Accenture SASS Recommendations

7/31/2019 Accenture SASS Recommendations

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Strategic Assessment of Support Services Project Recommendations

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Executive Summary

The Strategic Assessment of Support Services (SASS) project assessed the existing Administrative

support organization (e.g. Facilities, IT, Communications and Marketing, Finance) in order to identify

opportunities to create a more efficient and effective organization. Our project team collected detailed

information about the number of staff, total cost of the administrative tasks and associated error rates in

support of a formal benchmarking process. We also solicited candid feedback from over 300 faculty and

staff via focus groups, 70 faculty and staff through individualized interviews and a stakeholder survey

with over 280 respondents to gain a qualitative perspective of Miamis current Administrative support

organization. By combining both elements of the data with the advice of the SASS Steering Committee,

we generated a list of recommendations and sample implementation roadmap for the campus community

to consider.

Several specific themes emerged from the data and feedback during our assessment:

Miami is a tight knit community with a strong tradition of excellence which is a tremendousstrength; however, it can be barrier to innovation and change if tradition translates into inertia.

When measured against other higher education peers, Miami has a high percentage of resourcesthat are focused on transactional work.

Related to transactional work, there are several areas that could benefit from automation. The campus has a strong desire for more communication and collaboration as changes in

procedures and process are considered and implemented.

Through an exhaustive review of 57 identified opportunities, in conjunction with the overall themes, the

project team formed a series of substantial recommendations for the university. We will spend the

remainder of this document providing greater detail on the nine core recommendations focused on

optimizing service levels, while reducing cost and risk across a broad base of administrative operations:

Strategic Purchasing IT Rationalization Smart Building Technology Administrative Services Transformation Regional Campus Assessment Academic Administrative Support Optimization Enrollment Services Contact Center Policy Simplification and Documentation Process Simplification for Reimbursement

Taken together as a cohesive change program these opportunities have a potential annual savings benefit

that ranges between $7.6 million and $19.3 million as shown in the figure below. The large range of

potential benefits reflects both the uncertainty in estimated costs and benefits and Miami Universitys

ability and willingness to move to a smaller, more standardized organization and set of policies and

processes for administrative services.


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Figure 1: SASS Recommendations Annual Net Savings

We strongly recommend that careful consideration be given to a balanced approach for implementation

that is realistic about the availability and capacity of the university to absorb change. When compared to

the results achieved by other similar change programs we strongly recommend that Miami carefully

balance the need for short term cost savings against a long term sustainable model.

Background and Approach

In January of 2011, Miami University launched the Strategic Analysis of Support Services (SASS)

engagement. The projects goal is the development of a multi-year improvement strategy that enables

Miami to develop a new, more efficient organizational design that leads to meaningful cost reductions and

increased service levels. To achieve this goal, we evaluated the support services organizational structure

and provided recommendations to improve its effectiveness and/or efficiency. Potential ideas for

consideration included eliminating duplication in functions and services, reducing the number of

organizational layers, streamlining the organization structure and investigating alternative ways of

sourcing work.

Prior to the start of and throughout the project, Miami implemented several large cost cutting measures.

These activities generated significant costs savings by implementing a series of staff adjustment and

revenue generation projects. The Accenture team carefully considered these recent changes when

developing our recommendations for further process, policy and organization structure improvements for

Support Services.

The conclusions and recommendations in this document represent a merging of the data obtained from

institutional research, surveys and focus groups that we gathered with Accentures experience working

-$10.0

-$5.0

$.0

$5.0

$10.0

$15.0

$20.0

$25.0

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Savings(inMillions)

Annual Net Savings Over Five Years


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with other university clients. The recommendations also include some of the potential lessons that can be

learned by looking to the operational structures in other service and research-oriented industries

(hospitality, pharmaceutical). We would be remiss if we did not highlight the dedication, flexibility and

candor of everyone from the Miami staff involved in the process. Our analysis was greatly aided by our

ability to gather an array of perspectives.

