Results were shared from the first Shared Services Survey, held Sept. 26 – Oct. 4, to understand how the workflow changes in Finance, Facilities and OIT that have occurred over the past year are impacting all SMU employees. The survey results detail what people think is working well, and where improvements may be needed.
A Concur User Group has been established and will meet quarterly to help identify ways that Concur, the University’s new system for managing travel and expenses, can be improved and used more effectively by faculty, staff and administrators. Meanwhile, ongoing Concur cost comparisons by Purchasing have shown that in almost every case, prices for hotels and flights available through Concur are equal to, or cheaper than, rates for those same hotels and flights available through other travel sites.
The OIT Department has made significant tech upgrades to more than 60 classrooms, including installing remote control technology, and has begun testing several exciting new interactive teaching tools in selected areas. These new tools, such as cloud-based audience response systems, interactive projectors and wireless mirroring devices, will allow professors and students to engage in ways never previously possible at SMU.
To further help with communicating changes, the Facilities Department provided both a PowerPoint and a video presentation of the information session they gave to employees on September 21, so those who missed attending can easily review the info on their own.
Members of the campus community have provided thoughtful, cost-saving suggestions including recycling furniture and office supplies. In response, the Office of Operational Excellence has assembled an initiative team to improve and formalize the process by which University-owned furniture and office supplies can be repurposed and used by other areas on campus.
If you have ideas for improvements that you think would help SMU become even more effective, submit them using the online form on the Operational Excellence website. Ideas and questions can be submitted anonymously.
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Watch a Recap of the Facilities Information Session
Meet the Property Initiative Team
