Reporter Volume 25, No.27 May 5, 1994

By ANN WHITCHER
Reporter Editor

The university is participating in a comprehensive review of its
business functions, auspices of the National Association of College
and Business Officers (NACUBO).
	The NACUBO "benchmarking" project, launched as a pilot in
1991, entails a look at some 40 functional areas with approximately
600 benchmarks.
	According to Senior Vice President for University Services
Robert J. Wagner, campus participation since 1992 in the NACUBO series
of surveys goes hand-in-hand with University Services' commitment to a
service excellence program and the concept of Total Quality
Management. 
	"Benchmarking tools are vigorously used to test our philosophy
and to help us identify areas of increased effectiveness and
efficiency," a draft vision statement for University Services reads.
	The SUNY Business Officers Association has recommended that
all state-operated campuses participate in the full survey.
	According to a report in NACUBO Business Officer, benchmarking
holds great promise for higher education business practices as it has
for industry. Its purpose is to provide managers with external
standards for evaluating the quality and cost of their organization's
internal activities, practices and processes.
	Nearly 150 colleges and universities participated in the
two-year pilot. In the first year alone, more than 1,600 individuals
on 40 campuses were involved in improving the definitions employed.
	In an article in NACUBO Business Officer, UB Purchasing
Director Judith K. Miller describes how she arranged benchmark data
for her department to see how it compared to other campuses. 
	"Some things have really changed as a result," Miller
reported. "In Purchasing, we were surprised to see the high percentage
of our purchase orders that were under $500. In response, we are
implementing a speed order process. It's not that we hadn't thought of
using speed orders before. We had. But it was seeing the data that
spurred us to take action."
	In analyzing the 1992 results, UB looked at everyday campus
functions and their respective costs: processing purchasing
requisitions and invoice payments; hiring a new employee and producing
a student grade report, for instance. The goal, says UB Controller
Leonard F. Snyder, is to search for "best practices."
	"In order to get there," says Snyder, "we need to clearly
understand our approach and then compare and contrast that with other
institutions' 'best practices.'" 
	"We (at UB) have been talking and thinking about benchmarking
since May 1992 in an ongoing way," says Robert Wagner. We participated
last year (1992) and again this year in NACUBO benchmarking. Last year
was our exposure and learning phase as opposed to using the data for
analysis." 
	Important to note, says Wagner is the emphasis placed on
business functions that cross departmental lines in improving such
procedures as putting someone on payroll, producing grades, or
processing invoices.
	Snyder notes that in the case of the NACUBO survey, "the peer
group is really defined based upon the function that you're looking
at. In some cases, the peer group might very well be other AAU-schools
or major public research universities. In other cases it's really
irrelevant, as it may be a function of size, and strictly size. In
other cases, you may be looking at very specific functions that are
affected by state policy or the regulations of a given university
system."
	Of the 100 colleges and universities participating in the 1992
survey, 37 were public research institutions. Eight were SUNY schools,
including Stony Brook in addition to UB. 
	"This university and higher education in general," says
Wagner, "are playing catch-up in an area that businesses have focused
on for some time to improve their operations."
	"As we look at this university with its multi-funds
structure," says Snyder, "the way in which we conduct business needs
to be carefully refined and simplified extensively."
	"This is a new way of doing business," Wagner concludes, "that
will be ongoing as opposed to a one-time set of projects and
undertakings." 
	According to Colleen O'Rourke, staff associate in the Office
of the Controller, results of the 1993 survey, recently received from
NACUBO, "will be distributed to functional managers on campus within
the next few weeks."