Counting the Costs Mark Piper - University of Newcastle Steve Robertson - Campus Consulting Copyright Steve Robertson and Mark Piper, This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

In the Beginning Good understanding of direct cost environment Focused on business unit budgets rather than activities and outputs Budget planning consequently not tied into Strategic Plan objectives Little or no understanding of full cost environment Intuitive understanding only of relative costs of –Customers (Student Types) –Distribution Channels (Campuses) –Products (Degree Programs)

Our Goal To improve decision making ability, through: –Better understanding of cost drivers and pressure points –Improved transparency of operations –Ability to view costs across multiple operating dimensions –More credible basis for allocating resources –More credible basis for setting prices –Better understanding of areas of cross-subsidisation –Relationship with funding/revenue environment

Our Goal StructureCosts Support Allocation ActivitiesProducts Division X Division Y Unit A Unit B Process Z Activity1 Expense Outcomes Activity2 Activity3 Activity4 Activity5 Expense A B Outcome2 Outcome3 Product Channel Customer

Data Sources Finance System Unit Structure Student Information Workload Model Space Data Costing Model

Outcomes Assists decision making processes by –Improving transparency (and ‘accuracy’) of financial reports –Highlighting areas of cross-subsidisation (and the degree to which it occurs) –Enabling contribution reports to be produced e.g. by various strategic activities –Enhancing the level of understanding of costs within the support areas

Before and After

[Before and] After

The Software

Benefits of Strategic Cost Management Improved strategic/business planning processes Understanding of “whole of business’ Focus has switched from “business unit inputs” to “activity outputs” Accounting information now more “intelligent”, relevant and transparent Multi-dimensional view of business activities, costs, and revenues Project is not necessarily resource intensive Can be completed within a short time frame

Key Learnings Ensure the project has management support Perform the majority of the project internally Decide what you want the consultant to do Build a conceptual flow diagram Select a robust, scalable, and well supported software product Don’t overcomplicate the project –Be pragmatic –Push through bureaucratic blockages –No loss of macro level accuracy