Join our team

The job

We’re looking for a Business Process Change Manager with proven experience in Student and Curriculum management to join the Student workstream of our Transformation Programme. This is an opportunity to be part of a multinational team tasked with transforming our University through new technologies, new processes and new ways of working.

The Programme is wide reaching and will have an impact across our Schools and Professional Services, covering Finance, HR and Payroll, Research, and the Student journey (note that this role is in relation to the Student workstream).

You

If you have a passion for driving change and love a challenge, we’d love to hear from you.

Interested? For further details of role, criteria and salary, please read the job description and/or contact Alison Slater btpmo@dundee.ac.uk.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Related links:

Watch John Rowan, our VP for Research and Knowledge Exchange discuss the opportunities for the OneUniversity Research solution.

Watch our Director of Finance Carol Prokopyszn talk about OneUniversity.

Ready, steady …

Change is everywhere these days, whether at work or home, it’s all around us, especially advances in technology and communications – think Alexa, Amazon Prime and Netflix – which are constantly challenging the norm and changing our behaviours.

How we deal with change and uncertainty is part of our genetic make-up. For some it’s a breath of fresh air, something to be welcomed and an opportunity to see, do, or be involved in something new; for others it’s something to fear and resist where possible.

Over the next five years, the transformation programme and OneUniversity solution will continue to bring about significant change at the University, not just in terms of the technologies we use and processes we implement, but also in the ways we work, our behaviours and perceptions.

Preparing for change
First, let’s acknowledge that it’s okay to feel apprehensive, scared, angry or even hurt by the changes taking place. In some cases, the things you hold dear to you are being challenged. That process you’ve been responsible for is going to change and, we recognise that you may not like it initially.

So, what can you do about it?
In this, the first of our series of blogs on change, we’ve put together a few suggestions for helping you get ready for OneUniversity Finance.

Take control and get involved:
– It’s up to you! Take an interest in what’s happening and ask your manager how you can get involved. Speak to your colleagues about what this is likely to mean for your team and look at the things you can do together to help

– Your change champions and managers are a great source of information about the Programme and are available to support you.

Educate yourself:
– Learn about the Programme and why it’s happening.
– Think about what the risks are if things just stay the same. Can we sustain our current working practices?
– Find out what new skills and abilities you’ll need in the new world and speak to your manager or change champion about training you’ll need.

Stay positive:
– We’re talking about new ways of working so there are likely to be opportunities arising as a result of the changes, and a chance to learn new skills on new technology (think of what that will look like on your cv).

And finally, don’t just ignore it because it is happening.

Next time: what can we expect to see as a result of the changes?

Change Champion Chats: Stewart Kerr

Our change champions are an integral part of our change programme. In this blog we speak to Stewart Kerr, Category Manager for Finance, about his role as a change champion.

Please tell us about your role.

I manage the process of procuring goods and services. This means I place contracts on behalf of the University and provide support and guidance to end users when they are sourcing the items and services they need.

I help people to make purchases that are appropriate and achieve value for money. My remit is also to minimise the exposure of University procurement to fraud and collusion by ensuring we act in a legally compliant manner with fair, transparent and open competition.

What made you want to be a change champion?

I want to stay dynamic, proactive and be a part of the exciting changes ahead. As a contributing member of the change team I have the opportunity to anticipate challenges that the programme may present to myself and my work colleagues. Through looking ahead and understanding the challenges, I can directly motivate myself to respond and help my team to do the same. It’s great to be part of the positivity and drive of this particular journey.

What benefits do you see OneUniversity bringing?

There will be great opportunities for the University to work collectively in one process. The shared undertaking will reduce risk and increase efficiency. It’s something we can all be part of.

Fun fact about Stewart:

I have been on Blue Peter and am the proud owner of a badge.

What your Change Champion does for you

A group of committed individuals is working with the Business Transformation programme to support you in the changing workplace. They are our change champions and, most of all, they are your champions, advocating for you in your Schools and Directorates.

We have chosen change champions who are people-oriented and enthusiastic communicators. These are some of their goals:

‘I would like to do whatever I can to ensure the transition process runs smoothly.’

‘I want to share the prospect of new processes that will streamline and modernise our current methods.’

‘We need to emphasise how change is both good and necessary for the future of the University. It will take hard work to make it happen. I’m up for hard work.’

As we prepare for the launch of OneUniversity Finance in March, you can turn to your Change Champion for guidance, reassurance and information.

The important role of the change champion is to focus on people and:

Communicate the need and nature of the change to their teams
Identify the impact the change will have on their colleagues
Present the benefits of the change and let you know ‘What’s in it for you’
Help prepare you for working with the new solution

Do you know where to find your champion?

This week sees the start of a regular blog feature ‘Change Champion Chats’ where you can meet the individuals engaged in changing your future.

Student Workstream Established

We’ve been working hard over the summer in preparation for the launch of the OneUniversity Finance solution in November, but in addition to this and other workstreams that make up Phase 1, we’ve also recently started the Student worksteam in earnest.

The Team

The Student Programme team currently comprises of:
– Two project managers (Stuart Moorhouse and Richard Cassells)
– Senior UoD Business Stream Solution Manager (Gwen Hunter)
– Two business analysts (Andrea Byrne and Lana Smith)
– A project officer (Nadege Minois)
– Four business process change managers (Gillian Sharp, Duncan Brown, Judith Milne and Rachel Smith)

Others will join the team in due course.

