The Process Re-engineering and Service Enhancement (PRASE) Program executive sponsors Gary Brewer, vice-president finance & administration, and Rhonda Lenton, vice-president academic and provost, are pleased to release the second PRASE quarterly report of 2013. The detailed report can be found here.
The PRASE team, in collaboration with faculty, staff and students, has been working with community partners and functional leaders to improve administrative processes and services in order to better sustain York University. At its core, the initiatives undertaken have found administrative efficiencies, enhanced service levels to the community and realized financial savings.
A number of initiatives are currently being monitored and are on track to achieve the intended benefits for the institution. Some of these include an already realized annual reduction of 960 hours in processing times and a signification reduction in preparation time for Employee Transaction Forms and a reduction of returned expense claims from 17 per cent to 3 per cent, as a result of a change in practice for research expense claims. To date, Sm@rtBuy savings are at $750,000, with results tracking to achieve the target of $1 million in savings by September 2013.
The Working Group on the Budget Model sub groups have undertaken a great deal of activity, leveraging more than 60 community members to complete research, analyze data and develop recommendations for the required elements and drivers to build the new SHARP budget model.
This quarter, to overhaul the non-academic staff recruitment process, over 50 interviews have been conducted to assess the high variability in York’s recruitment process. A business case is currently in development for this transformational initiative, with the goal of delivering service enhancement and process efficiency opportunities to the University. The Student Advising initiative saw the successful pilot of an advising dashboard in several Faculties (Education, Glendon, Lassonde, Schulich, Health and LAPS), which provides student advisers with easy access to required information. An improvement in the Personal Enrolment System has allowed for added capacity in Admissions and the Registrar’s Office (less time is being spent on correcting and updating student information).
Next quarter, the PRASE Program is looking forward to reporting to the community on the Travel & Expense Automated Solution and the launch of YU Link. A redesigned PRASE website will be released at the beginning of June, with additional documentation and detailed project information available. We are pleased with the progress to date as it reflects our collective commitment to PRASE and its intended purpose for York.
Click here to review a PDF of the full PRASE quarterly report.