Finance Communications
CFO Update
Apr/May 2024 edition
|
|
|
|
Sent to all Finance staff
6 June 2024
CFO message
Team,
“Winter is coming” – Some of you will remember my fondness of Game of Thrones (GOT). And with winter, a new series of the prequel launches in June. No late meetings on Tuesdays for this CFO!
In a university context, winter is not such an ominous proposition. There are plenty of wind shielded sun traps in our glorious estate. Winter is when we hit our full stride. The first semester is nearing its end and a new intake in imminent. The major infrastructure we have planned for the next five years is taking shape, budgets come into focus and the institutional strategy is taking centre stage.
Sydney Listens
I am a little bit proud that you have been so responsive with a 91% (252 staff out of 256, fixed term and continuing staff gave us feedback). The secret fear of every leader is that they rally the troops, and the troops walk off in the other direction.
Thank you for your feedback, both positive and critical. Each is equally valuable.
Although we have a bit of fun as a team gamifying these things, there is a serious purpose. As leaders and employees (yep, we are in it together), we want USYD to be a top tier environment in which we learn and do our best work. If I have learned anything in my past 8 years (and you have taught me a lot), it’s how to listen.
As I said to you when asking for your feedback, I am committed to reading every comment and continuing to work within Finance and my role in UE to improve what we can. This last part is critical, because while subcultures can be positive in leading the way, the University succeeds when the positive vibe is ubiquitous. Of course, that is also a harder thing to execute and as partners and service providers with a wide footprint and influence, we have a critical role to play.
OK, enough of that.
Welcome to Telfer - AI Hub!
After many false starts, and in the nick of time as the sold sign is hung on Mackie, our AI Hub Team have finally set-up shop/home in Telfer on Level 6. By all accounts, repairing ceilings, a lick of paint and a swatch of carpet, they’re loving the new digs. The damp and mould of Mackie is a distant memory.
For my part, I can now visit without getting wet and jamming my hand in the finger trap at the entrance to Mackie. Of course, the easier access is a blessing and a curse. AI Hub may not welcome more unruly, implausible, and unbounded brainstorming sessions with me. I can be a disruptive influence. I know it. (because I listen😊)
A smaller move
Continuing the theme of creating a better place to work, and one that serves our staff and partners (without leaks), we have also completed updates to L5 for Miles Collins and his Investment and Capital Management (ICM) team. The team is now enjoying the benefit of new paint and carpet, with a more pleasant work environment that can appropriately host our investment partners.
Ongoing works
A call out of thanks for our Corporate Finance and FPAC teams for their patience as their own workspaces finally get some attention on Level 3. They’ve had to relocate to other team areas throughout Telfer (Level 2, Level 4 and Level 6), with all teams changing-up their WFO days to make room for everyone. Thank you all. Hopefully by July this will be behind us, and we can enjoy each other’s company more frequently. We might need a bit more paint here and there but that can be managed over time.
I think we are pretty good at transitioning between the virtual and physical and traversing the two simultaneously. I also know that spending too much time away can be isolating and leave us disconnected. Even as an unapologetic introvert, meeting in person with you lot elevates my energy and importantly, empathy. Anyway, it’s a balance.
Speaking of balance. Has anyone noticed that on Friday and to a lesser extent on Monday, traffic is less, parking is easier, and a blanket of peace settles across the Campus? Just saying.
Transforming the Back and Middle Office for our Funds under management
This is a sleeper that few would understand other than those on the Senate FAC Investment Committee. It’s a major project for any fund, and for us, to replace a fund custodian. For us, undertaken within routine BAU in house capability to plan, execute and govern complex projects. No drama, just outcomes.
Congratulations to David McGill and Miles Collins and their teams for the smooth transition to our new custodian (BNP) to manage the University’s $4B investment portfolio –1 June is the big day.
Its not just the transition. The funds have close to quadrupled in size over a relatively short time frame and by the reflections of our very professional Investment Sub-Committee members, the strategy and sophistication of the fund is rarely found in the market. To this end we are reimagining the support functions to liberate and support Miles and the team to take what is already quite special and make it more so. This is CV building stuff for those involved.
On an individual note, when negotiating complex contracts, it is not half useful to have a reformed (and recovered) lawyer as Director of FCT. He can read, write, and add up. It’s a handy combination.
Digging into what is hot for us and the University at the moment
Budget kicked off this week. Weird, and I was a bit nervous. I haven’t done a tonne of public speaking of late. For those who suffer privately before stepping in in front of a crowd to speak, take heart, its normal. It can also be conquered, even by the most extreme introvert (like yours truly).
Someone throw me a soft ball question?
Andrew and the team have so far done the customary magic in planning the budget from pre-launch to Senate presentation. There is no need to worry, but it is a challenging year. For the first time in my memory (other than the obviously burning platform of COVID in 2020), we are moving from a growth mindset to a selective investment positioning. Prioritisation is a new muscle that we must exercise and grow.
