Transcript No Slide Title

ASR and Establishment of BSCs at UNH,
1995 to 1998 …and beyond
Vision Without Boundaries
EACUBO Annual Meeting
October 18, 1999
[email protected]
[email protected]
Dilbert at the EACUBO Annual
Meeting
What we’ll cover today
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Background
What is ASR? What are BSCs? Major Outcomes
How did we start?
Barriers and roadblocks
Critical success factors
Q and A
The University of New Hampshire
•
•
•
•
Public land grant, 2 campuses, part of System
FY99 current funds = $288 million
Sponsored programs = $63 million
15,000 students
UNH Admin Systems Environment
in 1995
• 1986 – installed CUFS: online budgets, req. to check, etc.
• 900 CUFS users - over 400 entry/update users weekly
• Decentralized processing/Centralized authority
• Most users were secretaries entering few docs
• Low-volume users - not enough experience to be efficient
• No dept back-up during vacation or sick time
• Some Business Managers in place, but no staff or authority
UNH Administrative Support in
1995
• Most secretaries had business processing AND
secretarial duties
• Many admin staff not properly trained, equipped,
supervised or centrally supported
• Many essential services were not being provided
well at dept & college level
• Many admin staff overworked,
while others not fully utilized
The UNH Budget Challenge in 1995
• Projected $7 million budget deficit by FY97
• Layoffs?
• Programmatic cuts?
• ATB cuts and continuing rescissions?
…or, Try Something New???
The ASR Plan
After 10 weeks of study, we concluded that we could save
$1.5m/year by an Administrative Services Redesign plan:
1) decoupling all business activity from secretaries and
consolidating it in regionalized shared Business
Service Centers, and
2) redesigning business processes to further simplify,
standardize and automate
but…
We needed time, money & full participation
Initial Campus Reaction to the
ASR Plan
Primary Goals of ASR
• Save $1.5 million per year ($1 million in
E&G funds & $.5 million from other funds)
• Maintain or improve essential services
• Avoid staff layoffs
Secondary Goals of ASR




