System Administration Operating Efficiencies
Procurement
• Updated – Strategic Sourcing: Key products added include computers ($1.8 million first-year savings)
and “green” chemicals & paper ($214,000 first-year savings). New contracts include Colorado Correctional Industries (estimated $460,000 savings) and temporary labor agreements ($360,000). These are in addition to prior contracts for copiers and lab supplies.
• Updated – CU Marketplace:
87% of purchase orders are processed the day they are created (up 6%)
69% of purchase orders are placed with catalog suppliers (up 5%); added 11 new catalog suppliers 56% of invoices are received electronically (up 4%)
Implemented invoice image availability in CU Marketplace. This saves time within the PSC and campus departments for requesting, copying and sending copies of invoices.
• Updated – Commercial Card Program:
Transition to single, cohesive card program with aggressive rebate; travel card migration had no impact to active travelers.
13% reduction in procurement card transactions due to CU Marketplace efficiency.
Implemented International Travel Card with chip and pin technology which assists overseas travel. • Travel: $100,000 savings on university negotiated airline contracts (United, Frontier, and Southwest
Airlines).
• PSC Reorganization: 25% of PSC positions were redefined which results in better service to our customers. Due to retirements, these changes were budget neutral.
Risk Management
• Updated – Property/Casualty self-insurance program results in an estimated annual savings of
$4,298,401 (22%) for FY 2013 when compared to a commercially-insured program. (independent of other listed savings)
• Updated – FY 2012 Property/Casualty self-insurance reserve surplus and equity actual results were
$2,802,954 (11%) higher than projected as a result of favorable claims history/experience due to proactive campus risk management outreach and awareness programs, and process improvement changes within internal claims administration.
• Updated – Achieved an overall operating budget reduction of $489,900 (12.5%) for FY 2012 in salary
savings and operating expenses. This is the second year-over-year reduction in staffing levels.
• Updated – Total CU Property/Casualty/Workers’ Compensation self-insurance program claim
savings of $3,275,117 (2.8%) as a result of third-party recovery, medical provider contract agreements, and negotiated settlements for FY12.
Human Resources
• Updated – Evaluation of backroom processes (HR) resulted in moving all Independent Contractor
reviews to one FTE to serve all campuses $5,000k in savings per year), OnBase document imaging (PBS), and imaging of employee personnel files (4.3 million pages).
• Updated –Relocation of Payroll and Benefits Service Operations to 1800 Grant Street (PBS) saves
$50,000 annually. Creation of Payroll Cards (PBS) eliminates cost of check printing.
• Updated – Creation of University of Colorado Health and Welfare Trust (PBS) lowered
year-over-year cost increase from fully- to self-insured at inception and at the end of the first year-over-year’s operation, 15% to 12%, then 5.7% respectively The FY 2012 year-over-year health plan cost of 5.5% (lowest in the state/US universities as reported by Aon Hewitt).
• Updated – UCH Pharmacy (mail-order) savings of $2.8 million.
• Launched University of Colorado Health and Welfare Trust with University of Colorado Hospital and University Physicians Inc.; estimated initial savings of approximately 3%, or $4 million.
• Completed the Dependent Eligibility Verification project; annual projected health plan usage savings of $2.3 million; return on investment 13:1.
• The Employee Learning and Development office provided faculty and staff over 56,000 courses in 30 months, avoiding $2.8 to $5.6 million in training costs.
Treasurer
• Updated – Saved a total of $13.4 million on refinancing bonds in calendar year 2012. Similar savings
were achieved in 2011, while also reducing the fixed cost of issuance. Favorable rates were made possible in part by moving to Fitch to rate recent bonds, securing stable AA+ rating, and attaining an improved Moody’s credit rating of Aa2.
• Updated – Secured competitive yields on the Series 2012B bonds issued in October 2012.
• Updated – Acquired equipment and trained university staff to capture check images while depositing
the checks electronically, saving staff time and increasing investment earnings. Estimated savings is $6,000 annually.
