Thursday, September 26, 2019

Record-quick turnaround time locks in record-low rates for UVA

UVA made national news when it executed three bond sales, taking advantage of historically low rates and securing capital project financing for up to 100 years.

Read the full story in UVAToday.

As EVP-COO J. J. Davis mentioned in UVAToday, the sale required a team of UVA leadership and staff to move quickly to "seize the moment."

The team at the Century Bond sale at Barclay's

Before Davis, VP of Finance Melody Bianchetto, and Managing Director of Treasury Julie Richardson headed to New York City to make the historic deals, a flurry of activity, fast-tracked and involving many parties coming together, took place behind the scenes.

"This involved a level of efficiency and coordination we've never been tasked to do before," said Richardson.

"A debt issuance is usually a four-to-five month project, but when the inverted yield curve and other anomalies in the market indicated that we were looking at a historical low that wouldn't be around long, we sped up the process to achieve the low rates."

The result is that what would've normally taken 12 to 16 weeks was done in five, setting records at UVA for being the largest, quickest, and most creative deal ever closed.

What does it take to get such a deal off the ground?  Multiple banking partners to launch ti deal into the market, external legal counsel to draft hundreds of pages of documents for each deal, a financial advisor who committed herself to UVA almost full time for three weeks, a special-called meeting of the Board of Visitors, and multiple hours spent by UVA executives explaining our plan and strategy to our rating agencies to ensure the maintenance of our excellent credit score.

Staff from a variety of departments were integral in the transactions:  Gene Crouch of Treasury led coordination of the Rating Agency presentations and worked on deal structuring; Linda Vannatta of Treasury coordinated commercial paper refunding, debt proceeds, cash flows, and the impact to UVA"s Cash Projection Model; Bill Define of Financial Operations focused on the tax work and keeping UVA compliant with tax law; Richard Carter and Yvonne Metheny set up the accounting infrastructure for the transactions;  and Megan Lowe, Nancy Eagle, and Linda Moon of the EVP-COO office provided unlimited support to Davis and the Team.

Click the image for a larger view.  This chart illustrates all Century Bond
issuances since 1996 -- UVA is all the way to the right with the lowest rate!

Once the deals were put together, the Team traveled to New York for the pricing and allocation of the bonds.

"Many picture capital market transactions as a room full of traders representing buyers and sellers yelling on phones and across the room," says Richardson.

"Trading more electronic now, but with markets fluctuating in real-time, it really can be as hectic as you might imagine."

Richardson said the prospective investors had a number of questions about UVA's internal financial operations and budget.

"Melody and J.J. answered the questions about strategy, governance, and financial operations in a way nobody else could have," she says.

The team found their bonds were in strong demand; Davis, with the guidance of the chair of the BOV finance committee, finalized pricing and buyer orders were confirmed.

Now that she's back in her office, Richardson calls the entire process "exhilarating." 

"We could immediately compare the three transactions to every deal ever done, and we knew we'd not only made history but that what we did would directly contribute to the University's Strategy and Long-Range Plan."

Read more:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-09/universities-join-century-bond-boom-after-rates-tumble-worldwide

https://www.wsj.com/articles/falling-yields-unleash-flood-of-muni-century-bonds-11568367003

Share:

Record-quick turnaround time locks in record-low rates for UVA

UVA made national news when it executed three bond sales, taking advantage of historically low rates and securing capital project financing for up to 100 years.

Read the full story in UVAToday.

As EVP-COO J. J. Davis mentioned in UVAToday, the sale required a team of UVA leadership and staff to move quickly to "seize the moment."

The team at the Century Bond sale at Barclay's

Before Davis, VP of Finance Melody Bianchetto, and Managing Director of Treasury Julie Richardson headed to New York City to make the historic deals, a flurry of activity, fast-tracked and involving many parties coming together, took place behind the scenes.

"This involved a level of efficiency and coordination we've never been tasked to do before," said Richardson.

"A debt issuance is usually a four-to-five month project, but when the inverted yield curve and other anomalies in the market indicated that we were looking at a historical low that wouldn't be around long, we sped up the process to achieve the low rates."

The result is that what would've normally taken 12 to 16 weeks was done in five, setting records at UVA for being the largest, quickest, and most creative deal ever closed.

What does it take to get such a deal off the ground?  Multiple banking partners to launch ti deal into the market, external legal counsel to draft hundreds of pages of documents for each deal, a financial advisor who committed herself to UVA almost full time for three weeks, a special-called meeting of the Board of Visitors, and multiple hours spent by UVA executives explaining our plan and strategy to our rating agencies to ensure the maintenance of our excellent credit score.

Staff from a variety of departments were integral in the transactions:  Gene Crouch of Treasury led coordination of the Rating Agency presentations and worked on deal structuring; Linda Vannatta of Treasury coordinated commercial paper refunding, debt proceeds, cash flows, and the impact to UVA"s Cash Projection Model; Bill Define of Financial Operations focused on the tax work and keeping UVA compliant with tax law; Richard Carter and Yvonne Metheny set up the accounting infrastructure for the transactions;  and Megan Lowe, Nancy Eagle, and Linda Moon of the EVP-COO office provided unlimited support to Davis and the Team.

