Initiatives & Outreach

Initiatives & Outreach is committed to providing professional services to both our internal teams and to our partners, helping them achieve the strategic goals of the university. We assist in evaluating business processes and advise on the effective use of our systems with our campus community. Our objective is to provide a collaborative approach to identify, prioritize, track, and successfully execute initiatives and projects that support the strategic goals of the university as prioritized by Financial Services leadership.

If your department needs UAccess Support, Business Analysis, or Project Management services, please submit an Outreach Request to contact Initiatives & Outreach with your specific needs.

Our project managers will...

The project manager will work with your team to elicit business requirements, document processes, identify risks or gaps, and recommend process improvements.
Our team provides business analysis by working as a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze, communicate, and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies, and information systems. Common project analyses include brainstorming, decision analysis, cost benefit analysis, and process documentation. Our team will also provide quality assurance testing and work directly with the developers to ensure functionality meets requirements. We will coordinate user acceptance testing for product sign-off.
Our project managers will meet with your team to design a project plan, lead a kick-off, monitor project tasks, communicate with vendors and stakeholders, coordinate user acceptance testing, provide end-user training, and implement solutions. Our team is always looking for ways to improve our process and will solicit feedback throughout the project. We lead lessons learned sessions, or request participation in a customer satisfaction survey at the close of our projects.
The project managers will monitor the progress of the project and work with stakeholders directly to communicate status.
Communication is a key element of any project. Our team will create a plan for communication that works for your project and work with you to adjust as necessary.

Project List

Current Projects

The current Bottomline check printing system will no longer be supported and will need to be replaced with the new Bottomline PCM SAAS check printing solution. This project will ensure check files are stored, transferred via SFTP, and printed securely and efficiently. The project will also include testing the new solution, training, documentation, and post-go-live support structure.

TBDJune 2024

Bottomline PCM SAAS Implementation
GoalsThis project will replace an essential Accounts Payable business process with a more modern solution. This will provide quality tools for our internal users to efficiently conduct University business and will further enable Financial Services to efficiently comply with external and internal policies and procedures.
Project ManagerAkhil Kanakkassery
StakeholdersFinancial Services, UITS
LeadershipTammy Strom
StatusIn Progress
TimeframeTBD to June 30, 2024

This multi-phase, multi-year initiative to modernize the University financial system aligns with Pillar 5 of the University of Arizona strategic plan. The updated system will ensure the University of Arizona culture of adaptation, exploration and data-driven decisions continue as the University grows.
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January 2021 September 2024

Financials Modernization Project
GoalsThis system implementation will provide increased financial clarity, a more standardized Chart of Accounts, and more streamlined business processes for financial management at the University of Arizona.
Project ManagerMary Baum
StakeholdersFinancial Services, Campus
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusIn Progress
TimeframeJanuary 4, 2021 through September 30, 2024

Using automation tools, like Katalon and PowerAutomate, the Initiatives and Outreach team is actively supporting Financial Services business units to identify and implement opportunities for operational efficiency using automation.

GoalsIdentify potential process improvement opportunities and provide recommendations for implementing time-saving automation.
Project ManagerAkhil Kanakkassery
StakeholdersFinancial Services
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusOngoing

Financial Services is committed to supporting and ensuring the optimization of our financial system. We assist and lead upgrades and releases of new code.

GoalsEnsure teams effectively carryout the strategic direction given for the financial system.
Project ManagerMary Baum
StakeholdersFinancial Services, UITS, Campus Community
LeadershipUAccess Financials Governance and Strategy Committees
StatusOngoing

Project Gantt

See Project Roadmap

Completed Projects

As a part of Shared Services, we will collaborate and support the Financial Services IT Team to migrate and replace all the unsupported MS Forms webforms and their coinciding Power-Automate processes. We will provide documentation and project management support to ensure the Risk Management Team can collect, track, store and manage information received via webform submissions.

June 2022 December 2022

Risk Management Webform Optimization Project
GoalsThis project will replace 8 current Webforms and business processes with user friendly and easily supported Webforms. This will provide both exemplary service to our customers and look for time saving opportunities to support efficient financial and business services.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersRisk Management, Financial Services IT, Campus
LeadershipDan Mayhew, Ada Korhonen
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJune 2022 through December 2022

As a part of Shared Services, we will collaborate with the Office of Budget & Planning team to develop a process to collect, track, and store organization change requests.

September 2022December 2022

Office of Budget & Planning Org Change Request
GoalsUsing Adobe Webforms, Power-Automate, and SharePoint we aim to remove several manual steps in the organization change request process using automation tools. The process will be a user-friendly way to collect, manage, and store requests. This will provide both exemplary service to our customers and support efficient financial and business services.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersCampus, Office of Budget & Planning
LeadershipAda Korhonen, Garth Perry
StatusCompleted
TimeframeSeptemeber 2022 to December 2022

The Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF or Fund) is an Office of Sustainability program, established to provide funding support for large and small scale sustainability projects. Utilizing existing tools, we will support the Financial Services IT team to build a business process capable of collecting, storing, reviewing, and managing grant submissions for the Office of Sustainability.