Approach

The project as shown in Figure 2 below is an aggressively scheduled approach to gather information,

analyze the support services and identify potential opportunities.

Figure 2: SASS Project Approach

Phase 1Planning, Mobilization and Sponsorship, was focused on identifying and engaging a large

number of participants in the project and confirming the approach to a broad based project that included

over twenty-three distinct business functions at the university. The participants included:

1. SASS Steering Committee. Steering Committee members (Appendix includes list ofSteering Committee members) served two roles: advisor to the project team and liaisonback to the university community. Steering Committee members participated in threehour semi-monthly sessions at the beginning of the project and three hour twice-a-weeksessions during the last month. During the meetings, Steering Committee membersshared feedback on the opportunities identified and from the university community.Their dedication and candor were instrumental in turning opportunities into our finalrecommendations.

2. Another key group of project participants were the 28 Area Leads (Appendix includes listof Area Leads) each tasked with ensuring their area was represented and activelyparticipated in the project.

3. The final group of critical contributors identified was the interview, focus group and/orstakeholder survey participants. The role of these participants was to provide candidfeedback on the process and services of the identified areas. This included over 300resources across the organization.

In addition to identifying project participants, the project scope was also confirmed and categorized

during Phase 1. As is typical of a comprehensive operational review the number of functional areas

included in the SASS engagement was broad (see Figure 3). The Accenture team used a categorization

framework to ensure that we focused the maximum effort in the areas that had the highest potential to

Project Management / Change Management

Case for Change(Roadmap)AnalysisBenchmarking

Planning, Mobilization andSponsorship

January 4 14 January 18 March 18 March21 April 1 April 4 April 30


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positively impact service, reduce institutional risk or improve the cost structure. In conjunction with the

Steering Committee the project team classified the scope areas into three levelsHigh, Medium and Low

where levels corresponded to the data collection and process change efforts directed to each unit. High

and medium areas were included in the data collection, interview and focus group activities. Low areas

participated in the data collection activities with interviews and focus groups conducted on an as-needed

basis.

Figure 3: SASS Project Scope

During Phase 2Benchmarking the project team utilized The Hackett Group tools 1and methodology to

collect and analyze data from three sources. The assessment methodology is designed to shift the focus

away from anecdotal comments and generate a foundation of data to drive the recommendations. The first

component of data was labor and other costs associated with an area. For Finance, Human Resources

(HR), Information Technology (IT) and Procurement, The Hackett Group asked additional questions in

order to benchmark Miami against peer and top performing organizations outside of higher education.

The second component of data was the information collected during the Focus Groups and Interview

sessions. The project team conducted over 86 Focus Groups and Interviews engaging over 300 members

of the Miami University community. Focus groups and interviews were very productive sessions with

participants providing candid feedback aboutpeoples perceptions of what currently works and where

there are opportunities for improvement. The third source of data came from the 280 responses received

from the Finance, HR, IT and Procurement Stakeholder surveys. The surveys provided stakeholders

view of the importance, involvement and effectiveness of the functional area services. Miami

1The Hackett Group tools consist of a standard taxonomy and corresponding data collection questions, an online

data collection portal, functional benchmarks and stakeholder surveys.

Campus:Oxford~Hamilton

~Middletown~VOA

Advancement & Alumni Relations (Development)

Public Safety / Police

Government Relations

General Counsel

Library

Multicultural Programming / Diversity

International Education

Institutional Research (Student Services)

Facilities

Recreational Sports Facilities

Housing

Dining & Catering

Conference Facilities & Services

Bookstore

Supply Data Management Requisition and PO Processing Supplier Scheduling Receipt Processing Compl iance Management Customer Management Sourcing Execution Supplier Mgmt and Development Sourcing & Supply Base Strategy Function Strategy and

