1. GCA Overview

2. GCA Help consists of four Grant Analysts Amy Liu Cheryl Haycox Colleen Laing Meg Russo GCA Help is campus’s single point of contact for grant and contract budget issues GCA Help can be reached at gcahelp@uw.edugcahelp@uw.edu – 206-616-9995

3. GCA and LEAN GCA has restructured our work and is striving to serve campus better Using LEAN, an approach focused on reducing waste and improving flow in work processes As a result, we are improving processing times with a goal of providing a more consistent response to campus

4. LEAN Process Lessons Group like work in buckets to speed processing and identify process backlogs and hitches Focus on process flow – Work one bucket at a time – Group work ion stations – Set core hours – Work uninterrupted Measure progress – Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-framed) – Measure progress toward goals – Identify and address process issues when goals aren’t met

5. GCA through 2004 Three teams Budget set-up Invoicing Reporting No single point of contact No focus on closing No cross training

6. GCA 2005 - 2010 Organized by School/Department Campus clients had single point of contact (Teams 1 - 6) Everyone worked on all processes, set-up through close-out Processes were applied inconsistently Process hitches went unidentified Constant interruptions (phone, e-mail, GT) impeded flow Backlogs accumulated – backlogs, process hitches and bottlenecks were not apparent to whole office when we were broken into 6 teams by School/Department

7. GCA 2011 - Organized by Process Core Process Teams Budget Set-Up – New & renewal – Supplements – Extensions Invoicing – Interim – Final Reporting – Interim – Final Closing – Cash – LOC

8. We help the Core Process Teams "flow" their work by pulling work that interrupts them into GCA Help and work that is hard to "bucket" into a Changes team GCA Help - Single Point of Contact – Acknowledges receipt – Does quick work – Triages involved work to core process teams – Campus liaison & training Changes Team – Adjustments on active grants – Cost Share adjustments – IDC – Possibly supplements and extensions

9. Benefits Teams “flow” work by focusing uninterrupted on buckets of like work Staff rotates to retain process skills Grouping work by process allows us to identify process hitches Backlogs are being reduced Work assigned to stations, not individuals, and staff cross-trained to prevent hold-ups

10. Continuous Improvement We continue improving our processes with the aim of reducing processing time and improving quality

11. The GCA Landscape GCA manages 24,000 active budgets

12. Workload is growing much faster than staff

13. Budget set-up turn-around times are back to pre-restructuring times and continue improving.

14. We have closed nearly 5,000 backlog budgets (expired 2+ years) and are staying current on new budgets

15. Of 1,525 un-completed Grant Trackers, more than half are in the Closing topic.

16. 2010 Monthly Core Process Workload Averages Budget Set-Up: 661 items Invoicing: 2,787 items (769 manual) Reporting: 136 Closing: 368

17. GCA Help Daily Volumes 100 E-mails 40 Grant Trackers 30 Phone Calls 20% are thank you’s, duplicate requests, out of office or undeliverable messages, etc., requiring little work Actual items processed per day ~130

18. Requests to GCA 616-9995 or GCAHelp@uw.edu – Phone Calls to GCA Help – E-Mails to GCA Help – Grant Trackers – Calls and E-Mails to GCA Managers Are all funneled through GCA Help GCA Help is staffed by four Grant Analysts 8 – 5 Mon - Fri

19. GCA Help Triage Core Process Teams

20. GCA Help ‘Just Do Its’ FIN changes Status changes Provide info from GCA systems Rebudgeting Cancel duplicate budgets Close gift budgets IDC adjustments Extend non-grant budget and sub-budget end dates Transfer deficits on non-stand-alone budgets Collect information and initiate research on other requests

21. Grant Tracker Grant Analysts reading new messages in these topics (as of 2 weeks ago): * Budget set-up * NOE * IDC * Other * Invoicing * Reporting Responding directly to "Just Do Its" Referring Team work to Teams We are working toward reading new GT's daily, but still have a lag- time in processing GT's Other Teams also have GT backlogs, some substantial

22. Turn Around Times GCA Help will respond within one business day to - acknowledge receipt - resolve simple matters - provide information about processing of more complex matters Currently we respond timely to 95% of phone and e-mail inquiries Grant Tracker response times are improving but are not meeting our turn-around goal yet

23. Budget Set-Up Turn Around Time Goals Up To Three Days New and renewal budgets New sub budgets Extension PACs Cost Share Pledges Within Ten Days Other EFAs PACs TPUs

24. Invoicing Turn-Around Time Goals Within One Week Revised final invoice Within Two Weeks Invoice detail request Within One Month Revised interim invoice Past due invoice

25. Reporting Turn-Around Time Goals On Deadline Current reports Contractor release forms Within One Week Past due reports Revised interim reports Termination notices Ad hoc reports Within One Month Revised final reports

26. Closing Turn-Around Time Goals Within Three Weeks Closing PACs By April 30, 2011 Closing backlog budgets expired pre-11/09 Within One Month of follow-up inquiry Closing backlog expired between 11/09 to 12/10 120 days after expiration Budgets expiring 1/1/11 to Current

27. The purpose of our process improvements is to shorten these turn-around times so we can deliver timely, quality services and effective communications to campus and sponsors

28. Turn-Around Time Caveat We can serve you best, and meet our deadlines if everything is in good order, for example: - prior budgets are closed - encumbrances are liquidated - cost share obligations are met and documented - deficits are transferred - charges are transferred and -any needed concurrence is provided -Sponsor has paid

29. Tips If it is urgent, please tell us why and what deadline you are working under E-mail or call for urgent matters (use 'high priority' e-mail setting) E-mail or call if you haven't received a timely response Put a budget number in the subject line of e-mails Be strategic in use of Grant Tracker topics – Use GT topics "Transpasu" and "Advance Budget“ and attach signed forms for quickest processing – Food approval goes under "Compliance" – Put status changes in "Other" rather than "Closing" – IDC has its own topic – GT requests should contain single topics, not multiple issues – Once closed, please only reopen if issue is unresolved (not for thank you’s or new issues)

30. Request Tracker - Provides a single process for all modes of communication - Assigns ticket numbers to enable tracking - Preserves a record of communications - Is assignable to individual staff - Can link tickets and create dependencies - Collects metrics * inquiry volume * response time averages * average length of time to completion