying both SSO services
and client inputs
Client
Feedback
â˘Client satisfaction
continuously monitored
both informally and formally
Continuous
Improvement
â˘Mechanisms to identify the
areas for improvement and
to develop solutions
Process Control
Database
â˘Documents end-to-end SSO
processes; highlights activity
of both SSO & client
Performance
Measurement
â˘Comprehensive KPIs,
measures and metrics
framework, SSO & client
Performance
Reporting
â˘Process performance will be
reviewed monthly by SSO
and client
Recharging
Methodology
â˘Define basis for charging for
SSO services to turn
consumers into clients
33. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
33
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
⢠Do not underestimate the change management required
⢠Consider a multi-faceted communication and advisory approach
⢠Generate a culture of service and continuous improvement
⢠Make sure your team includes both academic and administrative
resources and be prepared to travel to meet and work with users
⢠Assign your best resources and people to the project
⢠Assign end-to-end process owners
34. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
34
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
⢠Separate transformation from ongoing activities
⢠Offer end-to-end services by provisioning as many non-core services
as possible under one organizational umbrella
⢠Realignment can help remove silos and foster a strong shared
service culture and team spirit
⢠Enable succession planning, job rotation, new opportunities and
targeted and consistent training programs
⢠Do things differently â thatâs the whole point!
35. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
35
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
1. Shared Services can be complex,
but it is not rocket science
2. Start with a Roadmap and
supporting business case
3. You are not alone, others have
gone before
36. North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East & Africa | Asia-Pacific
36
North America | Latin America | Europe | Middle East | Asia-Pacific
Contact us
enquiries@chazeypartners.com
www.chazeypartnersinc.com
enquiries@chazeypartners.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
Additional Benefits:
Standardization of processes which supports centralization and automation (including ERP deployment)
Ability to really look âend-to-endâ at processes to eliminate redundancy, duplication, handoffs, loop backs, etc.
Empowering the Shared Services team to learn new things and work in a dynamic and exciting environment
Engendering a culture of continuous improvement and recognition of performance
Improves quality and integrity of data which supports faster and better decision making
âMoving up the value chainâ evolving away from a focus on transaction processing and data input toward more strategic activities
New adopters are moving directly to multifunctional/Global Business Services model as part of their implementation strategy (Deloitte, 2015 Global Shared Services Survey, February 2015)
Technology options continue to grow (e.g. document management, approvals, user self service, ERP, open architecture, software-as-a-service, âcloud computingâ)
Captive vs Outsource, On-shore vs Near-shore vs Off-shore
Significant focus and growth in the Public Sector globally -opportunity to reduce deficits without diminishing front-line services
UC Berkeley administration division began in 2008 to move to a shared services model for HR, and successfully opened its center on July 1, 2010. In 2012 the University approved a project to implement shared services for finance, research, information technology and human resources.
Launched in November 2009
Designed champions to lead in 10 areas per bar chart on slide
Consolidates just under 200 projects under branding âCarolina Countsâ
Bottom-up initiatives have saved over $65m in ongoing costs
Focus now is sharing best practices, simplifying admin processes and expanding use of Shared Services amoung academic units
Takeaway
Consider top-down versus bottom-up approach
Consider whether to focus on staff support or to include academic services as well
In November 2009, Carolina Counts formally launched with the designation of champions who will lead the 10 areas identified for major improvements. Since January 2010, Joe Templeton, past faculty chair, former chair of the Department of Chemistry, and now part-time special assistant to the chancellor for planning and initiatives, and Mike Patil, former associate dean at the Universityâs Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and former vice president for processes and technology at Ericsson/General Electric, have engaged campus colleagues from schools, units and departments who could best delve into the main options identified in the consultant report and what they could mean for future University operations. Their focus the first three years has been on initiatives related to streamlining cost structures in schools and central functions, analyzing and making available comparative operational information, and developing a campus model for shared service centers.