• Updated – Several times during the year, Treasurer’s Office staff provided 13 hours of training for the
Controller’s CPE program. This training focused on topics relevant the university’s financial professionals.
• Updated – Modified the portal used by all university departments that accept credit cards. The
external portal was replaced by UIS’s SharePoint portal in order to better manage the annual self-assessment process related to security risk, saving staff time for more than 100 departments. Additional annual savings of $20,000 was achieved by replacing the external vendor.
• Updated – Wrote a major portion of the RFP that is being used in the search for banking services.
By collaborating with the State of Colorado Treasurer’s Office in this search, prices for services should be reduced. The search and contract will be completed later in 2013, so the amount of savings is not known.
• Updated – In 2013, the remaining State of Colorado COPs issued in 2005 related to the academic
buildings on the Anschutz Medical Campus were refinanced with a present value savings of $3.97 million for the State.
• Collaborated with the State on Banking and Credit Card Merchant Services; reduced banking cost by $30,000 annually; reduced credit card fees by $240,000 annually; closed retail lockbox processing, saving $6,000 annually.
• Trained campus credit card merchants on payment security and documented risks; reduced risk of security breaches, fines, remediation and bad publicity; preserved ability of campuses to accept credit card
payments.
• Management of Investments in University’s Treasury Pool; avoided liquidity crisis following Lehman Brothers bankruptcy; at December 31, 2012, three year total return was 5.3%.
University Controller
• Updated – Leveraging of current PeopleSoft Finance System modules and features including:
Finalization of Asset Management module implementation (institutional savings of $300,000); Expansion of Accounts Receivable/Billing modules from campus sponsored project offices to
numerous other campus departments ($150,000 in annual credit card transaction fees eliminated to date, as well as substantial additional savings in eliminated invoice printing/mailing costs);
Worked with Boulder campus to facilitate payment of bills for the Bear Creek and family housing apartments via ACH, saving the campus ~$150,000 in credit card fees.
• Updated – Audit: Expert audit management resulting in:
Audit firm fee reduction ($230,000 total, or $46,000/year over 5-year contract); Clean audits - no extra billing from audit firm;
Annual financial report completed early, freeing up resources.
• Updated – Communication and Training:
Modern website (structured content to create better educated audience through Accounting Handbook, targeted communications, user interaction);
Chat option for Finance & Procurement Help Desk is well received by users and offers multi-tasking efficiency for both the user and the Help Desk;
Real-time news (innovators in blog technology);
Restructured online training (6 new courses taken by almost 200 individuals with significant cost savings in time/travel);
Restructured in-person training (procurement training now tailors learning to specific unit needs; Cognos training now content-, process-, and fiscal role-driven).
• CPE for CPAs program improves job skills and saves over $86,000 annually.
• Developed new online courses on financial systems and procedures, reducing need for in-person training and associated costs (OUC and campus).
• Replaced SPINS (old Sponsored Projects mainframe-based software) with no-cost PeopleSoft modules. • Implemented system-wide no-cost Asset Management system.
Facilities
• Co-location of service centers: Procurement Service Center, Payroll and Benefits, and University Information Systems.
Combined footprint of service centers reduced from 65,000 sq. ft. to 53,000 sq. ft. Rental rate was reduced by an average $5/sq. ft.
Boulder Operating Efficiencies
Academic Affairs
• Updated - Consolidated the Colorado Diversity Initiative to identify opportunities for synergies among
programs, departments and institutes campus-wide to maximize the effectiveness of well-established diversity initiatives and to foster interdisciplinary collaborations in STEM fields. Savings - $145,000 annually.
• Eliminated approximately 70 A&S core curriculum courses; continually reviewing courses for further reductions.
• Expanded “synchronized teaching” across course sections to ensure quality control and provide mentoring between tenured faculty, instructors and graduate part-time instructors.
• Consolidated selected required graduate courses across disciplines.
• Reorganized the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
• Introduced a revenue-sharing incentive program with academic departments for developing professional Master’s programs intended to serve workforce and market demand.
• Centralized admissions applications processing for all Master’s and PhD programs.