Improve campus morale
Improve information for decision-making
Improve financial management
Be well positioned to handle future needs
Strategies
1. Consolidate all dept business functions into BSCs
2. Require all business transactions from all units to be
processed by a BSC
3. Reduce positions (not people) through management of
voluntary attrition
4. Empower BSC with delegated authority from central
offices, and expand central support
5. Simplify, standardize & automate business processes
What are BSCs? - What Customers
Expect
Billing/AR
Operating Standards
Customer Training
63%
42%
36%
49%
Liaison Central Offcs
69%
Budget Control
79%
Travel
Purchasing/AP
90%
54%
Petty Cash
72%
Reporting
65%
Personnel
75%
Payroll
Core functions
The 18 BSC’s at UNH Today
Academic Areas (incl. associated grants &
contracts):
1. College of Liberal Arts
2. College of Life Sciences & Agriculture
3. College of Engineering & Physical
Sciences
4. Whittemore School of Business &
Economics
5. School of Health & Human Services
6. UNH at Manchester
7. Other (Provost, Library, Grad School,
DCE, Registrar, Fin Aid, TRIO, etc.)
Research-related Areas:
8. Cooperative Extension
9. EOS/Space & Ocean Sciences
10. EOS/Earth Sciences/RCC
11. Marine Laboratory & other research
depts
Areas reporting to President:
12. Athletics
13. Public TV station
14. Advancement (incl. Foundation,
Alumni & Univ Relations)
Other Areas:
15. Facilities
16. Computer Services
17. Business Affairs (Housing, Dining,
Conferences, Arena, Bookstore)
18. Central Admin (Pres., VPFA, Student
Affairs, HR, Purchasing, CO, etc)
BSCs are better because:
 Qualified, experienced, and trained staff are
devoted to business services
 Allows for central delegation of authority
 Removes process steps & improves cycle times
 Provides coverage during absences or busy times
 Shortens learning curve for new processes
 Provides cross-training, teamwork, and career
growth
BSC Director as CFO
 BSC Director is the Chief Financial Officer of
the area
 CFO reports directly to the area Chief Executive
Officer(s), with authority delegated from the
Vice President for Finance & Admin
 VPFA’s office involved in all new hires of BSC
Directors & professional staff
BSC Director responsibilities
 Manages day-to-day business operations
 Maintains internal controls & good business practices
 Assures compliance with policies & regulations
 Maintains properly qualified & trained staff
 Provides financial reporting, analysis & advise to CEO
 Implements process & technology changes
 Partners with central offices
 Represents area on Finance & Administration Council
The Finance and Administration
Council
 Provides advice and counsel on business issues to VPFA
 Reaffirms VPFA’s delegated authority to BSC Directors
 Supports on-going problem-solving & process improvement
 Assists in design & implementation of new processes
 Provides campus-wide communication on business issues
Major Outcomes
1. Savings - $1.3 million annually, mostly personnel
2. Improved business services to divisions & depts
3. No layoffs - 39 positions eliminated (5 in central offices)
We also…
4. Improved campus morale
5. Improved information for decision-making
6. Improved financial management
7. Positioned UNH to handle future needs
(RCM, Banner, new regs, growth, etc.)
Improved services
BSC Customers Services Rating Summary
GOOD
6.0
5.4
5.4
5.5
5.5
5.3
5.5
5.0
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
BAD OVERALL SERVICE
OVERALL
CAPABILITIES
OVERALL STAFF
QUALITY
CONSISTENCY OF
INFORMATION
RESPONSIVENESS
Improved services (continued)
BSC Customer Services Improved Rating
50.0%
49.3%
0.7%
Improved
Remained The Same
Decreased
Major Outcomes
1. Savings - $1.3 million annually, mostly personnel
2. Improved business services to divisions & depts
3. No layoffs - 39 positions eliminated (5 in central offices)
We also…
4. Improved campus morale
5. Improved information for decision-making
6. Improved financial management
7. Positioned UNH to handle future needs
(RCM, Banner, new regs, growth, etc.)
Improved campus morale
 89 internal promotions
 New job specs developed (& raises!) for BSC assistants &
other admin staff
 Clearly defined career paths, supported with training
 Improved career opportunities for internal candidates
 Secretaries & business staff now working at what they like
 Collaboration - a new working relationship across units
 Communication - FAC, BSC Forum, ASR Forum, AOP...
Major Outcomes
1. Savings - $1.3 million annually, mostly personnel
2. Improved business services to divisions & depts
3. No layoffs - 39 positions eliminated (5 in central offices)
We also…
4. Improved campus morale
5. Improved information for decision-making
6. Improved financial management
7. Positioned UNH to handle future needs
(RCM, Banner, new regs, growth, etc.)
Improved information for
decision-making
 Management reporting via financial datamart & web
decision support tools
 Eliminated most shadow systems
 Financial advise now comes from more qualified BSC
Directors
 Major new training programs developed
 VPFA Office included in hiring process for BSC staff
 Desktop standards, central LAN mgmt, Information
Technology Liaisons (ITLs)
Major Outcomes
1. Savings - $1.3 million annually, mostly personnel
2. Improved business services to divisions & depts
3. No layoffs - 39 positions eliminated (5 in central offices)
We also…
4. Improved campus morale
5. Improved information for decision-making
