Process Improvement

The campus needs to continually assess whether each of the key processes of the organization is providing the needed level of support in the most efficient manner. To that end, the Provost has charged the Resource Use Advisory Board to identify critical projects to address areas of need.

The Resource Use Advisory Board worked last year to define guiding principles for identifying and making changes to the way services are delivered across the campus. The team members and the final recommendations to the Provost can be found on the Resource Use Advisory Board committee page.

The Board is being recommissioned to launch specific process improvement projects over the course of the year. In addition, this group will help identify when the next transformational effort should be launched, following IT@Illinois (e.g., HR@Illinois, Finance@Illinois, etc).

Several process improvement and efficiency projects are already underway. Below is a summary of each initiative and links to additional information about each effort.

Email and Calendaring

The Office of the CIO and CITES, inconjunction with the Academic Council of CIO's, has begun a project to determine what future email and calendaring services should be provided by campus for use by faculty, staff, and students. The project will evaluate both on-campus solutions (e.g. Exchange, Zimbra) and off-campus solutions (e.g. Google Apps for Education. Microsoft Live@edu). Tools and services that might enhance the core provided services will also be evaluated.

Data Center Consolidation

The purpose of this committee is to develop the concept of shared data centers into a workable plan that will increase the availability of high-quality campus data centerspace while reducing costs and duplicative use of scarce resources.

Payment of Foreign Nationals

The Resource Use Advisory Board is working with campus groups and the UA to define the processes, tools and support structures to streamline the payment of foreign nationals.

Visa Processing

The Resource Use Advisory Board is working with campus units and the UA to define the optimal way to process visa's for all Urbana campus units.

Use of Printed Materials

The Office of Public Affairs, in response to suggestions provided by the campus, has developed a team to determine methods to reduce the amount of printed materials distributed within our campus.