March 2022December 2022

Campus Sustainability Fund
GoalsUsing Drupal Webforms, Power-Automate, and SharePoint we will replace three webforms and remove several manual steps in the grant process using automation tools. The product will be a user-friendly way to collect, manage and display the progress of these grants efficiently. This will provide both exemplary service to our customers and support efficient financial and business services.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersOffice of Sustainability, Campus
LeadershipDan Mayhew, Trevor Ledbetter, Ada Korhonen
StatusCompleted
TimeframeMarch 2022 through December 2022

Created and executed automated archiving of COI/COC system to save estimated manual work time of 2500 hours.

July 2021 May 2022

Business Process Automation Support
Goals: Automatically archive every document along with connected attachments from COI/COC system for archiving. Create a SharePoint system that gives similar search functionalities as the COI/COC systems.
Project ManagerAkhil Kanakkassery
StakeholdersResearch Innovation & Impact
LeadershipResearch Innovation & Impact
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJuly 2021 through May 2022

This project will develop and implement automated testing of the functional processes for all the Financial Services IT developed business applications. Testing all the functional requirements of these applications with automation provides an efficient, trackable, sustainable, and cost-effective way to complete functional testing and will help ensure the quality of any new code introduced.

September 27, 2021 January 28, 2022

Financial Services Application Automated Testing Project
GoalsProviding quality tools for our internal users to efficiently conduct University business will further enable Financial Services to efficiently comply with external and internal policies and procedures. In the case of our Tuition Calculator, automated testing will enable students to view accurate and timely rates in our application.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersFinancial Services
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJanuary 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022

Initiatives and Outreach will be coordinating the redesign and update of the Financial Services website

June 2020 August 2022

Financial Services Website
GoalsConsolidate and make customer-centric updates to our Financial Services website.
Project ManagerJudy Miranda
StakeholdersFinancial Services
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJune 24, 2020 through August 31, 2022

Coordinating the plan and timeline for the efforts leading up to the negotiations for the facilities and administrative cost rate.

May 2019February 2021

PCard Business Process
GoalsEnsure project tasks are completed on time to meet deadline for indirect cost proposal submission.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersFinancial Services, Planning and Design Construction, campus constituents
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeMay 1, 2019 through February 26, 2021

Financial Services is process mapping the PCard business process from end-to-end to identify any opportunities for operational efficiency.

November 2020March 2021

PCard Business Process
GoalsIdentify potential process improvement opportunities and provide recommendations for implementing time-saving changes or automation.
Project ManagerAkhil Kanakkassery
StakeholdersFinancial Services, Campus
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeFebruary 3, 2021 through March 5, 2021

The Unclaimed ACH & Wires application is being reevaluated for process improvements.

November 2020March 2021

Unclaimed ACH and Wires
GoalsImplement process improvements for Unclaimed ACH & Wires process.
Project ManagerAkhil Kanakkassery
StakeholdersFinancial Services, Campus
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeNovember 4, 2020 through March 14, 2021

In support of the UAccess Financials Strategic Committee’s decision for staying as close to current code as possible, automate the financial system’s functional test deck to ensure accurate, timely testing for upgrades and releases.

January 2019March 2021

Automated Functional Testing
GoalsDevelop an automated functional test deck for the financials system. Onboard the Business Systems Analysis and UITS Enterprise Business Analysis teams to ensure shared knowledge for maintainability.
Project ManagerAkhil Kanakkassery
StakeholdersFinancial Services, UITS Enterprise Business Analysts
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJanuary 1, 2019 through March 15, 2021

The University transitions in April 2020 to JPMC as the provider of bank services. Due to COVID-19 and campus working remotely we have delayed onboarding our Outlet campus sites and BDEX solution until we are back on campus.

January 2019March 2021

New Bank (Phase 2)
GoalsTransition Outlet campus sites to BDEX solution and complete the bank transition to JPMC.
Project ManagerMary Baum
StakeholdersFinancial Services, Campus
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeOctober 5, 2020 through March 15, 2021

Implement a process/solution that will centralize Financial Services business process and procedures documentation.

June 2020December 2020

Business Process Documents Centralization
GoalsCreate efficiency for Financial Services units to access business process and procedures documentation.
Project ManagerJudy Miranda
StakeholdersFinancial Services
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJune 1, 2020 through December 23, 2020

Financial Services Intranet content is being migrated to a SharePoint Hub. The goal of this project will be to launch a secure, user-friendly employee resource site.

August 2020December 2020

Intranet Migration
GoalsImplement a new Intranet for Financial Services.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersFinancial Services Units
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeAugust 14, 2020 through December 23, 2020

Our UAccess Learning administrators provide support for our instructors and learners related to the enterprise system. We administer and manage Financial Services trainings as well as participate in upgrades and releases to production.

