An update from President Janet Napolitano on the UCOP Efficiency Review:

Dear UCOP Colleagues,

The UCOP Efficiency Review is making steady progress in improving the Office the President, thanks to your participation. We’re carefully reviewing each of the hundreds of ideas you’ve submitted and continuing to find new and effective ways to make OP more efficient.

Here are the recommendations I’ve asked the Efficiency Working Group to begin implementing this month:

1. Datacenter relocation: Information Technology Services has determined that moving servers and infrastructure from the Kaiser building to a new, offsite location will save $600,000 a year after the move is complete in 2016. The savings will pay for the move in less than two years. The move will lower real estate costs, avoid expensive investment in the existing datacenter’s infrastructure, cut the center’s electricity bill, and improve its environmental profile. A new location will be chosen this year and planning for the move will start in 2015, in time to be complete by May 2016 when the current lease runs out.

2. Improved process for spot and quick recognition awards: In support of our efforts to recognize employees who perform outstanding work, the BRC has improved the process managers use to award employees gift cards and made the cards more convenient to use. A process that used to take almost 18 days will now require just three days. New retailers have been included to make it easier and more enjoyable to use the cards. My thanks to Brad Niess, Amy Vrizuela and Lorrelie Esteban of the BRC for making it quick and easy to celebrate and honor our employees.

3. Administrative support identification: We all attend a lot of meetings here at OP, and, to make setting them up easier, ITS now has loaded all administrative support names into Outlook. Starting immediately, when you click on a contact in the Outlook address book, you’ll see the name and phone number of the person’s administrative support. This will make it easier to find the right person when scheduling meetings or carrying out other administrative tasks. Thanks to Terrell McQuitta from the ITS Service Desk and Mario Nakane from Windows Engineering for making this idea a reality.

I’d also like to extend a special thank you to Jocelyn Banaria and Susan Haley Varat for volunteering to facilitate an experts-only focus group on the presidential correspondence process, and to Lena Zentall and Leslie Wolf for facilitating an expert- and general-employee group on ITS strategies for Apple product support.

Finally, last month we announced we would post floor plans near elevators in all our buildings. An early mock-up of the proposed design for these floor plans is on display for the next two weeks in the 7th floor Franklin elevator lobby. Please stop by and feel free to send your questions or comments to Building & Administrative Service Center Director Steve Murray at (510) 587-6428 or Steven.Murray@ucop.edu.

Yours very truly,

Janet Napolitano
President

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