Carolina Counts is currently working with the champions and campus leaders to identify best practices through its OpSmart comparative tool, to model efficiency improvements based on those practices, to design simplified administrative processes, and expand the use of shared services among academic units. The details of the projects identified by each area are under Improvement Projects. The projects completed so far have reduced recurring annual State costs by over $65 Million annually.
Initiated HR Shared Services in 2010 for three departments: IT, Provost office, Science & Engineering
Today it is a 75-person SSC; scope includes
Academic and non-academic
Multi-functional SSC offering operating HR, Finance, pre/post awards services
Takeaways
Triple benefit of Shared Services: Key driver was cost, although emphasized other factors
Key strategy was having provider and client work together towards common goals
Paring costs is critical at Yale, whose endowment was hit hard during the U.S. recession. Yale launched its shared services center in 2010 by consolidating similar HR functions of three different departments: information technology, the provost office, and science and engineering.
The 75-employee division has expanded its scope to manage common business transactions for many of Yaleâs academic and other departments. Tasks handled by Yale Shared Services include payroll, accounts payable, vendor compliance, expense and financial management, and credit card reconciliation.
Goal to bring Standardization and Efficiency to repeatable common work-shift focus from manual to mission critical tasks
Compliance â address compliance risks and build deep functional expertise
Client Services- simplify points of contact, enable self service and reduce administrative work
Promoted other areas but cost most likely the biggest driver as 2014 operating budget deficit was reported at $39 million
Overcame initial faculty buy-in issues with transparency and strong communication led by Ronn Kolbash, the asst VP of Yale Shared Services. Ronn often speaks on the subject is considered to a be leading Shared Services expert in Higher Ed. Addiitonal quote - âItâs really important that the service provider and the customer work collectively towards common objectives. In addition, both operations have jointly developed and agreed-upon metrics, service level agreements as well as an account manager modelâall of which goes a long way in strengthening the relationship between the Shared Services operation and its customers.â
Two years ago, Michigan had a very public failure
Made ripples across the higher ed system
So what happened?
Administrative Services Transformation kick off in 2009
Communications under wrap until Nov 2013
Significant push back,
1000 faculty signed petition
At point that Michigan was ready to go-live
Project pause
Relaunched in January 2014 with new leadership, new enagement strategiy
Takeaway â you have to engage with people
Are you doing tranformation to your clients, or with your clients
Original model âlift and shiftâ â kept communication under wraps from until November 2013 when notices of implementation went out â
over 1,000 faculty members sign letter opposing AST
December 2013- Provost, EVPCFO, VP Student Life announce Implementation âPauseâ
January 2014 â project restarts with a âphasedâ implementation and revised faculty/staff engagement plan
Program catalyst and former Accenture Executive Partner Rowan Miranda leaves position as in January as well
August 2014 â Phase I Shared Services Center -- Focused on data management, human resources and accounting
April 2015- Phase II Share Services Center implementation â focused on additional processes including account reconciliation, travel and expense, time and leave and employment
REVISED IMPLEMNTATION APPROACH:
⢠Optimized/standardized processes as moved into shared services.
⢠Transitioned the ~250 staff who performed 50% or more of âsharable workâ, units identified individuals being transitioned
⢠Transitioned all units together in two process phases
⢠Significant engagement with units and transitioning staff to ready them for transition.
⢠Extensive communications with units and broader university community
PROJECTING $3-5M IN ANNUAL SAVINGS FROM AST PROJECT
Due to cost pressues, kicked off two year cost savings initiatve
Looked at IT, Finance, HR across three universities: University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa
Now moving into design and build phases, significant efficiencies have identified
Takeway
Mixure of top-down and bottom-up
Top-Down: Program Coordination, funding, reporting, streategic direction, governance
Bottom-up: Approach adapted for each university and each workstream; actual work and activities completed at functional level for each university, through consultative, collaborative process
One of decisions that your university will need to consider is how many SSCs to establish
Your stakeholder groups may agree with concept of Shared Services, but may want to retain control
Do you have one SSC?
One SSC for each school?