Performance Management Function Management

Procurement

Total Rewards Administration Payroll Services Data Management., Reporting &

Compliance Staffing Services Labor Relations Workforce Development Services Organisational Effectiveness Total Rewards Planning Strategic Workforce Planning Function Management

Human Resources

Cash Disbursements Revenue Cycle Accounting and External

Reporting Tax Management Treasury Management Compli ance Management Planning & Performance

Management Business Analysis Function Management

Finance

Infrastructure Management End User Support Infrastructure Development Application Maintenance Application Development &

Implementation Quality Assurance Risk Management IT Business Planning Enterprise Architecture Planning Emerging Technologies Function Management

Information Technology

Focus

High

Medium

Low

Communications& Marketing

Office of the Academic Deans & AcademicDepartment Administration

Grad. Education Admin.Admissions(Student Services)

Student Center

Airport

Parking & Bus Services

Intercollegiate Athletics

Planning & ConstructionEnergy Management

Maintenance

Environ. Health & Safety

CustodialGarage

Grounds

Community EngagementRetention & Graduation

Learning & Disability Assistance

Student Activities & Leadersh ip

Greek LifeAdvising

Counseling

Health Center

Career PlanningStudent Conduct

Residence Life

Communications& Marketing

LifelongLearning &Outreach

Lifelong Learning& Outreach

MiddletownHamilton

VOA

Regional Campus

Student Services

Registration

Student FinancialAid

Enrollment

Services (StudentServices)ResearchAdministration

Research

Administration

LibraryAuxiliary Operations

* Note: Hackett Taxonomy f or functio ns included in italics and parentheses


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Universitys response rate was higherthan most universities and affirmed many comments provided

during the interviews and focus groups. To be clear, the benchmark process is a challenge for any

organizations to undertake as it imposes very strict definitions and methodology on the data collection to

ensure comparability to other universities and similar service organizations. We appreciate the flexibility

and the hard work of the campus community in seeking to understand the data request to ensure that the

result would yield the most benefit for the campus.

Phase 3 Analysis consisted of reviewing and analyzing the collected data in order to identify potential

opportunities. We reviewed and summarized the data from each area to provide Steering Committee

members with an understanding of the current operational strengths and the potential opportunities for

improvement. In total, the project team completed fifteen distinct areas reviews (Area Slides are located

in the Appendix) and corresponding opportunities. These fifteen areas resulted in fifty seven unique

opportunities for consideration. We worked with the steering committee to disposition each of the

identified opportunities into one of three categories.

1. Additional investigation requested (48)2. Sufficient detail provided (8)3. Rejected (1)

Building on the detailed work done at the individual opportunity level Phase 4Case for Change was

focused on structuring the opportunities into a logical plan that includes both the cost and benefit

implications. Each of the detailed analysis summaries was presented to the Steering Committee for

review and input. The detailed analysis includes the reasons why the university should consider

implementing the recommendation, details on the project, a potential timeline, resources needed,

dependencies, assumptions made, estimated cost to implement and expected savings ranges. Specifics of

the recommendations and their detailed analysis are discussed throughout the remainder of the document

and can be found in the appendix. Once the detailed analysis was complete, the recommendations were

placed into an implementation plan, or roadmap, to provide a view of how the university could implement

the recommendations within a two-year period. (A sample roadmap is located in the Appendix.)

Major Themes

Several consistent themes emerged across Administrative Support Services:

Miami is a tight knit community with a strong tradition of excellence which is a tremendousstrength; however, it can be barrier to innovation and change if tradition translates into inertia.

When measured against other higher education peers, Miami has a high percentage of resourcesthat are focused on transactional work.

Related to transactional work, there are several areas that could benefit from automation. The campus has a strong desire for more communication and collaboration as changes in

procedures and process are considered and implemented.


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Miami is a tight knit community with a strong tradition of excellence which is a tremendous strength;

however, it can be barrier to innovation and change if tradition translates into inertia.