Click the image for a larger view.  This chart illustrates all Century Bond
issuances since 1996 -- UVA is all the way to the right with the lowest rate!

Once the deals were put together, the Team traveled to New York for the pricing and allocation of the bonds.

"Many picture capital market transactions as a room full of traders representing buyers and sellers yelling on phones and across the room," says Richardson.

"Trading more electronic now, but with markets fluctuating in real-time, it really can be as hectic as you might imagine."

Richardson said the prospective investors had a number of questions about UVA's internal financial operations and budget.

"Melody and J.J. answered the questions about strategy, governance, and financial operations in a way nobody else could have," she says.

The team found their bonds were in strong demand; Davis, with the guidance of the chair of the BOV finance committee, finalized pricing and buyer orders were confirmed.

Now that she's back in her office, Richardson calls the entire process "exhilarating." 

"We could immediately compare the three transactions to every deal ever done, and we knew we'd not only made history but that what we did would directly contribute to the University's Strategy and Long-Range Plan."

Read more:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-09/universities-join-century-bond-boom-after-rates-tumble-worldwide

https://www.wsj.com/articles/falling-yields-unleash-flood-of-muni-century-bonds-11568367003

Share:

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

UVAFinance Annual Employee Appreciation Breakfast October 4


It's time to celebrate our achievements and EAT! 

It's time to celebrate all the accomplishments of our fellow UVAFinance employees at the 4th Annual Employee Appreciation Breakfast.

Please send a list of your work-related professional development accomplishments to culturecrew@virginia.edu by September 27, 2019. Include certifications, degrees, etc. that you received (or will receive) between October 2018 and September 2019.

Let us know if you have any questions! Email culturecrew@virginia.edu

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UVAFinance Annual Employee Appreciation Breakfast October 4

It's time to celebrate our achievements and EAT! 

It's time to celebrate all the accomplishments of our fellow UVAFinance employees at the 4th Annual Employee Appreciation Breakfast.

Please send a list of your work-related professional development accomplishments to culturecrew@virginia.edu by September 27, 2019. Include certifications, degrees, etc. that you received (or will receive) between October 2018 and September 2019.

Let us know if you have any questions! Email culturecrew@virginia.edu

Share:

UVAFinance Personnel Files: Linda Leshowitz




Click the image for a larger view

Personnel Files is a UVAFinance Blog series in which we introduce a member of the Finance team so all can gain a greater understanding of how finance works at UVA.

Want to be featured? Want to suggest someone to shine a spotlight on? Email bv8h@virginia.edu.

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UVAFinance Personnel Files: Linda Leshowitz

Click the image for a larger view

Personnel Files is a UVAFinance Blog series in which we introduce a member of the Finance team so all can gain a greater understanding of how finance works at UVA.

Want to be featured? Want to suggest someone to shine a spotlight on? Email bv8h@virginia.edu.

Share:

UVAFinance Service Awards

Congratulations to these UVAFinance Team members who have stuck with the team for 10, 15, and even 20 years!  You all rock!

From Left to Right:  Stacey Parmenter, Larry Norem, Diane Morse, Heather Hite, Jessie McGann, Melody Bianchetto, Mary Fields, Richard Carter, Ashley Rogers, Candie Flippen, Ja'net Laponte

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UVAFinance Service Awards

Congratulations to these UVAFinance Team members who have stuck with the team for 10, 15, and even 20 years!  You all rock!

From Left to Right:  Stacey Parmenter, Larry Norem, Diane Morse, Heather Hite, Jessie McGann, Melody Bianchetto, Mary Fields, Richard Carter, Ashley Rogers, Candie Flippen, Ja'net Laponte

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The language of transformation: Meet Onyi Odumosu


Onyi Odumosu

Onyi Odumosu learns languages easily.  She speaks two Nigerian languages (Yoruba and Ebira), French, and English. 

“It’s true what they say – once you learn one language, it becomes easier to learn another, and another,” she says.

Odumosu is a new addition to the Finance Strategic Transformation Project Team, having joined the team in early September a Senior Project Manager.  Her 15+ years of project management and technical leadership experience will come heavily into play as UVA embarks on its financial transformation, but so will her multilingualism.

As she begins working on the project and communicating with our partners and stakeholders, Odumosu is prepared to learn new languages once more. 

“I’ve always been in positions where I’ve had to learn to communicate with people who come from a different area of expertise than me -- to learn their language and connect,” she says.

Her skill at learning the language of project stakeholders and translating on behalf of the project and technical team has been a key part of her past roles, including the Epic implementation at UVA Medical Center and also in her work with UVA’s Emily Couric Cancer Center.

At the Cancer Center, Odumosu helped translate the data her team gathered into real-life changes that would improve patient outcomes.  As she looked at clinical data for a specific subset of patients, she realized that the data was telling them something specific about how to improve patient care.

