Let's take a new look at old business! Ask yourself ...

• Do you dread working on a certain business process because it takes forever?
• Do feel like you're wallowing in paper?
• Do you think there just has to be a better way to do (fill in the blank)? 

If you’re looking for some inspiration, look at the business process improvements your CU colleagues have accomplished!

Here are some great ideas from this year's CU Innovation & Efficiency (CU I&E) Awards Program.

Your colleagues have told us how they’ve improved their own business processes:

• At UCCS, they implemented a paperless/e-billing utility system and created an import spreadsheet to report energy usage, which has "turned a three-work-day process into a half-hour process and helped with the campus sustainability goals of paperless processing." ​The model has been adopted by Colorado College, Colorado Springs School Districts 11 and 20, and other entities required to report utility usage to the State. See Utility Record Processing.
• At CU System, they redesigned an in-person award competition that required dozens of employees to travel from their home campuses to the System Office into a standardized on-campus video interview process, transforming a “logistically challenging and time-consuming experience ... saving many collective hours of commuting ... and making it much easier to get the information needed to make award decisions." See Efficient Panel Review Process for Award Submissions.
• At CU Boulder, they streamlined the advising process to eliminate piles of paper for hundreds of students, enabling students and advisors to share and review documents online, without in-person appointments ... and empowering the students with records of their degree progress since they "just use their cell phone to take a picture of the degree flowchart we’ve marked up." See Paperless Advising Techniques.
• And, also at CU Boulder, they turned the inconvenience of an office closed for remodeling into the inspiration for transforming paper-based processes into online ones. By streamlining End of Month Journal Entry batches for event/catering invoices, the office improved efficiency by "standardizing the coding, eliminating the handwriting errors, and improving the accuracy ... makes the reconciliation after end-of-month close so much easier and faster as well." See Electronic Coding Process.

See what other departments have done to streamline and/or go paperless.

In fact: check out all the CU I&E Awards Program submissions this year on the Office of University Controller website.

And mark your calendar to join us at the CU I&E Expo on May 15

Come to the CU I&E Exposition & Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, May 15, 2018 (11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.), at the System offices (1800 Grant St., Denver).

Watch this year's CU I&E semifinalists demo their submissions and ask them questions about their innovations.  Hear the announcement of prize winners. Enjoy light refreshments and great conversation with your CU colleagues. All employees are invited to attend.