USER Background

USER Project Background

The University Services Renewal (USER) project is the UIF-funded initiative to streamline critical University support services through web-based technologies. It grew out of four independent preliminary proposals:

• Human Resources -- HEPPS Improvements
• Streamline the University of Washington Grant and Contract Process
• Automated Travel Expense System
• Goods and Services Acquisitions

Each of these preproposals put forward a strong business case, and the history behind each of them is rich. Without going into detail, here are a few reasons these initiatives are important.

• The Employee Relations Assessment Report summarized some of the long-term, serious problems with human resources at the UW
• The Grant & Contract Services and Grant & Contract Accounting offices could benefit from an integrated system to manage their overlapping business needs, and they need to address the national trend toward Electronic Research Administration.
• The Travel web pages make travel information easily available, but it is not hard to imagine the benefits from putting the expense reimbursement system online
• There are a variety of different, cumbersome processes for acquiring goods and services by campus departments, and the result is that it is difficult to track purchases and ensure regulatory compliance

Despite their distinct business functions, these four preliminary proposals shared several common themes.

• Similar project structures
• Plan to implement web technologies
• Focus on user requirements
• Commitment to gathering University-wide input
• Goal to substantially improve critical, University-wide services

The consolidated final proposal exploits these similarities and creates a vision for a standard technology infrastructure which will facilitate the future development of web-based business systems at the University of Washington. The result is the University Services Renewal (USER) project, one of the eight UIF initiatives funded in the 1997-1999 biennium.