“We realized that streamlining the pathway through the system, which involves many specialists, would improve their care and outcomes.  These were obvious fixes.”

Odumosu’s work at the Cancer Center also gave her a rare opportunity for a project manager – a chance to actually use the product she had helped deploy during her time at the Medical Center, an experience that added to her understanding of and consideration for end-users.

In addition to her depth as a professional, Odumosu has a wide background. She is originally from Nigeria, and is a world traveler, including trips to countries in Africa and most recently visited Sydney, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and London.  She came by her love of language and her interest in connecting with different types of people honestly; she grew up traveling as part of her parents work and being immersed in different environments. 

She and her family relocated from Boston to Charlottesville six years ago when her husband took a faculty position in the School of Engineering.  Although she misses the wealth of different cultures she interacted with in Boston, she enjoys the ease of living in Charlottesville and the opportunities to enjoy nature. During her free time, she enjoys being on the soccer field with her two sons, cooking or catching up with news around the world. 

Although her background is certainly wide and varied, Odumosu says the thread that ties it all together is her love of working with people on big projects, and getting everyone to come together for a common, meaningful purpose.  She enjoys her work of building connections that enable people to work together.

“People are the same, so much the same,” she says, adding “We speak different languages, have different cultures, but at the very core, people are more the same than they realize.”

____________________________________________________________________

Visit the online community to learn more about Onyi.

Share:

The language of transformation: Meet Onyi Odumosu

Onyi Odumosu

Onyi Odumosu learns languages easily.  She speaks two Nigerian languages (Yoruba and Ebira), French, and English. 

“It’s true what they say – once you learn one language, it becomes easier to learn another, and another,” she says.

Odumosu is a new addition to the Finance Strategic Transformation Project Team, having joined the team in early September as Senior Project Manager.  Her 15+ years of project management and technical leadership experience will come heavily into play as UVA embarks on its financial transformation, but so will her multilingualism.

As she begins working on the project and communicating with our partners and stakeholders, Odumosu is prepared to learn new languages once more. 

“I’ve always been in positions where I’ve had to learn to communicate with people who come from a different area of expertise than me – to learn their language and connect,” she says.

Her skill at learning the language of project stakeholders and translating on behalf of the project and technical team has been a key part of her past roles, including the Epic implementation at UVA Medical Center and also in her work with UVA’s Emily Couric Cancer Center.

At the Cancer Center, Odumosu helped translate the data her team gathered into real-life changes that would improve patient outcomes.  As she looked at clinical data for a specific subset of patients, she realized that the data was telling them something specific about how to improve patient care.

“We realized that streamlining the pathway through the system, which involves many specialists, would improve their care and outcomes.  These were obvious fixes.”

Odumosu’s work at the Cancer Center also gave her a rare opportunity for a project manager – a chance to actually use the product she had helped deploy during her time at the Medical Center, an experience that added to her understanding of and consideration for end-users.

In addition to her depth as a professional, Odumosu has a wide background. She is originally from Nigeria, and is a world traveler, including trips to countries in Africa and most recently visited Sydney, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and London.  She came by her love of language and her interest in connecting with different types of people honestly; she grew up traveling as part of her parents work and being immersed in different environments. 

She and her family relocated from Boston to Charlottesville six years ago when her husband took a faculty position in the School of Engineering.  Although she misses the wealth of different cultures she interacted with in Boston, she enjoys the ease of living in Charlottesville and the opportunities to enjoy nature. During her free time, she enjoys being on the soccer field with her two sons, cooking or catching up with news around the world. 

Although her background is certainly wide and varied, Odumosu says the thread that ties it all together is her love of working with people on big projects, and getting everyone to come together for a common, meaningful purpose.  She enjoys her work of building connections that enable people to work together.

“People are the same, so much the same,” she says, adding “We speak different languages, have different cultures, but at the very core, people are more the same than they realize.”

____________________________________________________________________

Visit the online community to learn more about Onyi.

Share:

Finance Transformation Updates: New FAQs and a Recap of the Reporting & Analytics Workshop

Frequently Asked Questions posted 

The FST Project Team collected questions from a variety of stakeholders at the Phase 2: Readiness Kickoff and in the weeks preceding that event.  We've amassed your questions and their answers on the Finance Transformation website -- take a look! 

Don't see your question here?  Get in touch with FST: 

A Recap of the Reporting & Analytics Workshop:  Becoming an Insights Driven Organization

It was a packed house at the Holiday Inn!

Reporting and analytics is one of the key business outcomes of FST.  A solid reporting and analytics strategy will empower people with the ability to make decisions.   

On September 12, a group of over 50 stakeholders from schools and units across UVA came together to start the conversation about reporting and analytics and saw a demonstration of some of the tools that will help us move information more quickly. 

Read more about the key outcomes and cultural challenges they identified in the online community.