The university community has had to deal with a number of changes in recent years and has been told

additional changes are coming. However based on the comments and behaviors demonstrated during the

project, it is clear that the university community is not prepared to absorb the significant level of change

at the aggressive end of the scale in our recommendations without a concerted change management effort.

Organizational, process and policy changes recommended by the project require strong leadership and a

willingness of customers to change their perceptions of how services are provided. It is strongly

recommended that the university include change management activities when implementing the

recommendations.

When measured against other higher education peers, Miami has a high percentage of resources that are

focused on transactional work.

Due to the manual and labor intensive processes and policies that currently exist within the university, ahigh percentage of employees spend their time processing transactions. This is important work that must

clearly exist in administrative operations, but figure 4 helps to illustrate that Miami is disproportionally

spending money to execute the Finance, Human Resources and Procurement functions.

Figure 4: Miami Resources Allocated to Transaction Processing

This is a consistent opportunity found across a variety of university organizations, although in several

areas Miami is above its peers. As processes and policies form in an evolutionary progression in adecentralized organizational model they become inconsistent and unwieldy to manage. They are created

and are not holistically reviewed in an attempt to streamline them or make them more customer-focused.

This challenge is frequently the key roadblock to rethinking the organization of a business function.

The high percentage of resources processing transactions not only indicates an opportunity to streamline

processes andpolicies, it also indicates Miamis professional and manager level staff are spending

significant portions of their time focused on the mechanics of processing transactions rather than the

Miami

51%

Miami

88% Miami

79%

Peers

51%

Peers

70%Peers

68%

World Class

39%

World Class

50% World Class

44%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

HR Finance Procurement

Resources Allocated to Transaction Processing


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strategy of the mission. This indicates there may be opportunities to re-focus staff on more strategic and

proactive activities verses the ones currently occupying their time.

Related to transactional work, there are several areas that could benefit from automation.

Although Miami has automated many activities, especially those that are student facing, additional

opportunities exist to automate transactions and enable technology and self-service capabilities within the

Administrative support functions. Sample processes not yet automated include submittal of expense

reports, updating of employee records, self-service budget input and the use of a data warehouse for

reporting.

The campus has a strong desire for more communication and collaboration as changes in procedures and

process are considered and implemented.

The university community feels that the amount and quality of communications they receive on changes

needs to increase and improve. Based on the Stakeholder survey results, Communications are viewed as

Vital/Highly Important, but Miamis effectiveness at communicating is less than Average/Gets the Job

Done. Throughout the interviews and focus groups this theme repeatedly emerged. When implementing

change it is important to be transparent to the university community about how decisions will be made

and why changes are being implemented. Additionally, it is crucial to communicate regularly and

through a variety of channels in order to ensure all stakeholders receive the message. Finally, a variety

of training methods should be included such as, instructor-lead sessions, on-line tutorials and step-by-step

guides.

Automation, new systems and new applications provide the university with opportunities to provideadditional and/or improved services more efficiently. However, it is imperative that input from the end

user and customer be considered when making decisions and building systems. Despite some efforts by

project teams, participants voiced concerns that automation was occurring and processes were being

streamlined at the expense of the end user. Many felt work previously performed by administrative

support functions was being pushed to them and that their specific department needs are not taken into

consideration. We fully recognize that this is a delicate balancing act between the need to standardize

process and enforce policies that reduce institutional risk while meeting core user needs. Explaining the

rationale behind changes can help customers and end users better understand why decisions were made.

Recommendations

The project team has identified 9 opportunities to drive substantial service improvement and cost

reduction across a broad range administrative support services. The opportunities include:

Strategic Purchasing


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IT Rationalization Smart Building Technology Administrative Services Transformation Regional Campus Assessment Academic Administrative Support Optimization Enrollment Services Contact Center Policy Simplification and Documentation Process Simplification for Reimbursement

Strategic Purchasing

Miami has a significantly higher number of suppliers for the majority of spend categories when compared

to peers. For example, there are four times as many suppliers compared to peers for General Equipment

& Supplies and six times as many suppliers compared to peers for IT & Telecommunications spend at

Miami. Additionally, Miami has not addressed spending in several areas including travel, IT and

telecommunications.