In addition to this we have four TechnologyOne consultants on-site and working with team. They are Sam Curtis (Senior Consultant), Ian Henry (Project Director), Philip Gorse (consultant) and Lauren Wood (consultant).

Solution Verification Workshops

The team have recently attended a number of workshops to get a feel for what the OneUniversity Student solution offers, and from next week (25th September) through to December, a series of solution verification workshops will take place with key stakeholders.

School Managers and Directors have been issued the dates and times of these workshops and have been asked to select suitable individuals to attend each. The schedule for these workshops is as follows:

26 – 29 September – Managing Curriculum – courses, units, structures
5 – 10 October –        Fee Schedule Maintenance
13 – 17 October –       Student Self-Service
23 – 24 October –     Student Administration
27 – 3 November –    Enquiry Management
10 – 17 November –   UCAS/UKPASS
23 – 26 November – Access and Security
4 – 7 December –      Applications and Admissions
13 – 15 December –   Scholarships and Rewards

We’ll be sharing the output of these workshops with staff early 2018.

If you have any questions about the Student Workshop please get in touch.

PECOS Changes

What’s happening to PECOS?

We’ve had a few queries recently from people wondering what’s going to happen to Pecos when we launch OneUniversity Finance on 1st December, so we thought we’d explain how this will be done.

The three things you really need to know are:

1. We’re not technically switching off PECOS, but at some point prior to the 1st November all requisitioning rights will be removed. This means you can still log in to PECOS and see your current and historical orders, but you will not be able to raise new requisitions or receipt previous purchase orders.

2. All orders that are open on PECOS from August 2017 to the time we remove requisitioning rights will be transferred to OneUniversity. This means that any work on existing open orders will be carried out in OneUniversity.

3. All new requisitions from 1st December should be raised in OneUniversity.

Don’t worry, we’re keeping PECOS beyond the go-live date to ensure that we have contingency for any unexpected issues.

We’ll be issuing a timetable soon detailing what will be happening and when so that you know exactly what’s going on.

If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Finance and procurement training starts!

We have now completed our first training session on the OneUniversity Finance & Procurement solution, which kicked off on 29 August with two days of ‘General Navigation’ training.

We asked School Managers and Directors to nominate two members of their team to take part in Key User Training (KUT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT). These sessions are taking place between 29 August and 2^nd October.

What’s Key User Training and User Acceptance Testing?

Key User training is given to nominated staff who have good knowledge of the current system and will be using certain aspects of the new solution, whilst User Acceptance Testing is carried out to make sure that the system functionality actually meets the University’s requirements and is fit for purpose.

Those nominated will take part in one day of classroom based training which will be followed by a second day of testing. They’ll use the knowledge gained during the training, along with information provided by the Programme team, to carry out testing based on real-life university scenarios.

How are we going to roll-out training?

We need to make sure that everyone who needs to use OneUniversity to do their jobs has the required knowledge and understanding from day one! Some people will need very specific training whilst others may just need an understanding of how to do a particular activity such as submitting an expense claim.

Our challenge is to make sure that everyone receives the appropriate training. We’ll do this through a mix of classroom-based training plus a range of support from videos and “how to” guides to drop-in surgeries.

Interested? We want to hear from you!

Do you have an interest in training or do you currently have responsibility for training others? If so, then we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch.

More information about training will be posted soon so please check back soon!

Student Administration set to be Transformed

OneUniversity Solution

The University of Dundee is aiming to transform the way that it works. In order to provide efficient and effective student management processes, it has signed an agreement with TechnologyOne who will provide a cloud based business solution called OneUniversity.

This contemporary, Web enabled, Software as a Service (SaaS) solution embraces mobile technology and will be available anytime, anywhere and on any device.

It will bring our Finance, Purchase to Pay, HR, Payroll/Pensions, Research and Student lifecycle activities into a single, integrated administrative solution with embedded, real time, reporting and analytics capability.
The current student records system (SITS) is based primarily round registry and admission. A great deal of student administration takes place outwith this system and this means that data may need to be input multiple times and information held in local databases and spreadsheets.

The benefits of the new solution

The new solution aims to bring the entire relationship that a student has with the University, from prospect enquiry to offer, matriculation to graduation and alumni, into one place. As this will be part of the OneUniversity integrated solution, the student and curriculum management information will be input once and accessed by those who need it. This will enhance the effectiveness of our business processes and ways of working, improve the student and staff experience and achieve our aim of having a single source of accurate student information.

Academic Activities

The new Student Management solution will provide greater support for a range of academic activities including a programme and module catalogue, programme and module approval system, attendance and engagement monitoring facility, and support for student placements, assessment, results, progression, retention, grades and classification. Those members of staff who currently use SITS or one of the bespoke services will notice the increased functionality.

Dr Jim McGeorge is the Programme Sponsor for the University of Dundee.
“We are delighted to be moving ahead with an effective, integrated product that will enhance the experience for the staff and students whilst streamlining our administration processes.”

Our students will have access to information about their course and their academic progress be through their mobile phones, laptops or tablets, no matter where they are and what time of day or night. This will enhance their engagement with the University and their studies and further contribute to our reputation for delivering an outstanding student experience.