Summary of verbal answers follows each question.

Will all areas receive the surveys or only the two currently participating (Finance & Administration and ICA)?  The survey will be widely distributed.

Timeline indicates that we will have limited operations by July 2008 ~ what does that mean?  Right now we are operating with the assumption that some services will be provided to the current units participating by July 2008 – there is nothing more definite at this time.

How many people have been hired in the Business Service Center so far?  Three already working and there is a position from ICA posted and the director position posted.

What is the impact on jobs?  Some jobs will no longer be needed.  Some jobs where retirements and budget reductions have reduced available staff will have some pressure taken off as business processing is simplified and moved to the shared service center.  Some jobs will be redefined.

Will additional training be offered for those whose jobs will be affected?  Yes

Elaborate on the Business Service Center concept as opposed to Shared Services.  The BSC concept focused on regional service centers, otherwise they are much the same  

How does this fit into Vision Ohio and the 5 year plan?  Cost savings from this project will be redirected to support the five year plan.

Do you envision sharing among universities things like payroll functions?  Yes, that is a good possibility.  Ideally, OU can get ahead of everyone else and become a center for services to others, maybe even statewide.

Who are the customers for shared services?  It can be everyone.  Anyone who uses a service that is provided would be a customer.

What are the costs associated with this project that you are talking about?  A consultant to conduct the baseline survey.  Renovation of space for the service center and hiring the director are costs that we have addressed so far.

Are you looking at cost savings in terms of employees - personnel costs?  Yes, with 85% of the budget being related to people, that is where any almost all savings come from.  However, improved procurement is an example of savings that are possible that do not come from salary and benefits.

Who are the people you referred to that presented to IUC?  ScottMadden presented to IUC in early November.

Referring to the comment that shadow systems are terribly inefficient - 1.  If I don't have a shadow system, I don't know what transactions I've done.  2.  I need a shadow system to verify accuracy.  3.  I need to maintain a shadow system because the timeliness to get the information we need to maintain budgets is too slow.  We need to fix the problems you identify and eliminate the duplication.

Will the Power Point presentation be available online?  Yes

What exactly will the Director of Shared Services be doing?  Leading the service center, leading the reengineering of business processes, working as liaison to customers, the position ad and job description are available online.

You said previously that Shared Services is not simply "centralized" services, but you mentioned Human Resources functions.  Isn't Human Resources already centralized?   Share services focuses on streamlining processes, customer service and driving out costs.  This goes beyond simple centralization.

Please explain the oversight and project committees' representation ~ it doesn't seem representative of the entire university.  The team generally follows the planning units involved in the current project.

Poor quality of service is what led people to abandon centralized services once before.  How does the university expect to change that problem?  Shared services is totally customer focused with customers having input into the cost and quality of services.

How many staff eliminations will there be?  That is not known, but ideally this can be done in conjunction with retirements and have minimal impact on jobs.

With the University System of Ohio, can we do this among universities as well?  Absolutely and there are discussion to that effect.

Can you specifically name examples of HR transactions that would be considered in shared services?  The transactions involved in the employment process.  Benefit information processing.

Won't there be a charge-back program to departments for these services?  Some organizations do this, but we are not considering it at this time.

Could some Budget Unit Manager responsibilities go to Shared Services?  Yes

Are there other areas (units?) that the committee is considering for Shared Services?  Eventually the entire university will be involved, but no timeline for expanding scope has been discussed at this time.

How can we better utilize Oracle?  More prompt recording of transactions resulting in more useful reporting is a good example, but there are many others.  We do not use all of the features of the software we currently own.