Recently the university implemented the BuyWay system to collect additional data on spending in an

attempt to negotiate lower prices and other savings on purchases. Based on comments from focus group

discussions, there is a perception that prices are higher on BuyWay than what can be found through other

purchasing options. This is discouraging the use of BuyWay and eroding the benefit Miami can achieve

from the implementation.

Furthermore, during a recent review by the Inter-University Council (IUC) Strategic Purchasing was

identified as an area of opportunity for collaboration across universities. However, there are currently

few master contracts in place and no formal procurement structure or governance in place. The timing for

IUC taking action on its recommendation is unknown.

We recommend Miami pursue additional Strategic Purchasing opportunities on its own now while

actively seeking to accelerate collaboration with the IUC. We also recommend Miami revisit existing

vendor payment terms and try to negotiate for early payment discounts in order to capture additional

savings. Strategic Purchasing will reduce the effort Miami spends managing suppliers and result in

Miami receiving reduced prices and maximizing purchasing discounts for all addressable spend

categories. Implementing early payments will require Accounts Payable to change its processes in order

to meet the new early payment deadlines and achieve the savings. Based on a preliminary analysis that

approximately $84 million of spending is addressable by this approach, the following cost and savings

estimates were created:


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Figure 5: Strategic Purchasing Costs and Benefits Estimates

IT Rationalization

Based on the Hackett benchmark results, Miami supports a much higher number of applications per user

when compared to peers, by a measure of at least 3 to 1. While there are some applications that provide

core functionality to the entire university community, there are a large number of applications that

provide redundant capabilities and contribute to a higher cost to license, support, integrate and maintain.

Because of this focus on maintenance of existing capabilities Miami dedicates only 24% of its IT effort

on development activities, compared to a 51% focus for world class organizations. This lower focus on

development supports customers view that IT has low capacity to address their demand for improved

applications and application enhancements. Miami spends the majority of its IT efforts, 51% on

operations including the maintenance of its 368 applications.

Given the results of our data collection, we recommend Miami reduce the number of IT applications

supported, consolidate infrastructure to the central ITS data center and implement portfolio governance.

These changes will reduce the application and infrastructure complexity and provide the necessary insight

to implement more strategic IT changes.

Miamis spend on hardware, software, application development and maintenance and infrastructure that

can be influenced by this initiative is $16.2 million. The below chart summarizes a five year cost and

benefits view to implement these changes:

Savings by Year End Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Gross Savings - High $2.50 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00

Gross Savings - Expected $1.50 $4.30 $4.30 $4.30 $4.30Gross Savings - Low $0.60 $1.70 $1.70 $1.70 $1.70

Investment ($1.80) $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00

Net Savings - High $0.70 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00

Net Savings - Expected ($0.30) $4.30 $4.30 $4.30 $4.30

Net Savings - Low ($1.20) $1.70 $1.70 $1.70 $1.70

Costs and Benefits (in Millions)


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Figure 6: IT Rationalization Costs and Benefits Estimates

Smart Building Technology

Miami is incorporating energy efficient materials and technology during new construction and the

updating of existing buildings on its campuses. Increasing the energy efficiency of the university and

reducing its spend on energy is viewed as an ideal opportunity. To accelerate and improve Miamis

energy savings, we recommend implementing Smart building technology. Smart building technology

will reduce the costs Miami pays for energy and improve its forecasting abilities.

It is important to note, Miami has attempted to implement automated systems to reduce the universitys

spend on energy in the past, but was unsuccessful. Although past failures should not deter the university

from further considering this opportunity, it is important to ensure past failed attempts are not repeated.

