What do we get for our increased personnel costs in terms of output?
Why, if our new computer systems will be better and faster, do they need more people to operate? What do we get for our increased personnel costs in terms of output?
In reality, the new systems will not require substantially more people to operate. The increased personnel costs are a result of the Mosaic Project accounting for many costs not currently accounted for in IT today. The project has worked hard to provide an ‘all inclusive cost' for the new administrative systems. Therefore the project's staffing numbers are inclusive of functional staff (business analysts) that perform IT related tasks, in addition to the technical staff that is usually accounted for. The new systems being put in place by the Mosaic Project will definitely provide much more functionality to the entire campus community than our current systems. The list of new capabilities is extensive and includes enhancements such as:
|
? |
substantially richer curriculum and enrollment controls; integration of advising degree requirements into the registration experience; and a much richer ‘rules' engine available for awarding financial aid in Student Administration |
|
? |
Manager Self-Service in phase 2 of the Human Resources implementation (est. June 2010); much more complete edits resulting in higher data quality for Human Resources data; and better administrative security in both the Human Resources and Student Administration systems |
|
? |
significantly richer financial transaction encoding (sub accounts, etc.) adding value from a control perspective and decision making perspective; electronic workflow, approvals, and edits for processing financial transactions; and a single reporting portal for self-service reporting |
|
? |
significant expansion in support for sponsored research, including pre-award processing |
|
? |
improvements in our ability to ‘match' data in the Student, Human Resources, and Financials systems together (conformed values); a Business Intelligence tool that allows for the creation of ad hoc and recurring customized reports; dashboards that reflect live data; reports that can be exported to users on a recurring basis; |
|
? |
in general, much richer data which will be more accessible to a larger group of people |
|
? |
significant reduction in the risk of system failure across the board |
As a follow up to the question raised in Faculty Senate, here is what our budget looks like for Year 5:
| Mosaic Estimated Five Year Technical Budget |
|||
| ITEM |
FTE |
AMOUNT |
% of TOTAL $ |
| Hardware & Software |
0 |
$4,277,046 |
44.4% |
| Managerial Staff - UA & Contract |
1 |
$1,972 |
0.0% |
| Functional Staff - UA |
25 |
$2,068,460 |
21.5% |
| Functional Staff - Contract |
0 |
$0 |
0.0% |
| Technical Staff - UA |
30 |
$3,292,744 |
34.2% |
| Technical Staff - Contract |
0 |
$0 |
0.0% |
| Other Allocations |
0 |
$0 |
0.0% |
| TOTAL |
56 |
$9,640,222 |
|
The Year 5 budget is very speculative at this point. However it is consistent with what was presented to the Faculty Senate. Note that a large portion of the people expense is functional people.
Change is difficult and initially staff members will be less proficient. Over time, they will ascend the learning curve and become proficient with the new systems as well. We are providing many opportunities and methods of training which helps to reduce the curve, however it does not eliminate the initial inefficiencies altogether. Some of the inefficiencies will be overcome with automation at go-live and some later.