Share:

Finance Transformation Updates: New FAQs and a Recap of the Reporting & Analytics Workshop

Frequently Asked Questions posted 

The FST Project Team collected questions from a variety of stakeholders at the Phase 2: Readiness Kickoff and in the weeks preceding that event.  We've amassed your questions and their answers on the Finance Transformation website -- take a look! 

Don't see your question here?  Get in touch with FST: 

A Recap of the Reporting & Analytics Workshop:  Becoming an Insights Driven Organization

It was a packed house at the Holiday Inn!

Reporting and analytics is one of the key business outcomes of FST.  A solid reporting and analytics strategy will empower people with the ability to make decisions.   

On September 12, a group of over 50 stakeholders from schools and units across UVA came together to start the conversation about reporting and analytics and saw a demonstration of some of the tools that will help us move information more quickly.  

Read more about the key outcomes and cultural challenges they identified in the online community.

Share:

Hey UVAFinance: Don't forget Finance Shirt Friday!


Be sure to shoutout some of your colleagues Hoo have exemplified UVa Finance excellence by using the Shoutout Board!

Share:

Hey UVAFinance: Don't forget Finance Shirt Friday!

Be sure to shoutout some of your colleagues Hoo have exemplified UVa Finance excellence by using the Shoutout Board!

Share:

Revised Definitions in the Data Cookbook

With the help of the IAS team and the Registrar team, the UBI team has been working its way through the student-related fields of the Data Cookbook in an effort to provide clear and correct data definitions. 

In the UBI Community, Associate Director of Institutional Research and Analytics Mark Anderson gives a full update and encourages stakeholders to review the revised definitions and to let the team know what terms they should look at next. 

Please visit Anderson's post to catch up with this important work on data definitions and to share your thoughts!

Share:

Revised Definitions in the Data Cookbook

With the help of the IAS team and the Registrar team, the UBI team has been working its way through the student-related fields of the Data Cookbook in an effort to provide clear and correct data definitions. 

In the UBI Community, Associate Director of Institutional Research and Analytics Mark Anderson gives a full update and encourages stakeholders to review the revised definitions and to let the team know what terms they should look at next. 

Please visit Anderson's post to catch up with this important work on data definitions and to share your thoughts!

Share:

Student Financial Services Welcomes Maggie Duncan

Maggie Duncan has joined the SFS team as a Payment and Student Account Analyst.  Duncan, who comes to UVA most recently from Wells Fargo Advisors, views her new role as a perfect mix of her training in finance and her love of education.

Duncan completed her bachelor's degree at Columbia College and earned a Master of Arts degree with an emphasis in Executive Leadership from the Liberty University School of Business this past December.

After working to put herself through undergraduate school, she learned to love minimalism during graduate school, selling anything she didn't need so she could focus on her studies without working.

"I learned that I didn't miss anything I sold," she says, adding that financial freedom and no debt meant that she could spend more time doing things she enjoys.

In her new role, Duncan will put her training and experience, along with her personal journey as a student, to work as she handles deposits, reconciliations, and occasionally helping UVA students with their own financial questions.  

In taking a position at UVA, Duncan continues a family tradition:  her mother had a long career in Opthalmology, and her father has been in Facilities Management for over 20 years.    

Duncan lives in Charlottesville with her husband Derek, a sheriff's deputy for the City, and Tucker, their chocolate lab.  The Duncans enjoy spending time outdoors kayaking and hiking, as well as taking their camper to the beach to enjoy friends and family.  


Share:

Student Financial Services Welcomes Maggie Duncan

Maggie Duncan has joined the SFS team as a Payment and Student Account Analyst.  Duncan, who comes to UVA most recently from Wells Fargo Advisors, views her new role as a perfect mix of her training in finance and her love of education.

Duncan completed her bachelor's degree at Columbia College and earned a Master of Arts degree with an emphasis in Executive Leadership from the Liberty University School of Business this past December.

After working to put herself through undergraduate school, she learned to love minimalism during graduate school, selling anything she didn't need so she could focus on her studies without working.

"I learned that I didn't miss anything I sold," she says, adding that financial freedom and no debt meant that she could spend more time doing things she enjoys.

In her new role, Duncan will put her training and experience, along with her personal journey as a student, to work as she handles deposits, reconciliations, and occasionally helping UVA students with their own financial questions.  

In taking a position at UVA, Duncan continues a family tradition:  her mother had a long career in Opthalmology, and her father has been in Facilities Management for over 20 years.    

Duncan lives in Charlottesville with her husband Derek, a sheriff's deputy for the City, and Tucker, their chocolate lab.  The Duncans enjoy spending time outdoors kayaking and hiking, as well as taking their camper to the beach to enjoy friends and family.  

Share:

Continuous Improvement Bright Spot: SFS Parent Plus Loan Process


A key part of continuous improvement culture is "finding the bright spots" -- looking at who has had success making changes and operating differently. Small changes can make a big difference!
________________________________________________________________________________

The Issue:  The application process for a "Parent Plus Loan" is a two-step one:  one step is completed with Student Financial Services, and the other step is done with the federal government.  Out of the nearly 1000 Parent Plus Loans processed by SFS each year, over one-third of applicants weren't completing both steps, causing parent confusion, re-work by SFS staff, and in the worst case, the risk of a financial hold on student accounts.