We understand what it means when the growth music stops, but for those further from our predictive capability and top-down perspective, they won’t have experienced this situation and may not believe it.
It is going to lead to challenging conversations across the University as we prioritise our overarching strategic mission above some of the other ideas that we have across the University. Let’s face it, the University is an ideas machine, and few are bad ideas. It’s just that some ideas are more impactful than others.
The decisions are now a little bit easier, as for the first time we have a sharp set of institutional KPIs. It won’t be easy, but the idea is that if we cannot show that the investments move those KPIs, then it’s probably not our priority. Of course, there is an overarching obligation to comply with laws and regulations. The KPIs are, none the less, a useful filter for “good ideas”. More on this next time.
As we go through this time, remember that we have two clients, the University and those that we support within it. Its hard but we need to help them line up in a balanced way.
2060 and Parramatta Westmead (PW) has been consuming a lot of our energy. So what is this thing all about? Back in 2018 the University was presented with an opportunity to secure some land in my old stomping ground at PW. The vision being to create a distinctive offering in the fastest growing city at the Centre of Greater Sydney. There were a number of things that needed to happen on the government side to make this possibility real, and many have occurred, to the point where we are now framing up a proposal for Senate to consider.
The challenge is to fashion a model of operation and financing that will make such a large undertaking work. It will not shock you when I say that after taking our investment prowess out of the equation, Universities are not money spinners. Absent Philanthropy and Investments, we spend pretty much all that we make and then what is left is ploughed into the campus here.
Russell, Jeremy, Greg, Eric and Vivian have been hard at it with McKinsey and other University stakeholders to pull it together, including a deep dive into what our Camperdown base looks like as you compound our business model over 40 odd years. Why 40 years? Because building a new campus and spinning it up to critical mass takes that long.
The modelling and content work that we have done has a number of benefits. It maps the possible trajectory to a PW investment, but also helps reveal why we need to be more selective as we move forward. with or without Westmead.
Anyway, it’s a big week with Joint Senate FAC and BEC. Thanks to those that toiled over this, it is another project which is resume building and on which we may one day reflect with pride.
Personal anecdote about PW. Some of you know I grew up in the west before it was trendy. As a grubby kid, I used to catch tad poles with my sister in the creek that runs through the target site for the campus. We stuck them in the family pool to watch then grow into frogs before releasing them back before it was chlorinated for summer. As you can imagine dad didn’t so much appreciate our misuse of one of his hand built and prized assets.
Now to people
A special call out – Paul Lui Don’t tell me you didn’t spot my social media post on Vivia Engage (Yammer) about our beloved team mate on his USYD MBA graduation?
I don’t go in for broad social media, but for Paul, I gave it a go. Cherry tells me that 6,475 University staff viewed it, and my kids tell me that’s “trending”. They also said it is not be confused in any way with being trendy.
See more here: Wayne Andrews, Chief Financial Officer, celebrated Paul Liu, one of our Finance colleagues, who recently graduated with an MBA from the University.
Professor Stephen Garton: The month (mid April) also saw our dear friend Stephen Phillips off to walk the Camino and learn the guitar. Good for Stephen, but it left a hole. Fortunately, the University has an excellence of Stephens on call and Professor Stephen Garton has stepped in. Stephen is great to work with and has an unprecedented depth of knowledge about the University and sector. All the best,
Wayne Andrews
Chief Financial Officer
| |
Sydney Listens - thank you
As Wayne Andrews mentions above, thank you to each one of you for sharing your feedback through the 2024 Sydney Listens survey.
The survey results are one of five institutional key performance indicators (KPIs) measured by the University, demonstrating the commitment to listening and acting on feedback from staff across this special place.
Our participation rate in Sydney Listens increased from 73 per cent in 2023 to 91 per cent in 2024.
| |
|
Who knew number crunchers could be such axe-perts?
In a plot twist nobody saw coming, our Corporate Finance team traded calculators for axes and embraced our inner lumberjacks in a hilarious axe throwing showdown for our team building day.
Turning numbers into bullseyes, our team enjoyed the thrill of axe throwing, fostering teamwork, resilience, and a shared commitment to success.
We then wrapped it up with some epic karaoke sessions, unleashing our inner talents and ending the day with laughter, ready to tackle any new challenges ahead as a team.
| |
FIN COMMS Update May 2024
Guest speakers Petrus Swemmer and David McGill joined the May 2024 FIN COMMS Update with our ADF colleagues. These sessions focus on knowlege sharing and staying connected.
On the agenda
- Petrus took us through the Capital Reform project, while
- David covered Project Le Franc.
Thank you both for your time and answering questions, it's much appreciated.
