Efficient collaboration: How three unlikely departments united to solve a unique challenge
When challenges arise, sometimes unexpected collaborations bring forth solutions. An unlikely pairing of the Payroll Department, OneIT Financial Systems Support and Business Services technology team collaborated for an eight-month, complex, yet necessary, feat, which could easily go unnoticed.
It’s not always glamorous. It doesn’t always seem significant or big and flashy, but these types of projects are an important and integral part in how the University as a whole makes processes more efficient.
What process needed changing? Staff was doing parking payroll deductions manually, which was intricate and took copious amounts of time. Now UNC Charlotte’s payroll deductions are done automatically. With the process automated, multiple departments were freed up to redirect resources to other projects and support tasks.
Automation of payroll deductions was successful on the backend while keeping the user experience in MyPark, Charlotte’s customer-facing parking permit software. It allowed staff to automate and reconcile seamlessly between parking and payroll systems. This project happened through a great collaboration of people, technology and planning that benefit business affairs employees and the rest of the University.
The Payroll Department and Business Services technology team are the unsung heroes of this project. Vicki Turman, assistant director of HR systems support, was the project manager collaborating with Gabe Gerber’s team, Cindy Lee and Mark Lariviere, from the Business Services technology team.
“We had a difference of people who planned versus people who developed on the fly,” said Gerber, director of technology for Business Services. “We had a good blend of traditional and modern ways of running a project, which helped us balance each other.”
OneIT Financial Systems Support team members facilitated biweekly project meetings, developed program specifications and coordinated the development and testing of Banner payroll deduction updates.
While successful, there were a few obstacles. One of the biggest challenges was the team understanding the data from each system. Mark and Cindy were data translators between the two systems.
A major benefit of the collaborative project to automate payroll deduction for parking permits is that faculty and staff no longer pay for permits in arrears. This change in the payment process brings the collection of parking permit revenue in line with current business rules.
Having the option of payroll deduction for parking and transit permit purchases is a benefit that is important to many faculty and staff.
This collaboration embraced differences and used them to the project’s advantage, improving processes for the staff at the backend and users in the front end.
“The successful launch of a much improved behind the scenes process eliminated recurring manual tasks for multiple departments,” said Vicki Turman. “I personally enjoyed getting to know colleagues from the Business Services and PaTS team and learning about the complexities of parking and transit administration.”
Special thanks to the Payroll Department, Robyn Diehm, Kim Saunders and Annette Hamilton, OneIT Financial Systems Support, Gina Smith, Tamrah Eichinger, John Suger and Vicki Turman, Business Services Technology team, Gabe Gerber, Cindy Lee and Mark Lariviere, and the OneIT Banner Applications team, John Schroeder.