OATdb Archive

2014 - 2015

Office Of Treasury And Investment Management

Goal
Advance Student Success
Develop resources and opportunities to support the intellectual transformation of students which will enable them to succeed once they have graduated from our University.


Objective
Expand Opportunities For Student Employment
Treasury will seek to establish student employment opportunities that will allow students to obtain practical work experience that is related to their field of education.

KPI
Student Employment Within Treasury
  • Identify practical opportunities that will increasing student employment and be funded as part of the budget process.
  • Show an increase in student employment by adding at least 1 student worker to the department.

Result
Student Worker
Treasury currently has one student worker and is looking to add an additional student before the end of the fiscal year.

Objective
Improve Participation Of Vendors
Work with vendors to improve their participation in career services events such as career fairs.

KPI
Add Vendors To Career Service Events
  • Work with Treasury's vendors to boost opportunities especially in finance/banking and retail/marketing.
  • Track participation of Treasury's vendors in such events on an annual basis.

Result
Reach Out To Vendors
Treasury has reached out to both Pepsi and Wells Fargo to increase their participation in campus recruiting events.

Goal
Improve Operational Efficiency
Treasury will evaluate and deploy solutions to improve the efficiency of the University's operations.

Objective
Automated Solutions
Identify third party solutions that will simplify or facilitate business processes on campus.

KPI
3rd Party Solutions
  • Identify one business process that may be better supported by a third party solution.
  • Prepare and submit proposal to VPFO at 1-on-1 meeting.

Result
Banking Services Implemented
Treasury has implemented a comprehensive suite of banking services in collaboration with Wells Fargo Bank.  This implementation has resulted in improved fraud prevention, operational efficiency, and better integration with the University ERP system.

Objective
Develop Automated Processes
Treasury will continue to develop automated processes to simplify/faciliate business processing.

KPI
Automating Processes
  • Treasury will identify one business process that will be redesigned from a paper-based process to a computer-based solution.
  • Prepare and submit proposal to VPFO at 1-on-a meeting.

Result
Online Check Processing
Bursar's Office has moved entirely from a paper-based deposit process for checks to a computer-based online check scanning process.  This has required an updated processing and retention process for checks on campus.

Goal
Data Driven Decisions
Develop and implement reporting tools and reports that allow visibility into revenue and expense activities across campus.

Objective
Financial Analysis Models
Treasury will develop reporting models to measure performance to budget and support modeling for future periods.


KPI
Reporting Models
  • Develop reports to track the current year revenue generated from the investment of operating funds.
  • Create a model to predict future revenues that will be generated by our investment activities.

Result
Debt Analysis
Treasury has delivered a holistic schedule of outstanding debt by funding source.  This view of institutional debt was created with the goal of better aligning new debt issuance with the needs of the campus.

Result
Financial Modeling
Treasury is developing additional tools to project revenues from investment of operating funds. 

Objective
Benchmarks And KPI's
Treasury will identify benchmarks and develop KPI metrics that monitor and compare institutional performance.


KPI
Departmental Efficiency/Effectiveness
  • Treasury will identify industry-specific benchmarks and develop related KPI's.
  • Prepare and submit report to VPFO.

Result
Performance Metrics
Treasury is evaluating the performance of university endowment funds versus peers on a quarterly basis.

Result
External Review Of Operations
Treasury has requested Wells Fargo to perform an initial review of our operations to ascertain how we can further improve our efficiency and turnaround time. 

Goal
Innovate And Identify Disruptive Change Opportunities
Identify opportunities to increase institutional revenues, explore privatization/contracting, and evaluate departmental effectiveness.

Objective
Increase Revenues
Develop and implement solutions that increase institutional revenues.


KPI
Revenue Enhancement
  • Change investment strategies for operating funds.
  • Consider new alternatives to generate additional alpha from endowment funds.

Result
Updated Investment Strategies
Implemented a new investment allocation for long-term operating funds.  It is anticipated that these new allocations will generate better returns for the University on a long term basis.

Objective
Privatization And Contracting
Explore opportunities to increase revenue, reduce cost, or increase efficiency.

KPI
Privatization And Outsourcing
  • Treasury will identify one activity that can be outsourced.
  • Prepare and submit proposal to VPFO at 1-on-1 meeting.

Result
Beverage Vending And Pouring
Treasury led the effort to evaluate and recommend a beverage partner for the campus.  This represented the first University-wide pouring rights agreement for the campus.

Objective
Departmental Effectiveness/Efficiency Evaluations
  • Treasury will collaborate with institutional efforts focused on organizational efficiency.
  • Identify external consultant support as needed.
  • Engage external consultants to evaluate departmental operations.


Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement There were no elements in the prior plan as this is the first year of the OATDB exercise for Treasury.

Plan for continuous improvement We are encouraged by the success of our efforts thus far.  Our plan for continuous improvement is to build on the framework that we have in place to:
1.  Further improve our banking and finance operations
2.  Increase the return on University assets (operating and endowment)
3.  Provide better reporting and metrics for improved decision making
4.  Undertake new initiatives to improve the student experience at the Bursar's Office