The Business IT Annual Symposium event is held every Fall and focuses on bridging the gap between business-related functions of the University and technological solutions that support them. Join us this October to contribute to the conversation.
Harnessing Innovation to Improve Business Operations
Participants engaged with colleagues from various functional areas (HR, finance, facilities, student services, IT) in discussion and ideation of a solution in one of three topic areas: achieving business process consistency, finding and utilizing data, or sharing best practices.
A guest judge panel selected winning proposals from each topic area. The selected proposals will be shared at the IT Professionals Forum later this Fall. Attendees were asked to vote for a People’s Choice Award proposal. That proposal will also be moved forward at the IT Professionals Forum
Event Slides
Symposium Video
View the video below or in Illinois Media Space with chapter markers for the kickoff, keynote, fireside chat, and presentation of willing proposals.
Proposals
Discussion at the Annual Symposium led to fourteen proposals addressing identified opportunities for improved processes, data finding and usage, and sharing best practices. The proposals are detailed below. The proposals selected to move forward initially are identified in the Winning Proposals field below.
The proposals below were selected to move forward to the IT Professionals Forum in November. The proposals were selected by a panel of guest judges including Deans from the School of Social Work, College of Applied Health Sciences, and the College of Media.
Selection 1 – Sharing Best Practices
Using the example of the campus plan to hire 500 new faculty, we would use a survey of business managers to identify and prioritize the business processes potentially affected by this effort. These could include: the search process, onboarding, hiring approval, appointments setup in payroll, negotiating spousal hire, special hiring factors (URM, dual career, start-up packages, etc.), CFOP creation for faculty research, budgeting/forecasting, equipment ordering, inventory tracking, need for support staff, etc.
Of the identified processes, we would select the 5 most critical to address–as ranked by the same group that submitted them.
Once the 5 processes were identified, we would ask business managers to submit their current processes/forms. These would be collected anonymously via a webpage hosted by Business IT Collaboration. The site would have a page for each process and allow documents to be uploaded.
A group of SMEs, stakeholders, and process owners (i.e. IHR for HR, OBFS for Finance, etc.) would select the best-in-class and work to refine and move towards standardization.
We propose a 1-year test phase to allow the process to be adopted. After that time, it should be re-evaluated and, if deemed successful, could be pushed towards becoming required.
After the initial 5 processes have been addressed, this whole process could begin again and look at 5 other practices in need of improvement or standardization.
Selection 2 – Finding and Using Data
Layer 1: A Smart Data Bank. This is a central place where folks can go to for general data questions.
- What are data sources out there on campus?
- Where are commonly used reports? Can these reports be shared with different colleges, or communities?
- Ideally, if it allows community users’ input, it will help enrich the contents, and foster better communication in the community.
Layer 2: We’d like to propose a data mentor program on campus, where domain experts who desperately need data to support decision making, operational needs can be paired with data experts in the domain. The pair group can have a monthly chat to facilitate understanding and bridge the gap between the two sides.
Layer 3: Along with these two layers, we would like to focus on community building through communications to facilitate these layers proposed. A MS team space, or a listserv can be options to consider.
Additional layers can be added as needed, including the potential for future training.
Along with these two layers, we would like to focus on communications to facilitate these two layers proposed. A MS Teams space, or a listserv can be options to consider.
Selection 3 – Business Process Consistency
People’s Choice Award
The People’s Choice Award goes to a proposal that was not selected by the judges, but symposium attendees voted as their favorite from the remaining entries. This will be updated after voting is closed.
TADA Collaboration — Trustworthy Actionable Data and Analytics Collaboration
A framework, similar to the Business/IT Collaboration where there are dedicated individuals leading thecharge for intentional business data collaboration of trusted stakeholders to identify, address, and resolvedata issues.We see this collaboration addressing data redundancy issues and coordination of systems, applications and data efforts at the University while being mindful of System efforts to improve datasharing.
The outcomes include consistency in data, common definitions, reduction of data and process redundancy, standardized reporting by functional areas, data-driven decision making, formalized strategic priorities, increasing job satisfaction and morale.
- Currently, the Scholarship distribution process is executed in a decentralized system that does not have common procedures, which makes us inconsistent as a system. Overall, addressing this problem it will directly impact the University’s mission of making a significant and visible societal impact while stewarding our current resources.
- Currently, the onboarding process is inconsistent, which leads to both process redundancies and a lack of a sense of belonging and excitement for new employees, which contributes to turnover and overall happiness. We propose building a consistent process to both improve efficiency and build a sense of belonging and community for new employees.
- As a large decentralized institution employee onboarding experiences are managed by hundreds of entities across the campus that creates disparate outcomes that hinder excellence.
- We have the need to store and share data that is customized and a detail level that is different from university systems. The process is too complex and we are not mature in our data and business processes.
- Units employ shadow systems and internally developed datasets. This carries risks of inconsistencies, errors, and inefficiency which could then affect decision-making.
- We believe there is a need to create a standardized analytics repository to understand what data is available and create trustworthy actionable data analytics and insights.
- At present, it is hard to find existing reports that meet common needs across campus. This is especially challenging for new employees who do not have institutional knowledge. It can be really challenging to know what access is required to get the data and interpreting the data so that decisions can be properly informed.
- Strategic Management Office, campus-wide support.
- Part of the Business IT initiative.
- Access to data for data-driven decisions.
- People are writing their own.
- The Business IT Collaboration group has recognized that Teams would be a good tool to share best practices between the various groups (Business, HR, IT) on an ongoing basis. Although a space has been created to realize this opportunity, the adoption of this has been slow. The timing of utilizing Teams for this purpose has been ahead of the transition for campus to this collaboration tool and no organized efforts have been taken to help different communities engage in this space. Effective use of this tool will allow groups to share best practices and common challenges to benefit from the collective capabilities of our campus. Breaking down silos to follow the best practices of each of our teams will help the university implement the operational excellence goals of Boldly Illinois.
- We often rely on business practices that have been in place long before we arrived at a unit. Incremental improvements are made to functionality without examining whether the overall approach still makes sense. What solution do you suggest for the review of common business practices on campus and sharing of best-in-class approaches? How can we identify best-in-class practices? Who should be responsible for determining a best-in-class process and how could information about the critical elements of an exceptional process be shared and more widely adopted? How do we recognize and reward innovation in improving business practices?
- Prepare the campus for the Skype to Teams transition and increase collaboration across campus.
- The problem is that the university is so decentralized in business/hr/it processes, that there is minimal consistency, waste from recreating the same processes, lack of efficiencies, and potential audit risk.