6. Improved financial management
7. Positioned UNH to handle future needs
(RCM, Banner, new regs, growth, etc.)
Improved financial management
 Implemented extremely successful PCard program
 Further delegated buy/pay authority
 Improved travel policies & processes
 Automated personnel and payroll documents
 Distributed payroll & A/P processing to BSCs
 Streamlined chart of accounts and budgeting
 WWW: online policies, training calendar, BSC info
http://www.finadmin.unh.edu/asr/
Major Outcomes
1. Savings - $1.3 million annually, mostly personnel
2. Improved business services to divisions & depts
3. No layoffs - 39 positions eliminated (5 in central offices)
We also…
4. Improved campus morale
5. Improved information for decision-making
6. Improved financial management
7. Positioned UNH to handle future needs
(RCM, Banner, new regs, growth, etc.)
How did we start?
The 6 phases of the typical change process
1. Enthusiasm
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic
4. Search for the guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Praise and honors for the nonparticipants
The 7 tasks of the ASR project
1. Develop conceptual plan (7/95)
2. Build credible business case (8/95 to 10/95)
3. Gain top level support (11/95 to 3/96)
4. Enact selective hiring freeze (4/96 to 6/98)
5. Refine plan (4/96 to 10/96)
6. Gain broad support (4/96 to 6/98)
7. Implement (11/96 to 7/98)
1. Develop conceptual plan
• We believed that to provide the best service at the least
cost, business staff must be organized in teams of 3 to 12
and secretarial staff should be in teams of at least 2
• To capture budget savings from process improvements,
sweeping consolidations of business personnel are
necessary.
In other words…
Consolidation was the primary strategy for budget
savings.
2. Build credible business case:
Model the future state
 Gather data….lots of data
 Survey 5 pilot areas using modified NACUBO’s Work
Effort Survey (BPR for Higher Ed, c. 1994)
 Determine direct labor cost of each function by employee
 Develop volume measures for each functional category
 Compute benchmark cost/unit of volume
2. Build credible business case:
How to get there from here
UNH Voluntary Attrition:
Admin Support
All Staff
FY93
FY94
FY95
138
141
157
Positions Only
28
27
24
3. Gain top level support
Approval received to proceed to the next phase from:
• Provost
• Interim VPFA
• 2nd Interim President
• Trustees
• New (current) President
4. Begin selective hiring freeze
 Administered centrally
 Oversaw all administrative staff movements
 Assisted supervisors recruiting staff
 Assisted staff looking for opportunities &
retraining
 Assured we met our savings goals in a fair &
consistent way
5. Refine plan: Definition of 3
categories of admin support services
1. DEPT BUSINESS SERVICES (CORE BSC SERVICES) – budget,
buy/pay, travel, accounting, personnel/payroll, grant & contract accounting,
billing & a/r, financial reporting & analysis, reconciliations & other financial
controls, CUFS & HRIS entry & update, etc.
2. DEPT SECRETARIAL/CLERICAL SERVICES – typing & wordprocessing, answer phones, greet visitors, filing, copying, schedule meetings,
order office supplies, organize, delivery, other data entry & clerical, etc.
3. OTHER ADMIN/PROGRAMMATIC SERVICES – central office business
functions, “line of business” functions (e.g., gift processing at Development
Office or student billing at Telecom), general supervision & mgmt, computer
support, direct student & academic services, counseling, Student IS entry &
update, meetings, newsletters, plan special events, etc.
5. Refine plan: Administer fully the
work effort survey
399 people surveyed – 373.6 FTEs
Survey Results:
Dept business services
Dept secretarial/clerical services
Other admin/programmatic services
FTEs
Total
94.4
195.5
83.7
373.6
*Includes:
Total FY96 cost of CUFS entry/update
Total FY96 cost of financial reporting & analysis
Total FY96 cost of buy/pay activities
% of
FY96 Costs
$3,472,921 *
$5,868,106
$3,206,582
$12,547,609
$896,785
$520,495
$404,000
28%
47%
25%
100%
5. Refine plan: Example - Dept
Business Benchmark
Business
Academic Areas
FTEs
College 1
9.2
College 2
8.1
College 3
8.0
College 4
1.6
College 5
3.7
Acad Affairs - other
6.5
subtotal
37.1
All other areas
57.3
Total
94.4
FY96
Bus Cost
$ 332,264
$ 274,840
$ 267,635
$ 67,283
$ 124,515
$ 229,662
$ 1,296,199
$ 2,176,722
$ 3,472,921
Unit
Volume
11,908
8,132
8,091
2,403
3,598
5,862
39,994
53,577
93,571
FY96 Cost
per Unit
$ 27.90
$ 33.80
$ 33.08
$ 28.00
$ 34.61
$ 39.18
$ 32.41
$ 40.63
$ 37.12
Using benchmark cost/unit of $27.90 x 93,571 units = goal of $2,610,631, a
targeted savings of $862,290.
5. Refine plan: Estimated FTE’s per
BSC
Academic Areas
Business
Target
Cost
@27.90/unit
Target BSC
FTEs @
Avg
Cost per FTE
College 1 $ 332,233
College 2
College 3
College 4
College 5
Acad Affairs - other
subtotal
All other areas
Total
$ 226,883
$ 225,739
$ 67,044
$ 100,384
$ 163,550
$1,115,833
$1,494,798
$2,610,631
6.1
6.1
1.8
2.7
4.4
30.1
40.3
70.5
FY96
Business
FTEs
9.0
8.1
8.0
1.6
3.7
6.5
37.1
57.3
94.4
9.2
6. Gain broad support
• Lots and lots of communication, all faculty &
staff groups, especially Deans’ Council
• Identified 8 pilot areas – including all the
colleges
• Created Local Teams - included service
providers & customers, and supporters &
opponents
6. Gain broad support : Local Teams
What does a Local Team do?
With the support and assistance of the University ASR Core Team….