Meeting resources
Resources from the session include the following:
CF Open Door Initiative
There was also a quick update from Corporate Finance's Joanna Wang about the expansion of the CF Open Door Initiative. This was initially started by Corporate Finance’s DVCR Finance Team to reach out to Faculty Finance Partners about upcoming projects on a regular basis. This initiative will now cover upcoming projects across all Corporate Finance client areas.
| |
Flu vaccinations available on campusPharmacy vouchers and reimbursement
Missed the on-site flu vaccination offer? Don't worry there are other options to ensure your flu shot is covered.
Pharmacy vouchers and flu vaccination reimbursements (up to the value of $25) can be requested through to the end of July - Physical health - Intranet - The University of Sydney
| |
Getting cold? Grab a USYD hoodie!
Cooler mornings and nights call for clothes options to keep you nice and toasty. How about helping the planet too?
Our USU friends have brought out a range of their popular USYD hoodies with a difference.
Each hoodie is made from 30 recycled plastic bottles! How super cool (and also super warm at the same time)!
And, if you're not a fan of hoodies, you can buy crew neck jumpers made the same way too.
Thanks Nick Devine from our OATs Team for bringing this to our attention.
| |
Eid al-Fitr celebrations - Procurement Services
Sharing some great photos of staff in Procurement Services acknowledging and celebrating Eid al-Fitr in April, which is the earlier of the two official holidays celebrated within Islam. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan.
| |
Ditch the wrapping paper!
Did you know that Australia goes through about 150,000km of gift wrap every year? This is almost 4 times around the globe?
The Procurement Green Team (Proc Green) have investigated reusable alternatives for gift wrapping to help reduce the environmental impact of single-use wrapping paper.
The aim is to encourage the adoption of sustainable gift-giving practices and raise awareness about the importance of waste reduction during celebrations.
| |
Staff Moves
Find out what's been happening on promotions, secondments, professional staff exchanges, maternity leave, graduations, moving to another role in the University or taking up an opportunity elsewhere.
| |
AI HUB
AI Hub Moves into Telfer!
It's official! The AI Hub finally moved out of Mackie and into Level 6 of Margaret Telfer! The team celebrated with a Grand Opening complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony and fantastic cake (seephotos below). Great to finally be part of the greater Telfer family.
AI Hub helps the University address privacy risks
In response to the rise of corporate data leaks, the University has focused on reducing the amount of highly sensitive data it retains unnecessarily. The Privacy Resilience Team identified over 1 million copies of sensitive data. To help the Privacy Team mitigate the risks, the AI Hub has developed two bots that allow the Privacy Resilience team to perform mass deletions of sensitive but unnecessary data. Great collaboration between the teams resulting in lowering the University's risks!
| |
Corporate Finance
Scroll up for stories in this issue
- Who knew number crunchers could be such axe-perts?
It has been a busy and fun time for our team. Q1 Forecast, business cases, onboarding new executives, taking on new client portfolios… are just our daily work.
Finance Town Hall
The highlight for us must be the Finance Townhall when we learned so much from Wayne’s conversations and enjoyed the company of our colleagues. Congratulations to Linny for an amazing MC job and Paul for such a thoughtful presentation on Leading Finance. We were also excited to take home a special prize for the paper airplane folding competition – jointly created by Dan and Lindy.
Team activities
Another exciting event right after the Q1 Forecast for us was the Team Building Day – Axe Throwing (voted by the team!). The day was so memorable, demonstrating the team’s spirit of “work hard and play hard”. We also discovered many hidden talents in the team.
The International Lunch jointly organised with FPAC was also a great occasion for the team to catch up, tasting yummy food and playing fun games together.
Packing up for renovations
We also closed off the exciting period with ‘fast and furious’ office packing ready for the renovation. Many thanks to other teams, especially OATs, Procurement and AI Hub for sharing your home with us.
Team RASA – Research Advancement Student Administration (Paul Lui and team)
Strengthening Faculty Finance Business Partners and DVCR Finance collaboration - over the past few weeks, our DVCR Finance team has been engaging in open round table discussions with each Faculty Finance cluster, introducing ourselves and delving into the pain points experienced with DVCR Finance. These conversations have been invaluable in fostering a stronger connection and understanding between our teams. To commemorate these interactions, we've captured some memorable moments in the form of selfies with some of the teams, which we're excited to share with you (see below).
Operationalisation of EA $11.5m collaboration between DVCR and Faculty Finance: With the Enterprise Agreement (EA) taking effect in 2023, there have been significant financial implications for grants awarded based on previous EA increases. To address this, strategic funding has been approved by the university to support researchers in bridging resource gaps. Our team has been diligently collaborating with all Faculties FBP and DVCR to ensure smooth operationalisation of this funding. We're thrilled about the opportunities this strategic funding will provide, enabling researchers to focus more on their work without worrying about funding shortfalls.
