Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to share our ongoing progress on the Operational Excellence @ Illinois initiative. This project has always been about “rethinking business as usual” to streamline, innovate, improve services and to coordinate administrative processes at all levels of our university. We continue to prioritize the initiative as we all work to strategize ways to maximize university missions and deliver on our institutional goals.
In May, we created a plan with specific suggestions and recommendations. Thanks to campus-wide efforts, we made progress in the following areas this summer:
The Strategic Project Management Office (within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Operations) was launched, which will support Operational Excellence initiatives. This team will also oversee university-wide initiatives and developments that require project management, leadership and coordination. HR and IT Functional Design Teams began developing institution-wide, customer-centric HR and IT Service Catalogs to help organize, discover and clarify available services, service delivery and service expectations. The Functional Design Teams of staff from across campus continued to define and determine opportunities within areas of our administrative services.
We are thankful for the efforts of our colleagues who have stepped up to provide their time and expertise, as well as the leadership of Mike DeLorenzo, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Operations, and Vicky Gress, Acting Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Budget and Resource Planning, who are leading this initiative with the collaboration of Huron Consulting Group. As we move forward with the initiative, Mike DeLorenzo and Vicky Gress, as well as Shari Mickey-Boggs, Senior Associate Chancellor for Human Resources, and Mairéad Martin, Chief Information Officer, will provide further updates to our university community.
We continue to explore opportunities to incorporate broader university involvement into our efforts and plan to share updates as they become available. We encourage you to visit the website and the FAQ page to learn more about the projects and progress. You may also contribute to emerging topics, questions, or suggestions by emailing operationalexcellence@illinois.edu. Thank you in advance for your collaboration and support as we continue to pursue excellence within all areas of our institution.
Sincerely,
Robert J. Jones
Chancellor
William Bernhard
Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost