Project Overview
In an effort to better serve our faculty and staff, and in turn our students, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a broad campus initiative underway to enhance customer service and improve compliance, while increasing accountability and data governance in the areas of administrative and business operations.
Nebraska has been fortunate over the last decade to see strong growth in the number of faculty and students, and in the stature of the university as a member of the Big Ten Conference. This growth has created increased demand on our staff to provide ever-better service in support of our core academic mission. Serving our institution in the areas of accounting, payroll, research administration, and human resources is foundational to every aspect of our success as a university. But we can't stop seeking improvement in all we do. This is the reason we're examining our support services, and how we deliver them, as part of a new Service Delivery Initiative.
Initiative Updates and Successes
- Initial Revised Processes have been drafted by Process Redesign Working Groups
- Implementation Planning Team has commenced
- Director of Process Improvement has been hired
Service Delivery Initiative: Initial Study
Administrative and business operations leaders expressed a desire to engage in a campus-wide study to explore improvement and efficiencies to UNL's current approach to and organization of service delivery.
Study Recommendations:
- Transition to specialized staff
- Use of metrics to guide day-to-day work efforts
- Reengineering of business process across the various business and operation functions
- Enhanced use of technology
- Reorganization of workflow
Project Objectives
The goal of the Service Delivery Initiative is to improve service to faculty, staff, and students. Driving this goal are ten key objectives.
SDI Objectives:
- Better Customer Service
- Enhanced Career Growth Opportunities
- More Training / Expertise
- Improved Compliance
- Increased Accountability
- Increased Data Governance
- Better Defined Career Paths
- More Time for Strategic Development
- Consistent / Accurate Data Entry
- Drive Continuous Improvement / Best Practices
Project Governance
The Service Delivery Initiative is a collaborative effort with project governance in place to guide the university through this implementation process. Individuals from across our campus community are serving as executive sponsors, steering committee members and various team members.
UNL is partnering with leading consultancy Huron to incorporate best practices throughout the SDI process.