Lastly, we're excited to share that we're actively working on the business case for the future of High-Performance Computing (HPC) transitioning to the cloud: This collaboration between Team RASA, Corporate Finance HUB, Research Infrastructure, and ICT underscores our commitment to providing cutting-edge resources to researchers. With the rapid advancements in AI, strong computing power is crucial for pushing research boundaries. Our current in-house system, HPC Artemis, is nearing its end of life, making this transition even more significant. We're enthusiastic about the possibilities this new system holds in enhancing researchers' capabilities and facilitating groundbreaking research.
Joanna Wang and team
- In our recent efforts to seamlessly support both new and existing portfolios, especially in light of the recent portfolio changes in Corporate Finance, we've been actively reaching out to clients in the Vice-Chancellor Portfolios (VCP). Our goal is to ensure a smooth transition for our clients while continuing our business partnerships with key stakeholders in VCP.
- Similarly, with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services (DVC ISS) in the process of formulating the new strategy, we recently attended a session with the One Sydney Many People (OSMP) team. This not only allowed us to meet with the wider project team members but also provided an opportunity to understand their day-to-day challenges better, enabling us to offer enhanced support for the Indigenous community's operations.
- Within our own team, we have completed the Professional Development Plan (PPD) for all team members, particularly focusing on the professional development discussions. This is to ensure that we identify the opportunities and development points that we can work through together in 2024.
Varun Kalia and team
- After successfully completing the Q1 Forecast, it was time for the team to take a well-deserved break and ‘tune out’ a little in April. Linny sailed off on a tropical cruise where she rocked the boat with her singing skills, almost winning The Voice of the Ocean! Varun, on the other hand, whisked his family and a Canadian pal off to Adelaide for a week of beach-hopping adventures. But let us face it, there is no place like Sydney! Subash also went back to Nepal to be a guest of honour at his niece’s wedding.The ceremony lasted four days – wow!
- Now, the team is back and buzzing for Q2 Forecast and looking forward to the FY25 Budget preparation, fueled by caffeine and new connections from Coffee Roulette. Let the financial fun resume!
Lulu Liu and team
- In our aspiration to make the university "a place that works better," change remains a constant in our client space. With ICT undergoing a transformation plan and shifts in HR senior management, we stand as strong finance business partners, providing support from financial modelling to induction assistance, we ensure a smooth journey, facilitating understanding of university policies every step of the way.
- Over the past four weeks, the buzzword has been "Power BI Reporting", and we've made significant progress, thanks to the tremendous support from the hub. Highlights include finalising the FTE dashboard for ICT executives, progressing on the My Org Finances rollout for ICT senior managers, and exploring avenues to automate the HR resource planning and tracking report.
- The Hub has been on an exciting journey to develop a suite of PowerBI dashboards for Corporate Finance team to use. The feedback of the pilot round has been great! Our Finance Partners love the dashboards and find them very useful, affirming the value these dashboards bring to our daily work. Building on this success, we are currently in the process of refining these dashboards based on the team’s feedback. We are preparing to extend the implementation of these dashboards to our client areas in the near future!
- Besides all the dashboard fun, we've been crunching numbers and helping with FTE analysis and business cases, such as MyResearch Sydney, High Performance Computing, etc.
- Looking ahead, we are getting ready for Q2 forecast and 2025 Budget planning, to support the whole CF team throughout the process. It's all about staying ahead of the game and making sure we are on the right track.
| |
|
FABULAS - Faculty Finance
The Business Partnering Team
- Assisting the Faculty and School executives to prepare the Arts Precinct business case to address the continuing investment in infrastructure needed for continued growth of students in Economics and Media and Communications,
- Supporting Faculty and School Executives with the School governance reviews of all six schools in FASS scheduled for 2024,
- Supporting 3-5 year strategic workforce planning in collaboration with Business School management and HR colleagues to address issues related to lagging recruitment against years of high student growth, and over-casualisation,
- Preparation of financial modelling and analysis for the business case to support clients in the submission of the SCM’s ConToo UE paper for funding approval.,
- Creation of a Teaching and Marking Relief Template to assist Academics across the Law School and SCM to accurately plan Strategic and Research grants,
- Supporting USBS Lifelong Learning enablement project, financial processes for strategic initiative reporting and long term EFTSL projections for budgeting, staff space planning, and strategic workforce planning
The Financial Analyst Team
- Preparation of quarterly FASS Finance Committee Meeting presentation pack providing financial insights to faculty senior management including Q1F, DET Cost of Teaching trends, new Academic hiring on EA330 strategic recruitment and new delegations of authority,
- Collaborated with the USBS BP team to co-develop a strategic initiatives program reporting tool to support executive review of resource utilisation,
- Continuing with the preparation and rollout of reporting packs to support the Dean and Heads of School with school governance reviews for FASS,
- Preparation of second quarterly forecast tools / templates & review presentations for FBP to streamline their consultation process with clients.