• Redeployed director of Veteran Services salary to create a full service veteran resource center with a full-time coordinator and multiple veteran student employees and program funding for social and support activities. Director of Parent Relations is also serving as the Director of Veteran Services and serving the coordinator; no additional costs to operations and personnel.
• Redeployed multiple 12 month full-time psychologists for Counseling and Psychological Services to 10 month, full-time psychologists, increasing psychologists by 2 during the academic year; no increase in operating costs.
• Redeployed salary savings for new director of Victim Assistance to increase .5 FTE social worker position to .75 FTE providing more hours of service to students.
• Orientation print materials reduced by 65% saving $10,000 per year in printing costs.
• Reorganized Health Information Services department, in the process eliminating 2 FTE and saving ~$100,000; redirected savings to other positions critical to operations.
• Hired psychiatric nurse practitioner to manage required approval calls to third-party payers for
psychiatric medication pre-authorization; this eliminated need for more expensive physicians to spend time with insurance companies which reduced the time they were able to see student patients.
Facilities
• Updated - Systems Biotech building is saving over 3,246,000 kWh of electricity annually as
compared to typical research building of similar size and complexity, resulting in $250,000 savings annually. Received the Excel Energy Design Assistance Achievement Award this year.
• Consolidated multiple research computing locations into single facility to increase security, reduce technical support needs, and expand capacity.
• Installed solar energy systems and adopted LEEDS standards on all new building projects.
• Targeted select buildings for reduced consumption through behavior-based incentive programs.
• Campus-wide energy conservation educational campaign to reduce building energy usage.
• New utility power plant to be designed with co-generation capabilities.
• Housing & Dining Services implemented several efficiencies including:
Increased the number of preventive maintenance work orders while decreasing the number of reactive work orders, decreasing more costly repairs (~$80,000).
Monitored utility bills for errors and over-charges and decreasing utilities use (~$250,000). Negotiated freeze in price for furniture and appliances for residence halls with multiyear
contract and also saved 5% of total price for five years (~ $200,000).
Held firms accountable for warranty repairs on major projects, precluding repairs by our staff (~ $100,000).
Technological efficiencies including virtual desktop deployment resulted in reducing energy usage by 90%; savings estimated at $80 per work station per year; with 500 work stations, will result in an energy cost saving of $40,000 per year.
Financial efficiencies include initiating a “Single Source” purchasing program at Dining Services called Prime Vending; allowed for competitive bidding and economy of scale purchasing which kept the cost down in a highly volatile commodity market (~$250,000 annually).
• Housing Facilities purchasing negotiation reduced price of area rugs by $56,000, and lowered elevator maintenance cost by $35,000, total savings $91,000.
• Residence Life reduced weekend office hours, open office hours on holidays and Winter break for cost savings of $22,000.
Technology
• In lieu of hiring consultants, developed a cross-departmental specialized work-force to create next generation technologies and platforms for “colorado.edu.”
• Enhanced department websites across campus as reference site for self-help, accessing policies, and other information for both internal and external audiences.
• Centralized software licenses to simplify purchasing and decrease costs.
• Implemented credentialing and privileging software that will allow us to more efficiently (e.g., less staff time) comply with mandated, regular verification of our healthcare providers’ credentials and training.
• Initiated online applications for residence halls, family housing, and Bear Creek; estimated labor savings of 3 FTE ($100,000 per year).
• “Print Reduction” program to monitor staff print jobs significantly reduced Housing & Dining Services printing.
• Housing & Dining Services moved 1,200 student employees from using time cards to using an electronic time & attendance system (Kronos); this resulted in a reduction of about 125 reams of cardstock, which is about $3,000 in paper and printing cost.
Fiscal Operations
• Police patrol division implemented platoon staffing model; improved police coverage and reduced overtime need.
• Streamlined service delivery pricing for telephone and network services by bundling.
• Shared services model implemented for select departments (by location or reporting structure) to deliver better support at reduced cost (JSC Biotech Bldg, Geosciences, and academic affairs units).
