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Nov. 5 Update on Research Issues

November 5, 2021

The following information from DFA appeared in the Nov. 12 Research Newsletter.

Procurement 
  
The CBS2 team continues to make progress on the backlog of tickets. The current number is at 1,099. This represents a 17% reduction over the last month. Addressing the backlog of tickets in research continues to be their top priority and they are currently at 196. This represents a 51% reduction over the last month. The training of new staff continues and the team’s capacity to decrease the backlog at a more rapid rate will increase soon. Hiring for the three additional staff members is continuing. 
 
We held our fourth meeting with the Procurement Task Force and are investigating a number of improvements to the system to better support users. This meeting concluded the user input phase of the Task Force and we greatly appreciate the input that was provided by the campus. We have elected to continue the Task Force for an additional three meetings over the coming weeks to collectively investigate back-end processes within the system that may increase the efficiency of the system and hence the user’s purchasing turnaround time. 
 
We encourage everyone to continue to meet with your local CBS2 support staff to assist with your purchasing and to facilitate training of the self-service portal in Oracle. This includes reaching out to them via MS Teams for existing purchasing tickets or requesting them to meet with you in your office or lab for in-person support. Turnaround times are improving, but self-service remains (and will remain) the fastest way to procure your critical research needs. The CBS2 team can help you better understand how to use self-service as well as the alternative ServiceNow portal.  
 
Financial 
 
The Division of Finance and Administration launched the Oracle Access Workgroup this week as a joint partnership between DFA and the Office of Research and Economic Development to increase access, training and financial reporting for the campus. This team will meet over the coming month with the goal of drafting system improvements to better support grants administration that can be implemented in the spring semester. 
 
On another front, DFA held its initial meeting for the Oracle Data Integrity Project to develop processes and checks to ensure the system is providing consistent data to campus users. Our initial focus will be on Project Financials, which is used for grants management on campus. Like the Oracle Access Workgroup, these meetings will continue with the intention of developing long-term processes and checks in the system to improve data integrity. 
 
Lastly, the team has developed a hiring strategy for the recent positions provided by the Chancellor to support the internal restructuring of DFA needed to advance the Oracle system for the campus. The impacted departments are developing job descriptions for the new positions and will be working with Human Resources soon on the action plan to ensure the new staff are hired as soon as possible to support the campus. This is a long-term solution for the Oracle system and we anticipate that it will take the rest of the fiscal year to fully develop and operationalize this plan. 
 
The DFA team is working hard to improve the Oracle system and helping to ensure it serves the campus’ needs. This team has been working immensely hard over the past three years, many of them sacrificing holidays and vacations to support the university, and I greatly appreciate their effort. I encourage you to thank them for their efforts the next time you interact with our staff for their dedication. Thank you!

Kurt Schnier | Interim Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer