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Progress Report on Design and Implementation of the Resource Management ModelJanuary 22, 2007 View report to print: Table of ContentsClick on a link to jump to that section of the report.
Budget Model Review and Implementation CommitteeTom Andre
Tim Borich
Joe Colletti
Rick Dark
Doug Epperson (Committee Chair)
Jack Girton
Laurie Gustafson
Todd Holcomb
Kevin Kane
Renee Knosby
Olivia Madison
Johnny Pickett
David Popelka
Chitra Rajan
Ellen Rasmussen
Arun Somani
IntroductionThe October report from the Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee recommended that Iowa State University continue to work toward the implementation of the Resource Management Model and provided a multiphase implementation outline to guide that process. Following the release of the report, President Geoffroy asked for final opinions and input from key advisory and decision-making groups. Careful debate and consideration within these groups has occurred in the last several months, along with continued refinement of the model parameters and implementation planning. The Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee recommendations have not changed since the October report. The purpose of this report is to provide additional clarification of the model parameters, reflect on the opportunities and challenges of leading in a new fiscal environment, and provide a progress report on the implementation planning that has occurred since October 2006. (Return to top)Leading in a New Fiscal EnvironmentThe Resource Management Model has the potential to better align revenues with performance and responsibilities, be more dynamic and responsive to a changing economic environment, and bring more transparency to the budgeting process. In addition, the model enhances strategic planning at the Resource Responsibility Center level through greater control over revenues and expenses, and provides central leadership with the tools necessary to steer the university toward strategic goals and ensure fidelity to the university's mission. Change of this magnitude is difficult, and a number of challenges will have to be addressed successfully to realize the potential benefits of the Resource Management Model. Some of the more technical challenges were addressed in previous reports. The committee's reflections on challenges that are more cultural or environmental are provided in the following three subsections: Culture, Strategic Planning and Budgeting, and Staffing and Skill Development. CultureThe Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee observed in its October report that the change inherent in the implementation of the Resource Management Model would understandably cause concern and anxiety among faculty and administrators. However, the committee does not believe that the current level of concern is unusual given experiences at other institutions that have adopted similar budget models. Anxiety seems to have decreased as more details of the model have been developed and communicated, and this is a trend that should continue. The committee continues to believe that the model can be implemented successfully; however, it is important to be attentive to the dynamics of the change process in a proactive manner. Underlying some of the debate about the Resource Management Model are fundamental questions about whether it can be applied successfully and managed within the university culture. With the existing, incremental method of budget planning, colleges and other revenue centers had very limited ability to influence the amount of resources available to achieve their own goals or the goals of the institution. Currently, many resource distribution decisions are implemented in an across-the-board fashion and the risks, i.e., revenue shortfalls or expense growth, are largely the responsibility of central administrators. Because rewards for innovation, risk-taking, and entrepreneurship are uncertain, these qualities are probably undervalued in our current culture. There will be greater potential rewards for successful innovation and development under the new budgeting process. The Resource Management Model signifies changes in management processes and variability in budget outcomes at the Resource Responsibility Center level. Decisions at this level will have more budgetary consequences than is currently the case. Decisions at the central level must recognize the differential results of the model and incorporate that into the strategic thinking and planning to achieve institutional objectives, particularly those supporting interdisciplinary initiatives and infrastructures. Because the Resource Management Model represents a dramatic change to a critically important management process, it would be unrealistic to expect that such a change could be implemented without requiring some adaptation in the culture of the institution. Although changes of this magnitude can cause significant levels of uncertainty and stress, the ability to change and adapt is essential at a time of dramatic change in the external environment. Examples of changes in culture and adaptations that will facilitate the implementation of a new budget model include:
Strategic Planning and BudgetingThe Resource Management Model can be an important and useful tool for achieving the goals of the institutional strategic plan. In addition to the formulae that drive the distribution of tuition and indirect cost recovery funds, providing incentives for student recruitment/retention and externally supported research/programs, the Resource Management Model provides at least two other budgetary tools that university leaders can use to steer the university to fulfill its mission and achieve its strategic goals. These are the Institutional Excellence Fund and the Resource Management Fund. Because each of these funds will be distributed based on leadership decisions after the first year of implementation, university leaders must develop methods for linking distributions from these funds to performance and contributions to the achievement of university goals. For example, the University of Minnesota uses formal documents to tie strategic planning goal attainment with resource distribution decisions. The Resource Management Model, along with the requisite ability to generate Strategic Reserve Funds, will enable a multiyear approach to budget planning, which is a significant change from the annual budget planning focus that has been the norm for decades at Iowa State University. This change is imperative for successful implementation of the Resource Management Model. Communicating budget decisions in terms of long-term objectives and goals should substantially improve the understanding and acceptance of the budget development process. The new budget development process will incorporate all funding sources, rather than the General Fund focus of the past. The responsibility for developing the component parts of the institutional budget will be shared between central administration, unit administrators, and advisory committees. For example, revenue forecasts will be made at the Resource Responsibility Center level and will require an iterative collaboration between central administration and administrators of the Resource Responsibility Centers. General Fund budget decisions will be more influenced by the funding that Resource Responsibility Centers receive from sources outside the General Fund. Interdependencies among Resource Responsibility Centers will be more explicitly understood and will have potential budgetary consequences that will require much more communication and collaboration among unit administrators. Planning in this new environment will require that leaders have timely information from complex data management systems capable of generating critical reports. A data management system will be required regardless of the decision to implement the Resource Management Model. Discussion of the Resource Management Model has highlighted the need and increased the urgency for the development of such a system. Leaders of administrative and academic support units need to communicate effectively with their advisory committees about the key service and budgetary issues facing their units. Advisory committees of these support units will need to focus on higher level oversight of service levels and costs without micromanaging budgetary details. Central administrators and their budget advisory committees will need to develop a shared set of principles governing their work. The broad charge to all budget advisory committees will include commitments of time and resources that will involve new participants in the budgeting process. Also, there will be increased challenges for central administrators to ensure that a more decentralized budget planning process conforms to expectations of the Board of Regents, and clearly communicates the nature and impact of key budget planning decisions. Staffing and Skill DevelopmentThe changes outlined above will have an effect on the current structures and capabilities of management and staff throughout the institution. Certainly, in the near term, the Resource Management Model will require more management time and effort than the current budgeting process. In some respects, this represents the continuation of a trend that is independent of the budget model. Increased management attention to complex budgetary issues is inherent in any environment where an institution is transitioning away from a reliance on a relatively straightforward and predictable level of state support and moving toward an increasingly complex dependence on a variety of revenue and funding sources. Successful implementation of the Resource Management Model needs to address realistic staffing requirements and training needs. Because little additional funding will be available to increase staffing, efforts must be focused on streamlining and standardizing processes, clarifying and reprioritizing work of existing staff, enhancing skill levels of existing staff, and, in some cases, reallocating funding in order to add staff to changing budgetary functions. Administrative faculty and staff at all levels of the institution will need to develop new skills or enhance existing skills in order to operate in the new budget environment. The success of the Resource Management Model will depend on a supportive environment that provides developmental opportunities to those who will assume new roles and responsibilities resulting from the budgetary changes. It will be important that a group be given responsibility for identifying needs and promoting effective and efficient faculty and staff development opportunities during the transition period and for the first two years of implementation of the Resource Management Model. Additional details are provided in Appendix A. (Return to top)Refinement of Model Parameters and Implementation PlanningRefinement of Model ParametersA primary task for the Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee during the past three months was refining the parameters of the Resource Management Model. The committee continues to recommend the parameters that were described in its October report, with the following clarifications and modifications. Definition and Identification of Budget UnitsAs the committee worked through the development of policies, procedures, and data systems to support the Resource Management Model, it found the need for more precise definitions and terms to describe the budget units within the model. The primary budget units include 15 Resource Responsibility Centers and seven Administrative Centers. Secondary budget units exist within each primary budget unit. Secondary budget units include departments, programs, centers, institutes, and auxiliary units. As described in the committee's October report, the Resource Management Model is designed to distribute revenues and expenses to the primary budget unit level lead by college deans and vice presidents. The Resource Responsibility Centers will be considered the primary budget unit to which the budget model distributes revenues and expenses. The table in Appendix B lists the Resource Responsibility Centers and the administrator for each unit. A preliminary list of secondary budget units for each Resource Responsibility Center can be found at http://www.iastate.edu/~budgetmodel. Administrative Centers are those primary budget units that provide administrative and academic support to the university. The table in Appendix C lists the seven Administrative Centers and the administrator for each unit. A preliminary list of secondary budget units for the Administrative Centers can be found at http://www.iastate.edu/~budgetmodel. Distribution of the Portion of State Appropriation that Supports Instructional ActivitiesAs described in the committee's October report, a portion of state appropriation will be allocated to support instruction at all levels of education. The process for distributing this portion of state appropriations will be a two-step process. In the first step, this portion will be distributed across three levels of education (undergraduate, graduate, and professional) in proportion to enrollment. For example, if the proportion was based on the Fall 2006 enrollment, the split would have been 80% undergraduate, 18% graduate, and 2% professional. In the second step, these three pools will follow the same methodology for tuition distribution as described in the October report. Thus, all of tuition and state appropriation for graduate and professional enrollments will go to the student's college of enrollment. The tuition and state appropriation pool for undergraduate enrollment will be allocated 25% to the major and 75% on student credit hours. Allocation of Expense PoolsAs recommended in the October report, the expenses associated with Administrative Centers will be aggregated into seven expense pools. These expense pools, with the exception of University Leadership, will be allocated proportionally to the Resource Responsibility Centers using various allocation methods. During the past three months, the committee used simulation models to test varying levels of complexity in allocation methods. The levels ranged from complex methods (multiple allocation methods for each expense pool) to very basic methods (a single allocation method for multiple expense pools). The committee concluded that an appropriate balance of fairness and simplicity would be met by using a single allocation method for each expense pool. The method selected for each pool is the best proxy usage measure for the expenses in that pool. The methods are listed in the table in Appendix D. Implementation PlanningAn implementation timeline was provided in the committee's October report. Since then, workgroups have identified additional implementation issues, which can be grouped into six components. Details for each of these components are in Appendix A.
ConclusionThe Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee continues to support the implementation of the Resource Management Model as described in its October report and further refined in this document. The implementation planning has revealed a considerable amount of work to be completed before full implementation of the model. However, no insurmountable obstacles have been identified. The cultural challenges of a transition have also begun to be identified and they will require very thoughtful attention. Acknowledging these facts does not diminish the committee's continued support for the proposed budget model. (Return to top)Appendix A -- Implementation Plan
If the decision is made to move forward with the implementation of the Resource Management Model, a myriad of overlapping tasks will be required to implement the new budgeting process. These are organized in the following areas:
Policy and Procedure DevelopmentPolicy and Procedure Development Phase involves defining budgetary policies and procedures necessary to implement the Resource Management Model. Goals to accomplish these tasks have been established and are listed below. Allocation of ExpensesSome examples of the primary policy and procedure issues relating to the allocation of expense pools that have been identified to date include:
Some examples of the primary policy and procedure issues relating to the distribution of revenue that have been identified to date include:
The process to establish advisory committees will include:
System DevelopmentSystem Development involves the development of new databases and information systems and the enhancement of existing databases and information systems. The level of complexity and ultimate cost for developing and modifying these systems are being explored. Data WarehouseThe primary goal of a data warehouse is to provide summarized and easily understood data on a timely basis that will assist users make more informed management decisions. The Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee has established a data warehouse workgroup and has been charged with the task of identifying the data needs of the Resource Management Model and how the data warehouse will support those data needs. Generally, the subcommittee has been charged with:
This Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee workgroup coordinates with a university committee sponsored by IT Services, which has been working on the concept of a data warehouse for Iowa State for several years. A "proof of concept" has been developed and is being tested. Ultimately, this conceptual tool can be a foundation for a more robust management tool. Information SystemsThrough the work of the Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee workgroups, the committee is identifying the systems needed to implement the Resource Management Model. Systems need to be developed to facilitate the allocation of expense pools and the distribution of revenue to the Resource Responsibility Centers. Also, the university's existing information systems will need some minor modifications in order to manage the financial results of applying the parameters of the Resource Management Model. Specific areas of the model that will need system support include tuition revenue distribution, IDC revenue distribution, allocation of expenses, and revenue and expense projections.
TrainingTraining tasks involve both conducting informational meetings to communicate the progress of the budget implementation process and providing training sessions for administrators, faculty, and staff to enhance their skills to manage in the new fiscal environment. These tasks will begin in January 2007 and continue throughout the budget model implementation process. Topics to address include:
Development efforts should be both formal and informal and should draw on the significant expertise and talent already available at Iowa State University. Panel discussions, brown-bag luncheon exchanges, and mentoring relationships should be used extensively. External consultants and peers from other institutions should be used if needed. Budget ConversionThe conversion to the new budget process involves applying the Resource Management Model parameters to fiscal year 2008 budget. The primary purpose of this is to establish the base-year Resource Management Fund so that all units are "made whole." Central administration will continue to centrally manage any variations in budgeted and actual revenues and expenses throughout FY08. Generally, this process will involve the following steps.
Full Implementation of the New Budget ProcessThe Resource Management Model parameters will be applied to both the development and employment of the budget for fiscal year 2009. The development process for FY09 will begin in Fall 2007 and will be completed in June 2008. Generally, the development process will involve:
The model will be fully employed during fiscal year 2009. This will involve:
Review and Evaluation of the New Budget ProcessThe proposal for the new budget process incorporates the concept of a regular review and evaluation process every three to five years to ensure that the process supports achieving the mission and strategic goals of the university. (Return to top)Appendix B -- Resource Responsibility Centers
Appendix C -- Administrative Centers
Appendix D -- Expense Allocation Methods
Footnotes: 1 Revenue-generating service units and auxiliaries 2 Allocated expenses are those currently funded by a general fund allocation. Other services will continue to be billed on a fee-for-service basis. |