The project believes the barriers to success have been resolved through additional technology innovation,

but recommends further investigation to ensure that this is the case before implementing the

recommendation.

Based on the assumption that Miamis annual spend is $18 million and 60% of that amount is

addressable, the following Cost and Benefits estimates were provided:

Figure 7: Smart Building Costs and Benefits Estimates

Administrative Services Transformation




Investment ($2.7) ($0.7) $0.0 $0.0 $0.0

Net Savings - High $0.4 $3.1 $3.8 $3.8 $3.8


Net Savings - Low ($1.1) $1.3 $2.0 $2.0 $2.0




Gross Savings - Expected $0.22 $1.50 $2.10 $2.50 $2.70

Gross Savings - Low $0.21 $1.40 $2.00 $2.40 $2.60

Investment ($0.80) ($0.60) ($0.60) ($0.60) ($0.60)

Net Savings - High ($0.57) $1.00 $1.60 $2.00 $2.20


Net Savings - Low ($0.59) $0.80 $1.40 $1.80 $2.00



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Miamis Finance, HR, IT and Procurement areas have high transaction volumes, low spans of control,

decentralized services and opportunities for improving communications across areas. All of these

challenges together result in a number of redundant work efforts. Additionally Manager and Professional

level employees are spending their time focusing on transactional activities instead of strategic tasks. The

general perception of customers is that the areas are busy processing work and not spending enough time

focusing on other strategic needs. Both customers and the functional area leads agree changes are needed.

In order to address the issue and transform the way services are provided, we recommend a carefully

planned, substantial reorganization effort. There are several opportunities to cluster or centralize in

addition to segregating the transactional work from strategic planning and management. In simple terms,

provide department heads the necessary time to provide leadership and strategic planning, instead of

having them deal with small transaction-related issues. Additionally, the areas need to grow the trust of

their customers by partnering with them and implementing shared services concepts. In our work with

higher education clients, we have found that a proactive implementation of a customer relationship model

builds trust between customers and the shared services organization.

In its most simplistic form, shared services organizations consolidate transactional activities into a singleorganization and work to partner with customers to create shared performance expectations. Performance

is monitored and managed via the use of metrics and there is a focus on continued process improvement.

In addition to implementing the shared services model, the SASS project recommends developing a Help

Desk for the Finance, HR and Procurement areas. The Help Desk will provide dedicated resources to

address and route customer requests and inquires. Additionally, support materials in the form of standard

responses to frequently asked questions will be provided to the staff. This will provide the responsiveness

customers desire as well as consistent answers to their inquiries.

Along with a shared services group to process transactions and handle basic inquires and requests from

customers we recommend the creation of a group of resources dedicated to focusing on specificfunctional areas of expertise. An example of specialties for HR includes recruiting, workforce

development and employee relations. Specific IT examples include development and maintenance. The

third component of the new organization structure is the group of resources assigned to specific customers

within the university. Their job is to understand the needs of their assigned areas and work with the area

to develop tools and plans to meet those needs.

Using the following assumptions derived from our experience implementing shared services and

organization change programs (over 2,000 projects) we estimate the costs and benefits of this

recommendation as follows:

Assumed savings for HR: 0%(*) (low), 5%(Expected) and 10% (High) Assumed savings for Finance : 5% (low), 10% (Expected) and 15% (High) Assumed savings for Procurement: 5% (low), 10% (Expected) and 15% (High) Assumed savings for IT: 2% (low), 10% (Expected) and 15% (High)

(*) Given the current lower investment in Human Resources when compared to other

organizations,Miami may consider reinvesting these savings into additional capability

development.


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Figure 8: Administrative Services Transformation Costs and Benefits Estimate

Regional Campus Assessment

Miami University, Oxford campus, prides itself on providing a premier undergraduate, residential college

experience. This mission or how it relates to the overall strategy and the regional campus model is not

clearly articulated or understood by the university community. Miamis regional campuses have evolved

over time, driven and influenced by both internal and external forces.

