The Operations and Budget Review Secretariat has been busy over the past year carrying out its mandate to implement an ongoing efficiency review process throughout the university.

The goal of the review is to ensure Memorial is operating in a focused, strategic and fiscally responsible manner. For the past 14 months, academic and administrative operations have been viewed through the lens of continuous efficiency and effectiveness.

The secretariat has conducted one-on-one meetings with all academic, research and administrative units, and made a number of presentations to various groups to identify areas where potential efficiencies might exist.

“We are extremely pleased with the response of university units so far,” said President Gary Kachanoski. “As expected, a comprehensive review of university operations such as this takes time. We are working across our campuses and our many complex processes, identifying, reviewing and implementing effort-reducing, cost-saving or space-saving measures. That said, already 22 initiatives have been implemented, resulting in an annualized cost-savings of more than $5.2 million.”

Some examples of the diverse initiatives undertaken to date include the consolidation of printing satellite offices, co-operative education reorganization, software licensing consolidation at Grenfell Campus, and program and operational changes at the Marine Institute.

In addition, six more projects have been approved and are currently in progress. These include:

• Human Resources’ Shared Services Centre: Implementing a case management system to increase the effectiveness of the service that is provided to clients and to streamline processes and transactions to increase efficiency.
• Marine Institute Vehicle Replacement:  Undertaking a pilot project to review the vehicle replacement procedure to maximize return on investment in the Marine Institute vehicle fleet.
• Computer Lab Utilization: Completing an inventory of the current space allocation for computer labs, reviewing usage data and investigating the potential for managing both central and shared resources in a new and more effective way.
• Travel and Expense Management: Documenting and analyzing current business and audit processes related to travel and expense claim management, recommending improvements to these processes, including implementing software to automate these processes.
• Electronic Purchase Requisitioning:  Undertaking an academic unit pilot in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science to implement electronic purchase requisitioning in Banner Finance.
• Procurement: Engaging a pan-university team to review the procurement process, procedure and Banner Finance utilization, and recommend changes that would become standard across the organization.

“The main consequence of the review will be resource reinvestment over the next several years,” said Bruce Gorman, co-chair of the Operations and Budget Review Secretariat. “Savings will be reinvested back into the institution in the areas of academic programming, students and other priorities. It is also important to note that there is no end date to this review. We intend to continually review our operations to ensure we are using our resources to pursue the right opportunities for the future development of the institution.”

Mr. Gorman encourages anyone who identifies a potential efficiency to contact him to discuss possibilities. He can be reached at bgorman@mun.ca or 709-864-8572.

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