Staff Moves
Please scroll-up to check the Staff Moves section for news on FABULAS staff moves.
| |
FSEA - Faculty Finance
Current Initiatives
We are actively working on the EA330 budget uplift and examining the Horizon Fellowships, while also refining our Standard Operating Procedures for Support Funds, including addressing gift deficits and other governance activities.
Minor RC restructures are being made to enhance efficiency and clarity. Additionally, we are checking the details of the carry-forward sweeps and collaborating with FCT to post sweep journals.
We are also partnering with the DVCE team to understand and support strategic programs aimed at improving educational quality and student experiences.
Finance Book Club
Our Finance Book Club event hosted by our Finance Director Carma Du Plooy, featured Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People which was recommended by our CFO Wayne. The event was a heartwarming success despite the Sydney autumn rain.
People engaged in lively discussions, exploring Carnegie's principles like the power of a sincere smile, the art of listening, and genuine appreciation. These principles sparked debates about kindness and the book's provocative title. Eric Chan enjoyed the camaraderie but critiqued the need to teach basic decency, while Carma emphasised balancing authenticity with Carnegie's advice. The event highlighted the impact of small gestures and positive relationships, leaving everyone with thoughtful reflections.
Farewell lunch: Aiden Bariol
We held a farewell lunch for Aiden Bariol (see photo below) who has left the University to work and play cricket in England. Aiden joined FSEA as a Graduate Analyst in February 2023, equipped with a B.Com. from the University of Sydney and notable experience as an elite cricket player with leadership and mentoring skills. He quickly demonstrated his capabilities, especially during a period of staffing shortfalls, by effectively managing the ARC Acquittal process with Tom for key customers. Aiden also successfully resolved complex research grant issues, handling challenging reporting requirements and producing reliable financial forecasts. His adeptness in analysis earned him high respect from both his Faculty Portfolio and Maths customers. We thank Aiden for his contributions year and wish him well in his future endeavour.
Staff Moves
Please scroll-up to check the Staff Moves section for news on other FSEA staff moves.
| |
Financial Control and Treasury (FCT)
Reporting and Compliance Team
The team are well progressed with the completion of the FBT return to the Australian Taxation Office. Thank you to the other teams in Finance for their support. Every three years the University is required to complete a set of financial statements in accordance with US GAAP as a requirement of receiving funding from the US Department of Education. This work is also well progressed with the Audit Office commencing their audit this month.
Group Control Team
The team are busy with system and process improvements to address feedback from stakeholders involved in the processes.
These include:
- Restructuring of the discretionary carry forward balances – meeting requests will be sent shortly so keep a look out,
- Asset verification improvements – meetings will be organised shortly to work with custodians,
- Peoplesoft process – removal of purchase order and voucher approvals from Peoplesoft will occur shortly, although two Procurement team members will retain access to the functionality in Peoplesoft as a backup. Also, the on-boarding and off-boarding of Peoplesoft users will improve with ServiceNow being updated to accommodate the changes,
- Salary expense rectification – working with the payroll team to improve chartfield controls and salary suspense procedures.
Treasury Team
Custodial Services Transition – The project to transition to a new custodian from NAB to BNP, managing USYD's investment portfolio, is progressing as per the project timelines. The expected changeover will occur on 1 June 2024.
Order to Cash Team
ICBC – Planning has commenced to add CIBC, a major Chinese bank, as a payment option for student and accommodation fees. This will provide Chinese students with an additional payment option providing competitive exchange rates.
Grants and Programs Team
- HERDC return and A-133 audit – The preparation for the 2023 return has commenced with the Audit Office of NSW commencing their work from mid-May and expected completion of work by late June. U.S Federal award (A133) audit has kicked off for 2023 with samples being selected and preparation of the supporting documents has commenced. The audit is expected to be finalised by August.
- End of year acquittals – The acquittals for USYD lead ARC and NHMRC projects has now been completed. Around 1,000 individual USYD lead project acquittals have been submitted to ARC & NHMRC during this reporting season. The Grants and Programs team would like to thank all faculty finance business partners for their contribution and support for this annual process.
| |
Financial Planning, Analytics and Commercial (FPAC)
Finance Data, Analytics and Modelling (Vicki Hatt’s team) have been working with Andrew’s team on Program Whole of Life Reporting requirements. In addition, they have been working with Carma and the MRFP working group on 2024 enhancements to MRFP. Progress on Procurement reporting has been made with modelling of Purchase Orders. Vicki’s team has been collaborating with Christina’s team to release the Forecast Accuracy Review in Power BI.
