UWFT Monthly Program News Update
This message was sent to UW leadership, administrators and finance role-holders. Others who received this email are those whose work will be impacted by UWFT, or who have expressed an interest in staying aware of program news. This message may be shared broadly.
CURRENT PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
The program is in the “Readiness Phase” – a period of time that relies on broad stakeholder input to inform and define the larger scope, schedule, budget and funding plan for this transformation. Check out the UWFT website for more on Readiness, and a closer look at the current timeline.
Leadership alignment
In October, members of the UWFT governance teams participated in two important workshops – one focused on understanding perceived program risks and addressing areas of misalignment, and the second focused on aligning around an initial vision of the future state operating model. Outcomes from these workshops have been shared with UWFT governance teams and some key stakeholders, and broader sharing is underway during November.
Ongoing workshops
The end of 2018 and early 2019 are dedicated to conducting high level workshops, which will help inform the operating model, foundation data model (chart of accounts) and the end-to-end process deep dives. In addition, the program will also be focused on HRP remediation sessions, which are dedicated to understanding the current configuration in Workday and how it informs the future configuration. This in an iterative process; there will be many, many more opportunities to provide input.
IT systems analysis pilot
In November, the UWFT program team will be launching a small pilot effort with five representative units to support the broader systems inventory analysis that will be underway in early 2019. Leveraging the systems information gathered over the summer, we’ll work with these units to confirm that our approach will accurately identify which systems can be retired, and which will require remediation for integration with Workday Financials.
Defining the current informs the future
Following the important work of the Benchmarking and Data Gathering effort, the UWFT team has completed broad analysis of the findings and is now focusing on developing Unit Profiles that help describe individual units' current state as well as internal and external peer comparisons. These profiles are being piloted in partnership with select members of the UWFT governance teams, and will be expanded over the course of this month and next. In addition, faculty focus groups will be held soon to help inform the change strategy, and over the next couple of months, the team will be leveraging all of this plus engaging in targeted individual stakeholder interviews to better define the User Personas for the program.
UWFT'S MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
Q: What does successful completion of the Readiness Phase mean?
A: In short, it means we have a clearly defined budget, staffing model and project plan to
begin building the new systems, policies and processes.
All FAQs
New members of the UWFT team!!
Provost Richards takes on new role
UW Provost Mark Richards recently agreed to become UWFT’s new Executive Sponsor. In this role, Provost Richards will lead the program sponsors in defining the scope, schedule and budget for this important effort, and help drive decisions supporting readiness and implementation of this transformation.
New hires
The program team continues to grow, with new hires from outside and within the UW. This month, Brett Simmons leverages his 16+ years of experience in UW Medicine (thank you, UWM!) as he steps into the Director of Technology role for UWFT. In addition, Debra Fromholzer brings her 25 years of experience in both the private and public sector to the program as our new Program Management Office (PMO) Director. UWFT is also celebrating Jim LaRoche’s move from the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (thank you, OMA&D!) as he joins UWFT as our new Information Management Specialist, and Don Wilcox’s move from UW Finance’s Procurement Services IT group (thank you, PS-IT!) as the program’s new Systems Analyst. Check out our other open positions.
UWFT governance
Recently, the program Sponsors were asked to reevaluate the composition of the three governance teams, with the goal of ensuring strong and diverse representation. As a result, the Core, PLT and TLT teams have been strengthened with the addition of Daniel Summy (TLT) and Judy Gustafson Golisch (Core) from OPB, Kelly Campbell (PLT) from the Evans School and Michelle Griffin (PLT) from Foster School of Business. See our full governance teams.
We need your help!
The lessons learned from the University’s first major implementation (HRPM) are fresh in the minds of all involved in UWFT, and key among these is the importance of ensuring we hear from the right people at the right times. Although there will be many opportunities to be involved in UWFT over the course of this multi-year program, the program team would love to hear from you if you would like to volunteer in a specific way. Or, if you forward this message to colleagues, but think they should be getting it directly, please tell us ! Do you have a group you meet with regularly that should hear from us? Let us know! We need your help in being as holistically inclusive as possible!
UWFT Newsletter Distribution List
This message is being sent to UW leadership, administrators and finance role-holders. You may also be receiving this email because your work will be impacted by UWFT or you’ve expressed an interest in staying aware of program news. You’re welcome to forward this message broadly, and please email us at uwftask@uw.edu if you’d like to be added to our distribution list.