Office of the Chancellor

At present we have overly bureaucratic procedures designed to cover the possibility that someone may break a rule at some time. We need to decentralize authority, assume risk, and deal expeditiously and firmly with the tiny number of transgressions. To support this effort, the investment in new technologies and systems for Management Information will be essential.

Travel forms call for multiple layers of signatures, although few signees are in a position to judge the importance of the travel. More useful would be two signatures, one authorizing the substance of the trip and the other the budgetary and policy validation. Higher levels of administration would be more usefully served by an annual survey of the amount of travel in different areas to assess whether we are undersubscribed in some or oversubscribed in others. Major Budgetary Unit administrators could then make more sensible judgments about travel budgets, while at the same time liberating people from time-consuming but meaningless review and sign-off on individual authorizations.

In the same fashion, purchasing presently requires multiple signatures. An estimate shows that we spend approximately $8M on the purchasing process, based on 80,000 purchase orders at a processing cost of $100 each. The same cost is incurred whether the purchase order is for $1,000 or $100,000. Again, by streamlining the process, although incurring a greater level of risk, fractions of time of many individuals can be captured and redeployed more usefully. Over time, this streamlining will allow proper functioning of the institution even with a reduced number of employees that will result from the retirement program.

Personnel hiring processes are also cumbersome and bureaucratic. Some of these have evolved from federal and state requirements, e.g., on affirmative action. We need to consider whether decentralization might lead to even better results. Each appointing administrator would need to interact intensively and in depth at each stage of the search and rating committees deliberations to ensure that every step produces diversity in the pool of candidates.

Many other examples could be cited, but reference can be made to the various reports of our consultants. Over time these changes can lead to savings in operating budgets, but it must be recognized that initial investments in technology are also essential, e.g., to create a paperless procedure for hiring. An allocation of $2.0M is entered in Tables II & III of the investment plan for Management Information Systems. Over the next five years we estimate that savings in excess of $2M may be achievable.

The reengineering of administrative processes may have significant impact on employees who currently perform functions which, in the reengineered process, may be significantly different. Employees so affected will be afforded the opportunity to enhance their skills in order to perform their new responsibilities effectively.

David K. Scott was Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1993-2001. This is an archive of the Chancellor's Web site during his tenure.
V. Components of the Multi-Year Plan B. Expenditures (11) Restructuring $ 2.8M (a) Administrative Redesign Administrative redesign is already well underway, with the aim of improving services and reducing costs. Four streams of service were identified: Human Resources Financial Accounting and Reporting Procurement Student Services At present we have overly bureaucratic procedures designed to cover the possibility that someone may break a rule at some time. We need to decentralize authority, assume risk, and deal expeditiously and firmly with the tiny number of transgressions. To support this effort, the investment in new technologies and systems for Management Information will be essential. Travel forms call for multiple layers of signatures, although few signees are in a position to judge the importance of the travel. More useful would be two signatures, one authorizing the substance of the trip and the other the budgetary and policy validation. Higher levels of administration would be more usefully served by an annual survey of the amount of travel in different areas to assess whether we are undersubscribed in some or oversubscribed in others. Major Budgetary Unit administrators could then make more sensible judgments about travel budgets, while at the same time liberating people from time-consuming but meaningless review and sign-off on individual authorizations. In the same fashion, purchasing presently requires multiple signatures. An estimate shows that we spend approximately $8M on the purchasing process, based on 80,000 purchase orders at a processing cost of $100 each. The same cost is incurred whether the purchase order is for $1,000 or $100,000. Again, by streamlining the process, although incurring a greater level of risk, fractions of time of many individuals can be captured and redeployed more usefully. Over time, this streamlining will allow proper functioning of the institution even with a reduced number of employees that will result from the retirement program. Personnel hiring processes are also cumbersome and bureaucratic. Some of these have evolved from federal and state requirements, e.g., on affirmative action. We need to consider whether decentralization might lead to even better results. Each appointing administrator would need to interact intensively and in depth at each stage of the search and rating committees deliberations to ensure that every step produces diversity in the pool of candidates. Many other examples could be cited, but reference can be made to the various reports of our consultants. Over time these changes can lead to savings in operating budgets, but it must be recognized that initial investments in technology are also essential, e.g., to create a paperless procedure for hiring. An allocation of $2.0M is entered in Tables II & III of the investment plan for Management Information Systems. Over the next five years we estimate that savings in excess of $2M may be achievable. The reengineering of administrative processes may have significant impact on employees who currently perform functions which, in the reengineered process, may be significantly different. Employees so affected will be afforded the opportunity to enhance their skills in order to perform their new responsibilities effectively. Table of Contents Next \| Continuous Quality Improvement