Financial Planning and Performance Improvement (Andrew Lee's team) have mostly been kicking their heels up, waiting for the budget to start. However, in our buckets of spare time we have been working on automation of the EA330 and related programs, working on developing ‘whole of life’ reporting for programs, supporting improvements to ASR, developing improved data analysis to support budget decisions, preparing UE budget approach papers and presentations for budget launch on Wednesday 5 June. We should all be in a nice, relaxed state of mind for the coming budget process...
Commercial Advisory (Russell Taylor’s team) have been working on the DVCE prioritised course costing processes for UE SCPC, preparing and reviewing presentation packs for UE, FAC and Senate on 2022 Cost of Teaching and Cost of Research. In addition, we have been working on the next phase of the University’s SAFO (Strategic and Financial Outlook) program of work, preparing a projection to 2060 for the University and working with consultants from McKinsey on the Western Sydney project.
Management Reporting and Integrity (Christina Fava’s team) are gearing up for the Q2 2024 forecast and busy planning communications and review meetings. The Forecast Accuracy Portal was released in Power BI to nominated users during April and we welcome feedback on this new product. The team have finalised the March and April 2024 management reports. We have been involved in several projects including the review of professional staff trends and capital structures. The team are participating in the X-Train program once again in 2024 and look forward to hosting over the next six months.
Staff Moves
Please scroll-up to check the Staff Moves section for news on FPAC staff moves.
| |
Infrastructure, Medicine and Health (IMH)
Sydney Biomedical Accelerator (SBA)
Work continues on bringing the SBA into reality for its planned opening in 2027. Multiple working groups and steering committees, including Finance Buisness Partners (FBPs) and the Procurement team, are working together with Sydney Local Health District and NSW Government to create the world-leading health, education and biomedical research complex. SBA will consist of three buildings (42,500m²) spanning the Sydney Local Health District’s Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) Hospital campus and the Camperdown campus of the University of Sydney. All three buildings will be interconnected, physically connecting these institutions for the first time in their over 140-year-old partnership. Find more details on the SBA website and see images below that show the ‘look and feel’ of the building design.
| |
F23 Michael Spence Administration Building
The F23 Michael Spence Administration Building (F23) 5-Year Post-Implementation Review was positively received and acknowledged by the University Executive (UE) on May 17 and has been submitted for the June Finance and Audit Committee (FAC). The F23 building represents a significant step in co-locating administrative functions and enhancing university culture. This report thoroughly assesses the project’s strategic alignment and financial and non-financial benefits. Moreover, the insights gained from the F23 project offer valuable guidance for the development of future business cases.
UI projects
Work is ongoing in several areas, including the exploration of multiple student accommodation sites, the Wentworth "decant" (move people/equipment), the retail strategy, and the post-implementation review of the Regiment Student Accommodation. A special thanks to David McGill and Stephen Kearney for helping us navigate the complex GST rules in this area.
FMH Philanthropy
Refinement of our philanthropy dashboard to deliver comprehensive and up-to-date commitment information. This will empower users to make informed decisions based on the latest data available.
MOH RC Audit
A comprehensive FMH Responsibility Code (RC) review was conducted to resolve issues with misalignments of RC owners and approvers in HR, and UniBuy systems. These Master Organisational Hierachy (MOH) issues have created significant ‘noise’, such as Chief Investigators (CIs) straddling more than one school, dealing with multiple FBPs for grant management and acquittals, budgeting for salaries, and purchase requisitions routed to the wrong approvers resulting in purchase requests (PR) being rejected or delayed, stalling the entire procurement process. The review identified 571 exceptions, with 125 RCs requiring remediations in PeopleSoft. Meanwhile, 20 UniBuy nodes were requested to be updated to new approvers, and 18 node updates already in motion were followed up. This review demonstrated commendable cross-sectional collaboration and thoroughness of the methodological approach.
Acquittals
Great achievement in delivering requirements for 457 NHMRC/ARC grants within targeted timeframes. Continuing the same momentum for upcoming MRFF acquittals.
Note:
NHMRC - National Health and Medical Research Council.
ARC - Australian Research Council
MRFF - Medical Research Future Fund
Tied / CI bot Automated Email Release
Aligned with the aim of proactive account maintenance, the first release of 90-day automated emails to researchers on account status and next steps was successfully launched. We're currently reviewing CI feedback and improvement suggestions ahead of the next iteration.
Tied Account Maintenance
Continued strong momentum of cleaning up and closing accounts that have ended prior to Feb 2024 (70% closures).
School profiling (in development)
A single reference document with a snapshot of each client portfolio (financials, stakeholders, strategic focus) and detailing FMH Finance FBPs roles, responsibilities and deliverables in supporting each portfolio is in development. This is to help support and maintain continuity with the client portfolio with changes in personnel, including any new starters moving forward.
