UWeek Vol.15, No.18 February 26, 1998

UW programs win top spots in nat'l survey

Two UW faculty honored with Medal of Merit

Vision to design: Support services move ahead

Staff Employment offers tips on getting jobs on campus

Drama brings Casanova to UW

What'd you say dear? Yielding to wife could save marriage

Telescope complete; Project to map universe can begin

Vision to design: Support services move ahead

The USER project for Payroll and Personnel support services—which is part of a University Initiatives Fund program to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of UW support services—is moving from the vision to design phase, Executive Vice President Weldon Ihrig told the Board of Regents last week.

For the last several months the process improvement team, under the direction of Patricia Kimpton, associate controller for Grant and Contract Accounting and Payroll, has been developing their perception of the ideal business processes for those systems. Now they face the challenge of modifying their vision to mesh with the time, money, technical and legal constraints within which the University must operate.

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While they begin designing the Payroll and Personnel USER systems, the Grant and Contract task group is starting its vision phase. The Grant and Contract group is gathering information from deans, departments, chairs, researchers and administrators as the basis for its vision of the ideal system. They are also looking at what's being done at other institutions.

The secure Web-based intranet on which all the new systems will operate will use Microsoft internet information server software. It will support a variety of web browsers, including the most popular versions made by Netscape and Microsoft. The new systems will give University departments the option of whether to use them, but Will Hall, project director, hopes they will be inviting enough that departments will want to use them. Each department will be responsible for providing browser access to the USER systems.

Among the possibilities envisioned for the Payroll and Personnel systems are:

Having some information, such as employee address changes and beneficiary changes, made directly to the database by the employee rather than the current method of having the employee fill out a form which is mailed or delivered to a second office to be entered into the database. Allowing an employee to maintain his or her own data will increase both the speed and accuracy with which the information is updated.

Getting new employees ready to work before their first day of employment. New employees may choose parking and select benefits, for example, before their first day of work. And, Hall said, the new systems will put more emphasis on helping new employees feel welcome and be ready to work when they arrive.

Requiring fewer central administrative approvals before a unit can take action, relying on postaudit concepts whenever possible.

Making the systems available 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

Reducing duplicate efforts.

Making current and historical information readily available to support management decisions.

Expanding the earnings report to include information such as leave accruals, complete record of earnings paid and all year to date balances.

This is the fourth in a series of articles featuring projects that received UIF awards in 1997. Look for more articles in coming weeks. Also, information about the UIF program is available on an evolving website at: http://www.washington.edu/uif/

These and other possible changes are based on more than 1,300 comments and suggestions gathered across campus. The goal is to design a Web-based system in which "the employing department can enter work schedules, approve leave requests and the employee can enter time worked, leave requests and leave taken," according to the group's vision statement. The web technology will lead the novice user through choices, contain clear help screens and messages and link to details regarding policies and procedures.

The employment basics and benefits task group envision a system in which "new faculty, staff, graduate appointees and student hourly employees will have all the authorizations and access necessary to begin their work when they arrive," according to their vision statement. New employees, the statement says, "will access user friendly applications to learn about key University policies and procedures, enter their own personal data, sign up for faculty club membership, choose direct deposit, choose their voluntary deductions and learn about the benefits available.

Now the task groups face the hard job of melding their visions to meet legal, financial and technical constraints. Current plans are to begin this summer to develop the software to support these new systems, with the first new applications planned to be available to UW departments by the end of 1998.

To learn more about the USER program or to send your comments to the project team, visit its web site at http://www.washington.edu/user/ ¶

Nedra Floyd Pautler