OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
OFFICE OF THE AVC/CONTROLLER
July 5, 2022
ALL ACADEMICS AND STAFF AT UC SAN DIEGO (including UC San Diego Health Sciences)
Finance Systems Update – From Stabilization to Optimization
Two years ago, UC San Diego implemented a modern finance system and a new chart of accounts. While both renewals were much needed, their concurrent launch with UC Path in the middle of a pandemic was incredibly stressful on our campus community. As we close our fiscal year, we want to express gratitude to our colleagues in both central and academic units for their incredible investment of time, talent and energy, as well as empathy for the pain experienced during this implementation process.
While our systems are now functioning as intended, many campus users remain frustrated with the additional time and complexity required to perform financial transactions. As a result, some Principal Investigators and faculty are not consistently receiving financial reports or have only recently been able to track their grant spending with sufficient accuracy.
We are sorry for this long stabilization period, and we are now completely focused on fully optimizing processes and systems through the following actions:
Provide support teams for cleanup. While many of our fiscal staff are proficiently operating in our finance systems, cleanup of past expenses and transaction errors is essential for our financial reports to display accurate information. We are leveraging the support teams across academic Vice Chancellor areas to support areas with backlog issues. We thank you for your continued patience as we prioritize our teams to help departments with the highest needs.
Optimize processes and systems. While modern financial systems require time to learn and adapt before realizing efficiencies, we are not where we need to be. We have started an in-depth review directly with end users to aggressively optimize our processes and reduce transaction times using Lean Six Sigma methodologies to foster rapid continuous improvement.
Invest in staffing and training. Staffing ratios are being evaluated and adjusted as needed during this transition. In our current state, tasks that seemed simple in past systems are more burdensome. Onboarding new staff is also challenging and time-consuming. To protect our teams from the burnout that many experience today, the Office of Operational Strategic Initiatives (OSI) is benchmarking staffing to reflect grant complexity and type, as well as staff levels and experience.
Updates are posted weekly on the Improvements In Progress page, which include resolutions and timelines for resolving the remaining finance system-related issues, as well as survey results from the campus community feedback.
We remain extremely dedicated to our university mission and the success of our institution.
Pierre Ouillet Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer
Cheryl A. Ross Controller / AVC Business & Financial Services / VCHS Financial Officer
University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093