July 2020June 2021

Learning Management System Support
GoalsEnsure the optimization of the enterprise learning management system.
Project ManagerAlexa Rohr
StakeholdersFinancial Services, UITS, Campus Community
LeadershipUAccess Learning Governance
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJuly 2020 through June 2021

The University of Arizona is working toward implementing a new Learning Management System for campus. Saba was the vendor awarded the RFP and we are branding the system EDGE Learning. Outreach is participating as a project member and is leading User Acceptance Testing for our internal units.

January 2020 November 2020

New Learning Management System
GoalsAdoption of a new Learning Management system.
Project ManagerAlexa Rohr
StakeholdersFinancials Services
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJanuary 2020 through December 2020

As part of Financial Services IT routine maintenance, the Application Access Component enables Financial Services application administrators to grant and maintain user access. This component will replace Gatekeeper and will function in many of the same ways, but will also be able to interact and manage users for server-less applications.

September 2020 October 2020

Application Access Component
GoalsImplement a solution for managing users for server-less applications.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersFinancials Services units
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeSeptember 2020 through October 30, 2020

Upgrade the technical framework for the Tuition Calculator web application and develop a new administration dashboard to manage the tuition data.

December 2019 July 2020

Tuition Calculator
GoalsOptimize the technical framework for the Tuition Calculator web application. Develop a new administration dashboard to allow the Bursar team to easily manage all the tuition data displayed on the Tuition Calculator.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersUniversity of Arizona Students, Faculty, and Staff
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeDecember 2019 through July 10, 2020

Upgrade framework for current application and implement functional enhancements.

October 2019 July 2020

PCard Operation Center
GoalsOptimize technical framework for the PCard Operation Center application and ensure requirements are met for both the PCard administration and Compliance teams.
Project ManagerAlexa Rohr
StakeholdersFinancial Services
LeadershipPCard Compliance, PCard Administration
StatusCompleted
TimeframeOctober 2019 through July 20, 2020

Implementation team will form this Fall, JPMorgan Chase Bank will provide comprehensive banking services to the University that will not only save money but continue to provide excellent service to the University community.

Febuary 2019 April 2020

New Bank
GoalsSuccessfully transition the university from current bank to JPMorgan Chase.
Project ManagerMary Baum
StakeholdersFinancial Services, Campus Community
LeadershipNew Bank Steering Committee
StatusCompleted
TimeframeFebruary 2019 through April 30, 2020

Modify existing application to include an option for distributing checks through the Bursar's Office.

October 2019 December 2019

Special Handling Log Bursar
GoalsAdd functionality to allow checks to be signed for through the Bursar’s Office using already existing Special Handling Log application. Ensure documentation is updated for existing users and created for the new user unit.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersFinancial Services
LeadershipFinancial Services
StatusCompleted
TimeframeOctober 2019 through December 2019

Implement a Capital Physical Inventory solution that interfaces/updates our financial system of record.

July 2018 March 2020

Capital Asset Inventory Management
GoalsImplement a solution that will meet Capital Finance and asset custodian’s needs for inventory purposes.
Project ManagerAlexa Rohr
StakeholdersFinancial Services, UITS Enterprise Business Analysts, Campus Community
LeadershipCapital Finance
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJuly 2018 through March 2020

Lead RFP for Budget and Planning tool. Provide support for the successful implementation of Axiom software. Work with the Budget Office to develop on demand training.

November 2018 March 2020

Budget and Planning
GoalsWork with the Budget Office stakeholders to ensure a successful implementation of Axiom and adoption from the campus community.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersBudget Office, Financial Services, Campus Community
LeadershipBudget Office
StatusCompleted
TimeframeNovember 2018 through March 2020

Upgrade framework and migrate current application to Portal.

January 2019 October 2019

Travel Advance Settlements
GoalsMigrate application to a new server and take the opportunity to implement technical enhancements.
Project ManagerPhillip Valine
StakeholdersFinancial Services
LeadershipAccounts Payable
StatusCompleted
TimeframeJanuary 2019 through October 2019

Upgrade framework and migrate current application to Portal.

December 2018 May 2019

Special Handling Log
GoalsMigrate application to a new server and take the opportunity to implement technical enhancements.
Project ManagerJuanita McCune
StakeholdersFinancial Services
LeadershipAccounts Payable
StatusCompleted
TimeframeDecember 2018 through May 2019

Initiatives & Outreach Team

Mary Baum, PMP, CSM

Manager, Initiatives and Outreach
maryb@arizona.edu

Alexa Rohr, CSM

Business Analyst, Principal
arohr@arizona.edu

Akhil Kanakkassery

Business Analyst, Senior
akhilashokk@arizona.edu

Judy Miranda

Business Analyst
ymiranda@arizona.edu

Jennifer McCabe

Project Coordinator
jennifermccabe@arizona.edu