A message from Leila McCamey
Happy March everyone! This month symbolizes a lot of things to a lot of people: March Madness, spring break, St. Patrick鈥檚 Day and the two-year anniversary of going remote. It鈥檚 also a month where many of us assess the prior year and finalize plans for the next fiscal year. This year鈥檚 planning process has made me acutely aware of how much my unit relies on you for our success.
Collaboration has always been a big part of how CCO operates. Within my unit, this is especially important. Most of what we produce is with campus partners in mind or created through cross-functional partnerships. As I assess what has been created and our plans for the next year, I am amazed by the variety of people involved and how the diversity of perspectives and experiences is directly related to the quality of the final product.
Financial Onboarding & Training
- Financial Onboarding Series: The Financial Environment course was launched in SkillSoft with a companion video. This series sets the context for why we do what we do from a fiscal perspective. It is intended for faculty and staff new to the Boulder Campus.
- Research Onboarding: Based on feedback from UCB鈥檚 research administrators, we have started developing an additional financial onboarding track. This one will focus on giving campus staff a solid foundation for the financial aspects of research administration. We are also working on more intermediate and advanced-level topics to present separately.
- Knowledge-Based Learning Sessions: These continue to see excellent attendance! Over the last year, these informal monthly sessions have included topics such as fiscal certification, sensitive expenses, space survey and preparing for our F&A base year. Topic suggestions are welcome! Please submit them to controller.training@colorado.edu.
Systems & Technical Operations
By focusing on customer service, automation and efficiency we are implementing technology and other solutions to complement our existing operations. Often, those solutions involve improved system functionality, more effective business processes, and the training and documentation to support them.
For example, in February we launched the annual incompatible access certification process. By incorporating an online form and workflow through the OnBase document management system, we were able to improve the process by making it easier for users to respond. It also makes it easier for us to provide and maintain records of this very audit-able certification.
Our pipeline includes improvements to chartfield requests, project setup, and more transparency in the invoicing and accounts receivable processes for sponsored research. We are also redesigning the CCO website to be more user-friendly and easier to navigate. You will be hearing more about that in the months to come.
I send my sincere thanks to the active participation of:
- Boulder campus staff
- CCO, OCG and BFP
- The Office of the University Controller and University Information Systems
- Peers on the Denver, Anschutz and Colorado Springs campuses
I appreciate how much willingness and enthusiasm everyone has for improving the systems we work with, building our training resources and providing wonderful feedback. Thank you for everything you do!
Leila McCamey, Associate Director of Systems, Technical Operations & Training