The Improvement:  Because UVA meets 100% of demonstrated need through AccessUVA, SFS required the separate application that makes Parent Plus loans a two-step process for our families, even though that isn't the case for most schools.  Since we couldn't cut out a part of the process, Jessica Marvin and the SFS loan team worked on simplifying the UVA application.  They also put in place a process that triggers an email reminding parents of the second step in the application process.  

The Solution:  The new application form is half the size of the original (from 3 pages to 1.5).  Additionally, by using Docusign for their form, SFS has eliminated the need for parents to print out the form then fax or email it once it's complete.  The team can also use Docusign to push their form to parents if they do the federal form first, and once parents complete the SFS form, it routes directly into the workflow.

The Benefits:  A shorter, electronic form completed via Docusign is easier for parents and reduces both transmission errors and handwriting/missing signature problems.  Docusign also triggers a reminder to parents to complete the second step of the process.

The Bottom Line:  The Parent Plus Loan process is now simplified and it is much more likely that our families will be successful in submitting their materials the first time around!

________________________________________________________________________

Big shout outs to Jessica Marvin, Iris Roberts, Wendy West, Jeannie Sampson-Giles, and Lloyd Dollins for their role in this project!

Also, putting in a plug for UVAFinance's Lean courses:  This project was Jessica Marvin's Lean project, and she was coached by FOC's Danielle Hancock.  Interested in getting on the Lean goodness?  Check out upcoming Lean course offerings on the FOC site.

Got a bright spot to share? Email bv8h@virginia.edu

Share:

Continuous Improvement Bright Spot: SFS Parent Plus Loan Process

A key part of continuous improvement culture is "finding the bright spots" -- looking at who has had success making changes and operating differently. Small changes can make a big difference!
________________________________________________________________________________

The Issue:  The application process for a "Parent Plus Loan" is a two-step one:  one step is completed with Student Financial Services, and the other step is done with the federal government.  Out of the nearly 1000 Parent Plus Loans processed by SFS each year, over one-third of applicants weren't completing both steps, causing parent confusion, re-work by SFS staff, and in the worst case, the risk of a financial hold on student accounts.

The Improvement:  Because UVA meets 100% of demonstrated need through AccessUVA, SFS required the separate application that makes Parent Plus loans a two-step process for our families, even though that isn't the case for most schools.  Since we couldn't cut out a part of the process, Jessica Marvin and the SFS loan team worked on simplifying the UVA application.  They also put in place a process that triggers an email reminding parents of the second step in the application process.  

The Solution:  The new application form is half the size of the original (from 3 pages to 1.5).  Additionally, by using Docusign for their form, SFS has eliminated the need for parents to print out the form then fax or email it once it's complete.  The team can also use Docusign to push their form to parents if they do the federal form first, and once parents complete the SFS form, it routes directly into the workflow.

The Benefits:  A shorter, electronic form completed via Docusign is easier for parents and reduces both transmission errors and handwriting/missing signature problems.  Docusign also triggers a reminder to parents to complete the second step of the process.

The Bottom Line:  The Parent Plus Loan process is now simplified and it is much more likely that our families will be successful in submitting their materials the first time around.

________________________________________________________________________

Big shout outs to Jessica Marvin, Iris Roberts, Wendy West, Jeannie Sampson-Giles, and Lloyd Dollins for their role in this project!

Also, putting in a plug for UVAFinance's Lean courses:  This project was Jessica Marvin's Lean project, and she was coached by FOC's Danielle Hancock.  Interested in getting on the Lean goodness?  Check out upcoming Lean course offerings on the FOC site.

Got a bright spot to share? Email bv8h@virginia.edu

Share:

Three ways your department can save money on shipping costs

Earlier this year, Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services signed new contracts for Mail, Bulk, and Express Services with Federal Express and UPS. The new contracts are expected to bring savings on shipping costs of about 20%, or $200,000 annually to the University.

While that’s cause enough to celebrate, there are a few things your department can do to save even more on shipping costs:

1. Make sure that your shipping account is up to date and on the contract.
Accounts that were on the previous contracts have automatically been transferred to the new contract pricing, but some account contact information is old or incorrect, and some accounts have been established outside of the contract.

View our shipping contract FAQs for more information

2. When sending a package, consider Ground Shipping.  Currently, University accounts are shipping 65% of packages by Air, and 35% by Ground. Shipping goods by air is more costly to the University and also to the environment:

3. When ordering goods, choose a less urgent “Need By Date” on Purchase Orders. The #1 zone we receive expedited shipments from is our own zone. That’s like overnighting a package from Richmond to Charlottesville when Ground Shipping would get it here almost as quickly and for much less money.