Staff Moves
Please scroll-up to check the Staff Moves section for news on IMH staff moves.
IMH photo wall
Fun and games captured by the team
L to R:
1) Children of IMH staff spent an exciting day exploring the University, getting to see where Mum and Dad work.
2) Rajan, claimant to the “Selfie King” throne (with Paul’s retirement from IMH), snaps a picture at the IMH Finance Leadership planning meeting at Petrus’s place, where Petrus treated us to a “South African” style barbeque.
3) IMH spent an exhausting but rewarding day with charity Foodbank packing orders of food for Australians in need.
| |
Operations and Transformations (OATs)
Scroll up for stories in this issue:
- FIN COMMs Update: May 2024
In many ways 2Q has been a continuation of progression in OATS transactional processing and continuous improvement initiatives, sometimes in the background processing transactions, at other times leading the charge through subject matter expertise or project management acumen. However, as usual there are still numerous notable activities worth updating everyone.
Accounting and Transactional Services (ATS)
Erica and the ATS team provide a large amount of the background processing that underpins our fabulous Finance Business Partners support of the University's teaching and research endeavours. Rather than settling into a comfortable space of handling their current mix of activities, the ATS team continues to expand their service catalogue in support of all Finance teams. In addition to applying innovation and automation to improve processing times and end user experience, most recently Erica and the team have put their hand up to take on administration of users and security for Procurement reporting (complementing their existing support of FINEApps). They have also provided backfill resourcing to support FCT in the Cashier role and proving there it is never too soon to start, Erica and Samir are also well into planning for ATS support of FCT’s end of year Accruals.
Custodial Transformation (LeFranc)
Alex, Daniel, Nick, Peter and Jeremy have been bunkered down with the FCT, ICM and ICT teams migrating our custodial management solution from NAB to BNPP. This is the integrate solution stack that manages and reports the return on our investments, together with timely distribution of returns to Faculty and Portfolio. As one of our foundational financial pillars, investment management is a ‘big deal’ but in traditional FIN ‘leading from behind’ fashion, the transition will be seamless and unnoticed by most of our clients. Cutover to BNPP will occur on the first weekend of June. There are many people to thank for their input and support, but it would be remiss to not highlight the work of Alex Glading who has been the Project Manager on this initiative since its inception and Catherine Bussier in FCT who has led the array of subject matter experts pulling it all together.
Information Management
Oliver wins the perseverance award for his tireless work on transforming our information management ecosystem. Oliver has been working with representatives from each Finance team to establish their own SharePoint presence within the overall Finance landscape and migrating all of their data off unsupported infrastructure to each of their new homes. IMH is nearing go-live with testing, and deployment activities ramping up over the next few weeks. As a testament to the effectiveness of this program Oliver has also been working with Russell and Monica in FPAC’s Commercial’ team enhancing their SharePoint toolset to accommodate the latest updates in people and service offerings.
After providing invaluable guidance to COS in their recent upgrade of ServiceNow, Oli followed on to lead the review and update of Finance's entire Knowledge Article (KA) Catalogue covering more than 500 articles. With each of our continuous improvement initiatives adding to the KA set - with over 40 new updates this period - we have also retired 30 articles. We will continue to chip away at consolidation to ensure the KA catalogue provides helpful, accessible information and doesn’t become ‘bloat-ware’.
Capital Transformation
On the perseverance front, Ben and Brian and the team are in hot pursuit, with multi-year capital management running true to its name with the focus now on refining end to end operations and controls to guarantee reliable information to our executives. None of this happens in a single place, requiring collaboration with multiple areas, including with Christina, Andrew and Russell in FPAC and Samir in FCT, along with teams in Provost, DVCR, ICT and Faculty.
Procurement Reporting
Wendy and Charlotte have been working with Vicki and team in FPAC to develop the next iteration of the mySpend dashboard with the inclusion of Order to Cash reporting, which is on track for pilot in 3Q.
Tan and Ahmed have stepped up to support Procurement’s reporting suite, working with Tabassum and Erica to embed a sustainable operating model and best practice support. In time this will be migrated into enterprise reporting supported by Vicki and team in FPAC.
Guided buying enhancements
Wendy, Ferry, Geetha and Maria have been progressing enhancements to guided buying. Thank you to everyone who provided feedback, all of which has helped us refresh UniBuy, simplifying navigation to provide you with a better buying experience. Improvements you and your clients will see shortly in UniBuy include simplified navigation to frequently used forms such as the payment request and non-purchase order invoice forms, with reduced mouse clicking. Further updates to look out for in 2024 include improvements to buying of Office Supplies, and Professional Services such as marketing and print, training and development, clinical trials and much more.
Buying Event Supplies and Services under $50K
Wendy, Julia and Geetha have been working closely with Procurement to enhance the user experience for buying event supplies and services under $50k.
