Administrative services

Administrative systems at any large institution need regular reviews and changes to ensure processes still meet the organization’s needs, are cost-efficient and are in line with best practices. The SRI set out to examine ways to save costs and generate new revenues by eliminating operational inefficiencies in the central support systems that had grown over time. After exploring many wide-ranging possibilities, a number of opportunities were identified to streamline, upgrade or improve the university’s administrative services.

Procurement Initiatives

A major area of review and change is in procurement practices. With overall procurement at the University over $70 million annually, there are a number of opportunities that have been identified to achieve efficiencies and savings, including aggregate purchasing, preferred vendor agreements and tougher negotiating with potential suppliers.

The SRI is introducing significant changes and improvements to two areas of procurement: University travel and facilities and capital assets. Combined savings from these two initiatives alone will be $1.4 million by 2015.

The Travel Management Program was developed out of the priority SRI to streamline the entire booking and expense submission-reimbursement cycle. The Program aims at transforming the University’s entire Travel and Expense Management process through the application of an end-to-end automated solution, use of customized services of a travel management company, application of an appropriate payment solution, mitigating travel risks and last but not least, the strategic management of the “travel spend”. 

The objectives are: (1) Improve customer service (2) Reduce Costs (3) Improve process efficiencies (4) Improve control and compliance (5) Adhere to the principles of corporate social responsibilities and (6) Enhance reporting and auditing capabilities. You can read more about the Travel Management Program on its website.

The SRI has also led to improvements within Facilities (construction, renovation, maintenance and operations of physical assets). A dedicated senior buyer at Facilities now provides professional on-site expertise to ensure effective and efficient purchasing of goods and services, as well as full transparency in construction spending and tendering. A new supplies management tool (SciQuest) will allow us to lower costs of inventory and better control costs. As a result, Facilities now tracks orders, deliveries and overall costs better.

Financial and Budget Integration Project (FBI @ McGill)

The integrated budget project was launched in late 2010 as part of the SRI, and we are now moving from planning and assessment to detailed design and implementation of recommendations in a number of key areas. With an initial goal of achieving a strong planning and accountability framework at McGill, the project scope also encompasses the goals of integrated budgeting and improved financial processes.

The overall goal is to achieve an integrated, multi-year financial and budgeting process, at both the institutional and unit levels, that is closely aligned with the University’s strategic priorities. The FBI process will also ensure clear accountability and communications; simplified, standardized and efficient processes; and a collaborative and results-oriented budgeting process.

The work that is being done right now, involving three active and engaged project teams and some 35 people from all parts of the University, focuses on designing and validating solutions (processes, tools and overall accountability framework). FBI@McGill is on an accelerated timeline with the goal of having many changes in place for the next budget cycle (Fiscal Year 2014).

Financial Transactions

The scale and complexity of McGill’s various financial transactions have grown dramatically over the past decade. On an annual basis, Financial Services (FS) receives more than 60,000 vendor invoices and issues approximately 68,000 payments.

As part of the SRI, the University is now implementing an e-payment system for the settlement of vendor invoices at McGill. The solution is called AP Link (Accounts Payable Link) and the objective is to roll out this direct deposit solution to many of McGill’s major suppliers (as many as 1,200 of the University’s 5,000 suppliers). Other suppliers will be considered for another payment solution, called “Buyer Initiated Payment,” which is a bank-to-bank solution for payment of invoices. These solutions will streamline the purchase cycle, dramatically reduce paper transactions and enable McGill to negotiate better prices from major suppliers.