• Strategic credit card use for application fee processing to enhance revenue collections.
• Transition to on-line transaction processing for Parking Services.
• $12,750 savings on operating expenses at the CU Children’s Center through insurance credit and cost savings on materials purchases.
• Dining Services’ use of rebates and opportunity purchases, along with the savings from the Prime Vending contract, yielded approximately $70,000 of cost reduction in food purchases.
Colorado Springs Operating Efficiencies
Facilities
• Updated - Mailroom improving mail sorting options to reduce postage costs.
• Pursued firm natural gas rates for 14 buildings which has yielded over $36,000 in savings in first three months.
• Obtained rebates from Colorado Springs Utilities for lighting, HVAC and urinal projects.
• Completed a toilet retrofit project in all general fund buildings to save approximately 45% in water usage.
• Helped to develop summer and winter temperature setpoints so utility cost avoidance could be realized.
• Purchased two electric golf carts to use in the area of Electrical Services and Maintenance.
• RFP responses for architects and contractors are all received electronically and only electronic copies of drawings/documents are provided to contractors.
• Implemented a schedule adjustment approach to weekly business scheduling within the Physical Plant to help markedly reduce all non-paid compensation time and minimize paid overtime.
• Campus employees actively turning off lights, computers and equipment whenever possible, including “de-lamping” some fixtures for a permanent energy savings. Increasing employee awareness on conservation efforts and ideas to reduce energy utilization and decrease UCCS’ carbon footprint.
Administration and Finance
• Updated - Events Services Department serves campus needs more effectively.
• Parking Operations implemented an automated ticketing program.
• One full-time position eliminated; no CU employee was laid off. Position was eliminated through attrition.
• Cost savings allowed for a 0.5 FTE police dispatcher to help with the growing needs in this department.
• Parking Operations retro-fitted lights in parking garage with high efficiency T-5 bulbs. Approximate savings of $1,000 per month.
• Automated fingerprinting system in Public Safety. Eliminated need to re-print approximately 50% of fingerprints due to poor readability. Savings in time and ink costs.
• Replacing police vehicles with either hybrid vehicles or motorcycles to save on fuel costs of approximately $6,000 per year.
• Accounting office using video conferencing rather than traveling to meetings to save on time and fuel reimbursement costs.
• Resource Management used old student billing paper that was no longer needed since student billing transitioned to electronic, which reduced the need to purchase paper.
• Student Financial Services implemented functionality in ISIS to allow students to opt-in for electronic 1098-T tax forms, reducing paper, ink, and mailing costs.
• Sharing administrative services between the University Center, Housing, Recreation Center, Public Safety and the Bookstore.
Academic Affairs and Student Services
• Updated - The Kraemer Family Library, in connection with CU and CSU, created an efficient Digital
Repository service for resource materials.
• Updated - Admissions and Records created new and efficient online workflows to streamline
processes.
• Sharing services among different departments within Student Success when possible.
• Identifying strengths within different areas (e.g., finance, expense, and human resource systems) and providing expertise and back-up when necessary.
• Concentrating/integrating all marketing and communication efforts.
• The Office of Student Recruitment is utilizing more electronic media to communicate with prospective students and using web material rather than printed brochures.
• The Admissions & Records Office is implementing some initiatives to go “paperless” to increase efficiency and decrease costs, (i.e., online course scheduling).
• The Financial Aid Office is using online collaborative free tools to generate ideas and conversation (e.g., creating taglines to collect more data and data from other departments).
• The Financial Aid Office is using social media outlets to connect and communicate with students.
• The Financial Aid Office changed packaging plans to better accommodate part-time student aid delivery.
• The Financial Aid Office is packaging first-year students earlier than continuing students, not only spreading the workload out for file completion/verification, but also making continuing students’ packages more accurate since satisfactory academic progress and grade level progression will have been determined.
• The School of Public Affairs is accommodating large enrollment increases due to the addition of new programs with no increase in staff positions.
• All six colleges are pursuing entrepreneurial activities, through non-credit executive programs, online programs, extended studies, grants and contracts, etc., to meet budget cuts and still provide the level of service the students require and demand.