One for academeic, one for staff
One for health center, one for education
One for each function
This decision has many considerations
Gap from current state
Change management/politicial considerations
Leading practice
Leading practice is typcially a single SSC, but this could be a step too far
The ideal solution for your institution may be to have an interim step of more than one SSC with roadmap towards single SSC
Two SSCs completed / Three still in process
KU Shared Service Center â Build the Foundation:Â evaluate job functions, redesign business processes,and create training materials- COMPLETED AUGUST 2013
KU Regional Business Centers Implementation:Â to streamline job functions and improve businessprocesses â IN PROGRESS
With the initial site implementation complete, KU is already realizing benefits, including:
â Staffs who get more training in HR, finance, and research administration, enabling them to provide more effective service for their units
â Increased responsibility and authority for staff in the shared-service centers, enabling them to be more efficient and to provide immediate responses to complex questions
â Support staffs who can back each other up during absences:
â Providing departments with continuous coverage when their dedicated staff person is on vacation, out sick or on extended leave
â Enabling employees to be trained by the shared-service center staff and managers, eliminating this burden from departments and Chairs
â Shared Best Practices across departments
â Funding to support the initiatives of KUâs strategic plan, Bold Aspirations.
Once the shared-service centers are fully operational, the university expects to achieve annual savings of $2 million to $3 million.
Takeaway
Huge opportunity in IT
Even in IT not just about technology (cloud, in house)
A lot more about how you engage: about the people, what is in it for me, change management
Multifunctional
A major challenge with its primary customersâits faculty
Key takeaway
Ultimately it is all about a partnership with your customer
Doesnât mean the customer is always right and you are subservient to them
It is not rocket science, but it can be complex
They have two shared service centers that service the following departments:
Fifield Shared Service Center: Environmental Horticulture, Horticultural Sciences, Plant Pathology
McCarty Shared Service Center: Agronomy, IFAS Statistics, Food and Resource Economics, Family Youth and Community Sciences, Soil and Water Science, Public Issues Education Center, IFAS IT, Senior VP
SCOTT MADDEN CASE STUDY-
The Challenge
The primary objective for IFAS was to reduce work and reallocate resources by standardizing policies and processes across the units and to consolidate transactional and administrative activities into its service centers. As a result, the college sought to better align the work with the available resource skillsets as well as cross-train employees on specific responsibilities. This would allow services to be provided across multiple units and to move away from an âeveryone-does-everything-for-one-customerâ model to one where providers handle multiple customers and are more narrowly focused on duties within a particular function (e.g., Finance, HR, etc.). Additionally, IFAS sought to improve compliance by offering cradle-to-grave contracts and grants departmental services from proposal writing through submission, project setup, administration, and project closeout.During the initial design and implementation efforts, IFAS faced a major challenge with its primary customersâits faculty (which is very typical in the higher education environment). The memorandum of understanding had been collaboratively developed with faculty prior to opening the IFAS service center for business, but faculty did not clearly understand the scope of services or shift in delivery model. There was confusion around the detailed processes, such as who to contact when, how requests should be made, and which activities would be centralized versus remaining in the department. Additionally, there was no structure in place to determine if service was improved and how service levels would be measured in the future. Staffing challenges were also steep. Given the long, tight-knit relationship and close proximity between faculty and their staff, the concept of centralization was not widely embraced by either, increasing the overall level of implementation difficulty. Additionally, the college had transitioned existing personnel from the departments into the central service center model without standardizing the processes, reducing the workload, planning for space needs, or evaluating the required skillsets to perform work in the new model. Thereby, the center maintained the same staff and skill makeup, which sub-optimized the potential benefits of the transformation. Finally, the service center lacked credibility with its customers, which contradicted the primary objective of improving customer service.
Did interview at Bloomberg event
No one wanted to to it
Not only achieved cost savings, recognized as providing huge value to city
Takeaway
Senior sponsorship key (need grassroots effort, but also need air cover)
Right people in right positions â proper assessment
Great passionate, leadership