Any discussion on the regional campuses elicits emotional responses. The university has previously

employed committees to address the issue, but they have been unable or unwilling to fully resolve the

difficult topicWhat is the mission of the Regional Campuses within Miami University? Operating

without a shared and agreed to understanding of the mission of the regional campuses has likely resulted

in lost opportunities for both the campuses and the university.

We believe it is imperative Miami have the necessary discussions and agree upon the mission and long-

term strategy for the regional campuses prior to making any other decisions or taking any further actions

regarding the management and organization of the regional campuses. Once a shared and agreed

understanding is determined, each regional campus should be analyzed to determine if it is meeting its

objectives and its financial impact on the university. Only then should recommendations and decisions be

made on future changes for the regional campuses.

Given the unknowns regarding the future strategy of the regional campuses, we were unable to quantify

what could be expected from those discussions. However based on our analysis, we believe there are

opportunities to centralize and streamline many areas of the regional campuses organizational structure.

Several opportunities were put forward to the Steering Committee for consideration including:

Realigning Regional Facilities operations and maintenance reporting structure to Oxford PFD orOutsourcing Regional facility activities

Integrating the Library organizations under a single structure Aligning regional campus enrollment services to report to the Enrollment Services in Oxford

Using these opportunities as potential future recommendations, we were able to produce the following

costs and benefits estimates:


Gross Savings - High $0.0 $1.8 $2.2 $2.2 $2.2Gross Savings - Expected $0.0 $1.2 $1.5 $1.5 $1.5


Investment ($1.4) ($0.2) $0.0 $0.0 $0.0

Net Savings - High ($1.4) $1.6 $2.2 $2.2 $2.2


Net Savings - Low ($1.4) $0.3 $0.6 $0.6 $0.6



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Figure 9: Regional Campus Assessment Benefits Estimates

Academic Administrative Support Optimization

Today there are over 135 classified FTEs supporting the Office of Academic Deans, Academic

Department Administration and Graduate Administration. Based heavily on prior experience in

reviewing support service personnel we believe that there could be a significant opportunity to implement

an organizational change to maintain service levels and bring down cost while providing a broader career

opportunity for staff who work in this area. It is important to note, that a limited amount of upfront

analysis was completed on this recommendation. However, Administrative Support is an area where

many universities have implemented an alternative support model.

We recommend the areas mentioned above pool their administrative resources and provide several

options regarding the level of support an area receives. In order to implement this recommendation a time

study and documentation of the services provided by the existing administrative employees must be

completed. Additionally the needs and expectations of the staff and faculty they support must beunderstood and used to develop the service level options ultimately offered.

Due to Miamis recent budget cuts and our previous experience in deploying shared administrative

support we expect Miami will achieve between 515% savings in the cost of academic administrative

services. Figure 10 shows our costs and benefits estimates for the recommendation.

Figure 10: Academic Administrative Support Optimization Costs and Benefits Estimates




Investment (unknown) $0.0 $0.0 $0.0 $0.0 $0.0

Net Savings - High $0.5 $1.9 $1.9 $1.9 $1.9

Net Savings - Expected $0.3 $1.2 $1.2 $1.2 $1.2

Net Savings - Low $0.2 $0.6 $0.6 $0.6 $0.6






Investment ($1.00) $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00

Net Savings - High ($0.80) $0.80 $0.80 $0.80 $0.80


Net Savings - Low ($0.93) $0.30 $0.30 $0.30 $0.30



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Enrollment Services Contact Center

Today the Registrar and the Office of Financial Aid each have their own call center to support their

operations. Calls are frequently passed between the areas in order to resolve the callers situation.

Additionally, students are often sent to several offices to complete the enrollment processes. It is clear

from our assessment that there is both an opportunity and an interest in streamlining these processes and

improving the student experience.