Once launched in early June, users will be able to buy event supplies and services from their choice of preferred suppliers in UniBuy, selecting from a range of pre-qualified suppliers in each category.
Comms and Engagement
In addition to supporting the above mentioned projects and initiatives with targeted comms, and amongst numerous other intranet updates, Cherry has been working with Penny to update our Travel intranet pages, consolidating content to make it simpler to navigate and utilise. As detailed in this CFO update (scroll-up for the story), in May OATS ran its quarterly Comms update session. Thank you to Petrus (Capital Program) and David McGill (LeFranc, Custodial Services transformation) for the insight into their transformative programs.
Following the Budget launch on Wed 5 June, we will be doubling down on publication of the ever-popular fortnightly Budget Bulletin that we send to a targeted audience across the University. If you're on the list, keep a look out for these in your inbox!
| |
PROCUREMENT SERVICES
Scroll up for stories in this issue
- Eid al-Fitr celebrations - Procurement Services
- Ditch the wrapping paper
Hosting UPH
In March, the University Procurement Hub (UPH) held its first Executive Board Meeting for the year at the Abercrombie Business School hosted by Chief Procurement Officer Richard Allen.
UPH provides a platform that revolutionises how universities across Australia can source goods and services to meet their unique requirements, delivering direct savings to all.
The UPH Executive Board comprises the CPOs or CFOs of the 15 member universities and meets quarterly to monitor the performance of our service partners and to review the strategic direction of the Hub.
The day also included a heritage tour of the campus including the Andersen Stuart Building organised as part of the Museums Education program.
Delegations of Authority
In April, Kerry Henderson from Office of General Council (OGC) gave the team an informative session on Delegations of Authority (DOA). By the end of the session, the team had a solid understanding of what a delegation of authority entails, why it’s important, how to do it effectively and how to overcome common challenges associated with it.
Clothes Swap & Donation Drive
Procurement did a trial clothes swap recently in the office, which went down very well, leveraging the universitys Sustainability Initiative and Green Challenge!
On 16 May, a fun and eco-friendly Clothes Swap & Donation Drive was held for the Commercial Strategy and Sourcing (CSS) and Quality Governance and Performance (QGP) teams! We wanted to put on an event that would educate, advocate, and support the community.
The team brought their pre-loved clothes, shoes, and accessories and had the opportunity to exchange them for something new! It was also an easy opportunity to donate any excess clothing.
There was a large amount of clothing brought in by the team, and the boardroom looked like a proper store! This first clothes swap and donation event was a great success, and we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated, donated, and helped organise this event. Your enthusiasm and dedication made all the difference. Let's continue to embrace sustainable practices and make a positive impact both inside and outside the workplace!
Why are we doing this?
We want to contribute to a more sustainable future and send less waste to landfill. The fashion industry is a major contributor to landfill waste. Of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes (or nearly 10%) are burnt or end up in landfills. Synthetic fibers, such as polyester, which are used in 60% of garments, take hundreds of years to decompose and contribute to the growing issue of microplastics in the ocean. It is estimated that half a million tons of these contaminants reach the ocean each year. That’s equivalent to the plastic pollution of more than 50 billion bottles. Waste isn’t just on the consumption side but also on the production. The fashion production industry is responsible for 20% of global wastewater.
We hope this encourages you to buy less, choose high-quality items that last longer, and adopt more sustainable consumption habits and practices.
Harmony Day and Easter Egg Hunt
It was exciting to see everyone on Level 2 of Telfer join in the festivities of Easter and Harmony Day. The afternoon started with delicious snacks before we tackled the challenge ahead...Treasure Hunt! With plenty of chocolate eggs hidden, the team took to the floor to find them. With determination, and some help from the People Champions Network (PCN), all of the chocolate eggs were found, but there could only be one winner. Brett Cooper took out the ultimate prize and came in first place! Most importantly, it wasn't just the snacks or the chocolate eggs that made the event, but a chance for us to bond as a group and really engage in conversation away from work. Taking some time to check up on your fellow colleagues was the aim and to see everyone smiling was the icing on the cake.
| |
Indigenous artworksRecently we saw the transformation of Level 4 and Level 5 with two Indigenous artworks - one in the office of the Chief Financial Officer on level 4, and the other in the office of Miles Collins, Chief Investment Officer, Investment and Capital Mangement (ICM) on level 5.
In support of the lands upon which the University stands and our One Sydney Many People Strategy, this was an opportunity to be connected to country and showcase this in a more direct way.
It was a long but worthwhile journey that took some time to pull off with the support and expertise of Virginia Ho, a curator from the University's Chau Chak Museum. Patiently she visited us several times, walking us through different Indigenous artworks.
Pictured below (L) Wayne's office and below (R) Miles' office.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