• Beth El College of Nursing and Health Sciences restructured within the University financial system to be in a better position to make sound financial decisions for the college.
• Beth El College of Nursing and Health Sciences improved the college’s human resource processes which has resulted in significant time savings and elimination of overpayment errors.
Denver|Anschutz Medical Campus Operating Efficiencies
Facilities
• Updated - School of Business - Xcel Energy Efficient Building Program: $65,000 savings and
$124,000 rebates.
• Negotiated with the AHEC to change the allocation of facilities costs from headcount to square footage which saved $410,000 annually.
• Natural gas purchasing directly from suppliers resulted in a gross commodity cost savings of $1.4 million over 3 years.
• Re-evaluation of cleaning requirements and re-bidding of custodial contract cost savings of $406,000 annually.
• Negotiated bulk furniture discount averaging 8% which saved nearly $1.8 million on three recent capital projects.
• Converted to electronic filing for all facilities projects and for Request for Proposals (RFP) and Request for Quotes (RFQ), which has saved time and the need for offsite storage, saving $63,000 annually.
• Established an integrated pest management program in-house and saved $30,000 a year.
• Xcel Energy rebates of $454,000 for energy efficiency projects; energy cost savings of $846,000 over last 3 years.
• Water reduction gallons per sq. ft. of facilities of 12% over 3 years. • Total energy reduction per sq. ft. of facilities of 16% over 3 years.
• Research Building 1 energy efficiency projects resulting in energy cost savings of $700,000 per year. • Purchase of Central Utility Plant saved $1 million in boiler costs and $2.6 million in debt financing
over 13 years.
• Schedule optional holidays to create long weekends thereby reducing energy consumption.
Academic Affairs
• Updated - Worked with AHEC to adjust time slots to improve offerings on the Denver Campus for
working adults.
• Increase faculty teaching loads for instructors in Architecture, Arts & Media, Education, and Liberal Arts & Sciences.
• Implemented Maymester program and increased summer course offerings.
• Arts & Media cohorts to reduce low enrollment classes; leveraging larger lecture halls to collapse section offerings.
Technology
• Updated - Cost share with Metro State and AHEC for telecom usage: $523,000 savings.
• Updated - Instituted Shared Services networking at the System office to leverage talent and increase
the level of service, both campuses.
• Updated - Consolidated Networking and Telecom: $110,000 savings, both campuses.
• Updated - Expanded use of Thin Client technology: $214,000 savings for both campuses; Thin Client
architecture reduces computer costs, energy consumption and workstation support staff. • Changing the approach for Network switch deployment saved $174,000 annually.
• Moved to activate only ports needed by faculty, staff and students, saving $243,000 annually. • Consolidated e-mail systems in new domain; eliminated old duplicate e-mail systems.
• Reduced centralized production of reports by routing reports electronically directly to the users’ computer desktop.
• Renegotiated software contracts, consolidated software licenses and server certificate purchases to single vendor.
Financial Services
• Updated - Created an online only rate for out of state students to expand enrollment of these
students and to increase course enrollment efficiency.
• Updated - Created sponsor-level billing to improve timeliness of tuition and fee payments for
international students and to lift enrollment barriers for current students.
• Updated - Moved from doing write-offs on a semester basis to a minimum of quarterly, with a goal
monthly to keep receivable accounts much cleaner and more current.
• Updated - To improve collection rates, mailing bills to withdrawn or failing students earlier to improve
the chance that they will address any outstanding charges on their accounts. Collection efforts have improved from 47% recovery rate in calendar year 2011 to 52% in 2012.
• Updated - Requiring collectors to contact the accounts at least twice before they are placed with
outside agencies to increase the return rate. This has resulted in a 49% increase in the number of dollars placed in collections, 2011 over 2012.
• Updated - Requiring all students who have a bankruptcy discharge on file with the University to pre-
pay for all of their classes up front.
• Updated - The results of these collection efforts have resulted in a 57% increase in the number of