To make sure that you’re maximizing your department’s savings on inbound freight, we recommend using the “Need By Date” field on your POs. This date defaults to two days after your purchase order is created, which can communicate a false sense of urgency to your supplier.

How to change your iProcurement Preferences

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Three ways your department can save money on shipping costs

Earlier this year, Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services signed new contracts for Mail, Bulk, and Express Services with Federal Express and UPS. The new contracts are expected to bring savings on shipping costs of about 20%, or $200,000 annually to the University.

While that’s cause enough to celebrate, there are a few things your department can do to save even more on shipping costs:

1. Make sure that your shipping account is up to date and on the contract.
Accounts that were on the previous contracts have automatically been transferred to the new contract pricing, but some account contact information is old or incorrect, and some accounts have been established outside of the contract.

View our shipping contract FAQs for more information

2. When sending a package, consider Ground Shipping.  Currently, University accounts are shipping 65% of packages by Air, and 35% by Ground. Shipping goods by air is more costly to the University and also to the environment:

3. When ordering goods, choose a less urgent “Need By Date” on Purchase Orders. The #1 zone we receive expedited shipments from is our own zone. That’s like overnighting a package from Richmond to Charlottesville when Ground Shipping would get it here almost as quickly and for much less money.

To make sure that you’re maximizing your department’s savings on inbound freight, we recommend using the “Need By Date” field on your POs. This date defaults to two days after your purchase order is created, which can communicate a false sense of urgency to your supplier.

How to change your iProcurement Preferences

Share:

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

2019 CVC Event


More info is coming about each activity, including sign-ups for the bake sale and
the Cornhole Tournament.  


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2019 CVC Event

More info is coming about each activity, including sign-ups for the bake sale and
the Cornhole Tournament.  

Share:

Musical Chairs at Carruthers Hall

There's a lot of moving around within UVAFinance as construction projects in Carruthers Hall wrap up.  Here's a recap of who is going where in case you're missing a colleague from another department:

  • SFS moved into their new (phase 2) area on Monday, 9/23.
  • FOC and FST will move downstairs to the phase 1 area on Thursday, 9/27. Some of FST will move into the vacated FOC space on 9/27.
  • Three employees will move in Procurement Services vacated by ASG employees. Tina Brice to Jay Gallimore’s office, Crystal Dollens to Del Kolberg’s office, and Ashley Matherne to Tina Brice’s office.
  • Jay Gallimore, Meredith Dixon, Mike Hayton, Linda Estepp, and Del Kolberg moved down to the SFS area on 9/24.
Share:

Musical Chairs at Carruthers Hall

There's a lot of moving around within UVAFinance as construction projects in Carruthers Hall wrap up.  Here's a recap of who is going where in case you're missing a colleague from another department:

  • SFS moved into their new (phase 2) area on Monday, 9/23.
  • FOC and FST will move downstairs to the phase 1 area on Thursday, 9/27. Some of FST will move into the vacated FOC space on 9/27.
  • Three employees will move in Procurement Services vacated by ASG employees. Tina Brice to Jay Gallimore’s office, Crystal Dollens to Del Kolberg’s office, and Ashley Matherne to Tina Brice’s office.
  • Jay Gallimore, Meredith Dixon, Mike Hayton, Linda Estepp, and Del Kolberg moved down to the SFS area on 9/24.
Share:

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Flu Shots 2019


Flu shots will not be given at Carruthers Hall this year, but are still available at many locations on Grounds. 

Also, if you're covered under the UVA medical plan, you can get a flu shot at many locations for free if you present your health insurance card.  A good place to try?  CVS (we have a new one just down the street)!

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Flu Shots 2019

Flu shots will not be given at Carruthers Hall this year, but are still available at many locations on Grounds. 

Also, if you're covered under the UVA medical plan, you can get a flu shot at many locations for free if you present your health insurance card.  A good place to try?  CVS (we have a new one just down the street)!

Share:

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Phase 2 is officially “Kicked Off!”


We had a full house (maybe even a crammed house!) for the August 30 Kickoff of Phase 2: Readiness.

Provost Liz Magill and EVP-COO J.J. Davis getting us
started. Hands are raised after J.J. asked,
  "who's ready to move off of Oracle?"

It was great to see such a large crowd and to have executive sponsors J.J. Davis and Liz Magill with us. Thanks to all who attended and participated in the exercises. This particular session only involved UVA colleagues who have been involved with the project so far, but we want everyone to get to take part, and we definitely want everyone’s input. 

If you didn’t attend the Kickoff, a video recording is available on the online Community. You can also access the complete slide deck from that day’s presentation!

Your Feedback and Input is always welcome!

Project leadership and the project team definitely want to hear from you! Here are a few ways to reach out:

Check in with representatives from your school or unit (we have Steering Committee members, Advisory Group members, and Checkpoint Team members in a searchable database on our website).

Get in touch with anyone on the project team. Our contact info is available on the FST website. We’re ready and listening! Not sure who to email? Just contact us at financetransformation@virginia.edu and we’ll make sure you get a well-informed response quickly.