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Keep others in the Area informed about ASR
Address concerns of people within the Area
Learn from each other
Develop ideas on ways to improve services and reduce costs
Develop Area-specific implementation plans
Idea was to educate each other on what each other needs and does to
support those needs, and to instill the ASR principle that implementation
of organizational change is best accomplished locally with central
assistance as needed.
7. Implement
Barriers & roadblocks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Human issues
Human issues
Human issues
Human issues
Human issues
Human Issues -- Setting up BSCs
impacts EVERYONE
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Secretaries
Accounting clerks
Business managers
Faculty & P.I.s
Dept chairs
VPs, Deans & directors
Central office staff
Human issues - staff & supervisor
concerns

Internal freeze - took away local autonomy
for hiring process

Staff felt their jobs were in jeopardy

Loyalty to dept impacted redeployment
discussion

Desktop standards meant that Macs &
favorite spreadsheet were history
Human issues - dept chair & faculty
concerns
 Lack of trust of central (and College) administration
 Is this a ploy to consolidate academic depts?
 Is this a ploy for VPFA or the Controller to take over?
 Intense loyalty to and reliance on dept secretary
 Chairs fought hard for existing resources; didn’t want to
give these up
 Dependency on others outside dept to accomplish needs
 How to convince people that investment was needed in
order to realize savings?
 Scalability - anticipated growth
Human issues - VP, dean & director
concerns
 What if I go first and then Division B doesn’t do it?
 Why do I have to contribute more than Division B does?
 Complexity factor, especially in Research areas
 One CFO per CEO
 CFO must be within shouting distance
 Insufficient space to meet BSC requirements
 “Virtual BSC” vs “Physical BSC”
Quote of the hour
“WE ARE UNIQUE”
Critical Success Factors
1. Sell the product
2. Create a sense of urgency
3. Maintain stamina
4. Earn people’s trust
5. Create central framework & support structure
6. Encourage local control
7. Go for the whole
8. Invest in visible ways
1. Sell the product
• Create a vision, make it easy to remember
• Always provide a choice
• What’s in it for each group?
• Sweeten the pill (e.g., job titles and salary increases)
• Have 10x as much data as anyone else
• Sell the whole package –must take the good with the bad
2. Create a sense of urgency
Need leverage, for example…
• Budget problems
• New system implementation
• Promise of increased local autonomy &
authority
3. Maintain stamina
• Expect time to get over resistance to change – its natural
• Be stubborn, and repeat the message over and over
• Must have more than one leader (need a critical mass of
believers; tag-team)
• Academic & Admin solidarity– commitment &
collaboration
• Must have occasional visible support from the top
• Helps to have consultant from time to time
4. Earn people’s trust
• Show your face
• Give people a voice… Listen …and Follow-through
• Deliver on your promises – training, technology, central
support, new policies
• Communicate often & openly – repeat the vision & the
“why” of the message
• Use carrots (not sticks) whenever possible
• Set appropriate example in your own area
5. Create central framework &
support structure
• Common conceptual design, not detailed blueprints
• President mandated establishment of physical BSCs
• Central management of natural attrition
• Transitional BSC, retraining, internal promotions
• Central IT, HR, Facilities, Controller support
• Common system & policies, but local autonomy &
authority
6. Encourage local control
• Establish Local Teams
• Establish Financial & Administration Council
• BSC CFOs report to Unit CEOs
• Unit CEOs responsible for implementation of
organizational change
• Allow flexibility where you can - compromise on
the nonessentials
7. Go for the whole
• Don’t settle for 1 or 2 pilots or you will never gain
the momentum to finish
• Do the most difficult areas first, to disprove the
nay-sayers
• It’s the whole that allows central office delegation
and staff reduction
• It’s the whole that provides benefits of
standardization and simplification
8. Invest in visible ways
Financial Resources Committed (in thousands):

Physical Renovations

Equipment (primarily desktop computers)
344

Furnishings (primarily ergonomic workstations)
127

Training
255

Temporary business & systems analysis help
104

Consulting (KublerWirka, Inc. 781-431-8850; [email protected])
65

Transitional BSC operations
18
Total
$ 455
$1,368
Significantly less than original project budget of $3.2 million