April and May were busy months in the Office of Operational Excellence. Two new initiatives were announced: Exit Process to streamline the process for facilitating departing employees, and Staff Recognition to identify, create and promote annual staff recognition opportunities. The Repurposed Property Initiative announced its first two ideas to reduce duplication of office supplies and the re-use of furniture on campus: an office supply email list-serv and an office furniture website, both to be introduced this summer.
Streamlined purchasing practices enabled SMU to save $84K on technology and pushed the University to the $20M mark for savings from the OE2C project. Of the savings identified, funds have already been allocated to general academic reinvestments, the University Research Council, graduate fellowships, high performance computing and more. For more details visit the updated Operational Excellence Metrics here.
In early April, President Turner announced that the University is complementing its exploration of a data warehouse with the creation of a Data Governance committee structure. The work will be overseen by Michael Tumeo with the support of the Data Governance Steering Committee and the Data Governance Committee. Both groups gathered for an inaugural meeting on May 25.
Some of most thoughtful cost savings and operational improvement ideas implemented at SMU have come directly from faculty and staff members. If you have an idea for how the University could save money and/or streamline processes, submit your thoughts via the online comment form. All submissions may be submitted completely anonymously.
Featured News
President Turner Introduces Data Governance Initiative
Exit Process Initiative Announced
The First Two Ideas of The Repurposed Property Initiative
Streamlined Technology Purchasing Saves SMU $84K
Staff Recognition Initiative Announced