If you have a great idea or a question you think others might share, we encourage you to share it in the online community. Not only are we very responsive in that channel, but also, your colleagues can interact with your thoughts, too. It’s a great way to connect with others and keep all of our concerns, inspiration, and feedback in the open.

Want your feedback to remain anonymous? You’re welcome to drop us a line via the FST webpage feedback feature in the top right corner of every page on the site.


There’s no wrong way to give feedback and no such thing as a dumb question. We are striving for this to be an inclusive process. When questions and concerns surface, we’ll do our best to get those answered both privately and in forums where others can benefit from them. Often this takes the form of us posting frequently asked questions in the community or on our website, without names of the original askers.

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Phase 2 is officially “Kicked Off!”


We had a full house (maybe even a crammed house!) for the August 30 Kickoff of Phase 2: Readiness.

Provost Liz Magill and EVP-COO J.J. Davis getting us
started. Hands are raised after J.J. asked,
"who's ready to move off of Oracle?"

It was great to see such a large crowd and to have executive sponsors J.J. Davis and Liz Magill with us. Thanks to all who attended and participated in the exercises. This particular session only involved UVA colleagues who have been involved with the project so far, but we want everyone to get to take part, and we definitely want everyone’s input. 

If you didn’t attend the Kickoff, a video recording is available on the online Community. You can also access the complete slide deck from that day’s presentation!

Your Feedback and Input is always welcome!

Project leadership and the project team definitely want to hear from you! Here are a few ways to reach out:

Check in with representatives from your school or unit (we have Steering Committee members, Advisory Group members, and Checkpoint Team members in a searchable database on our website).

Get in touch with anyone on the project team. Our contact info is available on the FST website. We’re ready and listening! Not sure who to email? Just contact us at financetransformation@virginia.edu and we’ll make sure you get a well-informed response quickly.

If you have a great idea or a question you think others might share, we encourage you to share it in the online community. Not only are we very responsive in that channel, but also, your colleagues can interact with your thoughts, too. It’s a great way to connect with others and keep all of our concerns, inspiration, and feedback in the open.

Want your feedback to remain anonymous? You’re welcome to drop us a line via the FST webpage feedback feature in the top right corner of every page on the site.


There’s no wrong way to give feedback and no such thing as a dumb question. We are striving for this to be an inclusive process. When questions and concerns surface, we’ll do our best to get those answered both privately and in forums where others can benefit from them. Often this takes the form of us posting frequently asked questions in the community or on our website, without names of the original askers.

Share:

A word or two about staffing the project

We’ve filled some critical FST roles, but there are many yet to come. Visit the online community and check out James Gorman’s post about project staffing for full details, but here are the basics:

  • Nicole Ferretti, who has served for 4 years as the Assistant Vice President for Financial Planning & Analysis, has accepted a full-time position as the Financial Lead. Nicole will take on this leadership role with the project, effective immediately.
  • Onyi Odumosu has joined the FST project team as Senior Project Manager on September 3. Onyi has over 15 years of project management and technical leadership experience, including the Epic implementation at UVA Medical Center, and she comes to us most recently from UVA’s Emily Couric Cancer Center.
  • Elissa Morton, Senior Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at the College of Arts and Sciences, will serve as lead for the Budgeting and Planning Workstream.
  • Allison Holt, Controller for the Office of Finance at the School of Medicine, and Thomas Schneeberger, Director of Financial Reporting in Financial Reporting & Operations, will serve as co-leads of the Chart of Accounts/Foundation Data Model Workstream

We’re grateful to have Nicole, Onyi, Elissa, Allison, and Thomas in these key roles, bringing their expertise, experience, and varied perspectives to the team as we seek the best talent to ensure success with FST. But these are just a few of the roles we will fill! Read more in the online community.

Share:

A word or two about staffing the project

We’ve filled some critical FST roles, but there are many yet to come. Visit the online community and check out James Gorman’s post about project staffing for full details, but here are the basics:

  • Nicole Ferretti, who has served for 4 years as the Assistant Vice President for Financial Planning & Analysis, has accepted a full-time position as the Financial Lead. Nicole will take on this leadership role with the project, effective immediately.
  • Onyi Odumosu has joined the FST project team as Senior Project Manager on September 3. Onyi has over 15 years of project management and technical leadership experience, including the Epic implementation at UVA Medical Center, and she comes to us most recently from UVA’s Emily Couric Cancer Center.
  • Elissa Morton, Senior Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at the College of Arts and Sciences, will serve as lead for the Budgeting and Planning Workstream.
  • Allison Holt, Controller for the Office of Finance at the School of Medicine, and Thomas Schneeberger, Director of Financial Reporting in Financial Reporting & Operations, will serve as co-leads of the Chart of Accounts/Foundation Data Model Workstream

We’re grateful to have Nicole, Onyi, Elissa, Allison, and Thomas in these key roles, bringing their expertise, experience, and varied perspectives to the team as we seek the best talent to ensure success with FST. But these are just a few of the roles we will fill! Read more in the online community.

