Cost-saving report released

A report on the implementation of cost-saving procedures for non-academic administrative services at IU and IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis was released this week. It marks the completion of the second stage of a long-term project to make IU's administrative services more cost-effective.\nThe report contains 13 implementation plans compiled by over 100 IU employees in collaboration with the Competitive Government Strategies consulting firm. The plans have been created to facilitate the recommendations made by auditing firm Arthur Anderson. \nLast year, Arthur Anderson made a series of recommendations to the University on ways to achieve future cost-savings and increase efficiency. The undertaking of the Anderson review encapsulated nearly all administrative organizations, from the IU Bookstore and motor pool to warehousing. The regional campuses were not included.\nThe Anderson recomendations were divided into six groups by task forces, including auxiliaries, puchasing/warehousing, human resources, finance, student services and indirect costs. Student services and indirect costs were excluded from the report. \nBecause the indirect cost team is still developing their plan and student services has been merged into another administrative area, the Medical School and athletics were also not included in the reports, but Palmer said they have been evaluated in the past. \nAll money saved by the review project will be reinvested into academics.\nEach task force studied the recommendations of the Anderson report and prepared a timeline for when each recommendation should be carried out. \nImplementation of the plans will be ongoing, IU Chief Financial Officer and chair of the review Judith Palmer said. \n"It is a continuous process," she said. "Each of the recommendations will have different time frames. Many of these recommendations focus on future cost avoidance. Some of them address actual savings that may be generated now."\nPalmer mentioned purchasing as an area that may take some time to complete but should involve significant cost optimization. \n"The purchasing directors will be working together to take full advantage of the leveraging size of the University," she said. "That is a case where if we were able to, by virtue of our size, put together orders from both campuses, then we will see savings in the budget."\nDaniel Rives, associate vice-president for human resources, served on the committee that created implementation plans affecting the more than 17,000 employees of IU. According to the Arthur Anderson report, Rives's task force was assigned to "streamline the administrative process and increase the use of technology within the University's recruiting function." Their implementation plan is already well underway. \nLast week, the Office of Human Resources unveiled OLA, a new online application process for the University. The service is one of only two of its kind in the Big Ten.\n"Some of the recommendations we have been working on for the last six months," Rives said. "We have continued to improve our use of technology, and we are rolling out a Web-based application mechanism for employees."\nOther recommendations, such as centralizing the student loan process, will take up to a year to complete.\nUniversity Information Technology Services Human resources officer Deborah Allmayer worked on the Human Resources committee. She came to meetings all summer to develop the plans that will ideally free up more money for academics. \n "We worked pretty intensely over the summer," Allmayer said. "I'm hopeful that some of the recommendations will be implemented, and we'll see better service and cost savings because of it. Our budget is constrained, and we don't want to have to charge any more in tuition than we have to." \nThis is the second stage of the long-term administrative review, commissioned by President Myles Brand last spring to assess the performance of administrative areas for cost-effectiveness and to reinvest any savings in academic spheres.\n"In terms of an effort that is as organized over a large array of administrative services, it has been many years since the University has undergone this sort of review," Palmer said. "But the campuses and units do a good job of doing this continuous process of becoming more efficient internally." \nVice President and Chief Administrative Officer J. Terry Clapacs said the report is designed increase efficiency in University spending.\n"It certainly isn't routine, and this one comes about because we have to find ways to become more efficient and keep our admininstrative expenses down," Clapacs said. "It's a difficult time for the university and the budget, and we're trying to make available dollars stretch as far as we can"