We recommend creating a shared contact center for registration and financial aid. In addition to co-

located and merging the contact centers, we also recommend revising the existing policies and procedures

to better support collaboration between the enrollment services units.

This recommendation will reduce the number of resources performing similar activities, maintain and

improve consistency in the services provided to students and facilitate collaboration between the

enrollment services units. In addition to these benefits, the university can also reduce the costs of the

services currently provided, as displayed in Figure 11 below.

Figure 11: Enrollment Services Contact Center Costs and Benefits Estimates

Policy Simplification and Documentation

Policies are managed, communicated and updated inconsistently across the university. Some departments

update their policies frequently, causing confusion for customers, and other departments have not updated

their policies in years leading to outdated and misaligned policies. When trying to locate current policies,

customers, and the team, had a hard time finding them. Furthermore, policies are inconsistently enforced

across the university.

We recommend Miami launch an aggressive effort to review and update Finance, HR, IT and

Procurement policies to make sure they are easily understood by customers and that they do not

unnecessarily create extra effort or costs for the university. This is also an excellent opportunity to assess

policies within a framework of the cost implications. This will allow for a more rapid updating of policies

where those change may generate less work or concrete cost savings. An initial list of policies for

consideration includes:





Investment ($0.6) $0.0 $0.0 $0.0 $0.0

Net Savings - High ($0.2) $0.8 $0.8 $0.8 $0.8


Net Savings - Low ($0.5) $0.2 $0.2 $0.2 $0.2



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Vacation accrual policy Vacation bank policy Contract distribution policy Computer and telecommunication purchasing policy Direct payment policy Travel and expense policy Journal voucher policy

Based on our understanding of the current situation and our experience implementing similar programs at

other universities, we estimate the Benefits and Costs Savings to be:

Figure 12: Policy Simplification and Documentation Financial Costs and Benefits Estimates

Process Simplification for Reimbursement

Miami Universitys Travel and Expense (T&E) process is currently completed manually with 7,000

reports processed annually. The current paper-based processing combined with what end users consider

to be an unclear policy results in a 30% error rate. A 30% error is extremely high and requires over 1,125

hours of work effort each year to fix. Additionally, the Hackett benchmark data indicates there are 3

times more Full-time equivalents (FTEs) processing T&E when compared to peer organizations and 20

times more when looking at world class organizations. The higher FTE counts drive up the costs per

transaction. Miami is currently spending $66.73 per transaction compared to the $26.16 Miamis peers

are spending.

We recommend Miami simplify and automate its T&E process. Simplify the T&E policies and

procedures by updating them to eliminate unnecessary steps and approvals. A new automated T&Esystem will also be required to implement this recommendation. This recommendation will result in

reduced manual effort, rework and error rate, a standard streamlined process and faster reimbursements to

customers. Additionally the recommendation will result in the following savings:

Figure 13: Process Simplification for Reimbursement Costs and Benefits Estimate




Investment ($0.10) $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00

Net Savings - High $0.13 $0.26 $0.28 $0.31 $0.34

Net Savings - Expected $0.06 $0.17 $0.19 $0.21 $0.23

Net Savings - Low ($0.02) $0.09 $0.09 $0.10 $0.11



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Page 16 of 16

Other Opportunities for Consideration

In addition to the recommendations outlined above, we identified a number of additional opportunitiesMiami may want to consider implementing (Opportunities are included in the appendix). These

opportunities were not included above because either we were unable to quantify the opportunity, we

believed the university could implement the idea on its own, the university was already in the process of

implementing the opportunity or we believed given the current culture the university was not ready to

undertake the recommendation.





Investment ($0.2) $0.0 $0.0 $0.0 $0.0

Net Savings - High ($0.2) $0.3 $0.3 $0.3 $0.3


Net Savings - Low ($0.2) $0.1 $0.1 $0.1 $0.1


Accenture SASS Recommendations

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