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UVAFinance: Make plans to attend a “Mini Kickoff” Session


The project team is setting up two condensed versions of the Phase 2 Kickoff for UVAFinance team members.

The sessions will be Friday, September 20, from 11-12, and Tuesday, September 24, from 3:30 – 4:30 (both in Carr 1 & 2).

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU AT A SESSION!



You can sign up to attend a session now via Sign Up Genius:  

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090F45A9AF2CAAF85-mini

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UVAFinance: Make plans to attend a “Mini Kickoff” Session

The project team is setting up two condensed versions of the Phase 2 Kickoff for UVAFinance team members.

The sessions will be Friday, September 20, from 11-12, and Tuesday, September 24, from 3:30 – 4:30 (both in Carr 1 & 2).

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU AT A SESSION!




You can sign up to attend a session now via Sign Up Genius:  

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090F45A9AF2CAAF85-mini

Share:

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

From Melody's Desk

September 11, 2019

Dear Colleagues,

As you’ve probably been aware, we have been searching for an AVP for Financial Strategy and an AVP for Financial Operations and Controller as well as working on staffing for Finance Strategic Transformation (FST). I’m pleased to tell you the names of some of the talented people who will be joining our team, as well as several organizational shifts. All of these moves are part of our efforts to create a finance eco-system and team that strengthens the University’s foundation as imagined in President Ryan’s 2030 Plan and will help propel the UVA to be both great and good.

It’s great to be able to share so much good news at once!

AVP of Financial Strategy

After a comprehensive search, we chose Bill Ashby for this position. Bill will come to us from the Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy where he is currently Senior Associate Dean for Administration, effective September 30. Bill’s 18 years of leadership at UVA will serve us well as we transform our financial team and strengthen our partnerships with the University Community.

In this re-imagined leadership role, Bill will take the lead to build out UVAFinance’s reporting and analytics strategy, to strengthen our partnership support model to better serve UVA’s stakeholders from the Board and foundations to fiscal administrators both today and in the post-FST world, and to manage our internal administration for UVAFinance. Finance Outreach & Compliance (Kelly Hochstetler), the Administrative Services Group (Judy DiVita), and Foundations (Phil Porter) will report to Bill. Bill will work very closely with the Office of Financial Planning & Analysis, Treasury, Financial Operations, and the Financial Strategic Transformation team to achieve these objectives.

Finance Strategic Transformation (FST) Team

We’ve filled several critical FST roles, as we move into the Phase 2 Readiness activities:

  • Nicole Ferretti, who has served for 4 years as the Assistant Vice President for Financial Planning & Analysis, has accepted a full-time position as the Financial Lead. Nicole will take on this leadership role with the project, effective immediately.
  • Onyi Odumosu has joined the FST project team as Senior Project Manager on September 3. Onyi has over 15 years of project management and technical leadership experience, including the Epic implementation at UVA Medical Center, and she comes to us most recently from UVA’s Emily Couric Cancer Center.
  • Elissa Morton, Senior Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at the College of Arts and Sciences, will serve as lead for the Budgeting and Planning Workstream.
  • Allison Holt, Controller for the Office of Finance at the School of Medicine, and Thomas Schneeberger, Director of Financial Reporting in Financial Reporting & Operations, will serve as co-leads of the Chart of Accounts/Foundation Data Model Workstream.

We’re grateful to have Nicole, Onyi, Elissa, Allison and Thomas in these key roles, bringing their expertise, experience, and varied perspectives to the team as we seek the best talent to ensure success with FST.

Office of Financial Planning & Analysis (OFPA)

With Nicole transitioning to the FST project, Brian Logwood will lead the OFPA as Managing Director, effective immediately. Brian, who joined UVA in March, has over 20 years of public policy and financial planning experience with the Commonwealth of Virginia, most recently serving as an Associate Director in the Virginia Department of Planning and Budget for the finance, administration, and technology divisions.

Risk Management

After the spring retirement of Rick Schupp, Julie Richardson has taken on leadership of the Treasury and Risk Management functions as Managing Director. Day-to-day responsibilities for risk management will continue to be managed by Kristen Dinwiddie for Claims, and Debbie Hinton for Insurance and Advice.

Other UVAFinance Updates

The search for an AVP of Financial Operations and Controller is going well, with assistance provided from the Isaacson Miller search firm. We hope to complete this search within the two months.

The search for a Technical Lead for FST is in its final stages; we hope to make an announcement on that position very soon.

Additional positions for FST Phase 2 will be posted in Workday later this month, with Phase 3 positions planned for mid-October. If you’re interested in these roles, I encourage you to check out James Gorman’s recent posting in the online Community!

Please join me in welcoming these changes to the UVAFinance and FST project teams. Every carefully chosen team member builds our capacity to continually improve, transform for the better, and build an inspiring future. We still have more opportunities to participate, and I look forward to seeing how this already-awesome team in UVAFinance works together to bring about positive change.

Thank you for all you do!



Melody

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