Dear colleagues,
The University of Tulsa is making significant progress toward the Shared Services Center’s goal of improving administrative services across campus to better support our academic mission.
This summer, several working sessions were conducted with stakeholders from colleges and administrative units across campus. As a result of feedback from these sessions, Huron Consulting Group worked with us to develop a model for how the service center concept could be implemented at TU. The final design of the new center organization is now complete. It will comprise a single Shared Services Center (SSC) to be located on campus in the Fisher East building and consist of approximately 15 staff.
The university is pleased to announce that Mindi Fuser, director of university budgets, has accepted the role of the Shared Services Center leader. Additionally, Laura Hockett, Shaun Underwood and Grant Garner – each former directors of fiscal affairs in three colleges – have each accepted the position of portfolio director and will be responsible for coverage of the activity occurring within their assigned units. As leaders of your units, the respective portfolio director will be your main SSC point of contact. The portfolios of units are as follows:
Laura Hockett, Portfolio Director
- College of Engineering & Natural Sciences
- Research and Sponsored Programs
- Information Technology Services
- Gilcrease Museum
- Marketing & Communications
Shaun Underwood, Portfolio Director
- Kendall College of Arts & Sciences
- College of Law
- President’s Office
- Office of the CFO
Grant Garner, Portfolio Director
- Oxley College of Health Sciences
- Collins College of Business
- Provost’s Office
- Athletics
- Enrollment & Student Services
- University Advancement & Alumni Engagement
Thus far, the SSC project team and stakeholder groups from throughout campus have completed initial work of realigning 20 finance and human resources business processes to be supported by the center as an initial portfolio of responsibility. Through the combined efforts of administrative staff from across the institution, the project team has drafted a standardized, streamlined and customer-focused path for accomplishing these processes. To a large extent, the Shared Service Center will work directly with HR and Finance to facilitate accurate and timely processing for the following activities that will no longer be handled by distributed campus units:
Human Resources (including faculty and staff)
- Position Requests
- Academic Year Adjunct Faculty Position Requests
- Summer Appointment Requests
- Position Recruitment Processing
- Position Onboarding Facilitation
Finance
- Requisition and Purchase Order Creation
- Quote and Bid Solicitation
- Processing Budget Transfers (Non-Payroll, Non-Research)
- Processing Payroll Budget Transfers (Non-Research)
- General Reconciliations
- Vouchers and Check Requests
- Invoice Creation (for departmental non-standard invoicing)
- New Vendor Set-Up Requests
The SSC leadership team has begun posting associate (HR and finance) positions to staff the center. Our intention is to first recruit internal applicants for these opportunities.
Once the Shared Service Center begins its work in the coming weeks, a representative body of campus stakeholders will be identified to provide formal feedback to the SSC on a regular basis, allowing for the continued refinement of the service delivery model.
To learn more about the project timeline, objectives, feedback structure and other detailed information about the initiative, please email mindi-fuser@utulsa.edu.
Sincerely,
Paige Francis
Huron Project Executive Sponsor
VP for Information Technology and CIO