2008 Reallocation and Cost Avoidance = $810,600
Listed below are the activities that occurred during FY 2008 to reallocate funds or avoid costs.
Parking Structure Snow Removal (Operations) = $15,000
The Parking Department requested all 24-hour parkers not to park on the top floor of the parking structures to better facilitate snow removal. In addition, parking on the roof of the Wells Street parking structure was restricted. The result was a reduction of maintenance costs including de-icing products or NACC.
Local and Long Distance Telecom Contract (Technology) = $72,000
IT Services renegotiated the local and long distance telecom contract with AT&T for an annual savings of $72,000.
Safety Resource Guides (Publications/Printing) = $7,000
The Department of Public Safety has reduced the number of University Safety Resource Guides it normally prints. The guide is now available online.
Safe Computing Efforts (Technology) = $5,000
IT Services created a “Safe Computing” website to replace the 8000 Wired CDs that had been created for students in residence halls. The students now go to the Safe Computing site to download anti-virus software, operating system updates, spyware and more. The IT Services CounterAct security system will protect the University network from students who fail to keep their computers secure – all machines showing malicious activity are blocked from access to the university network. The annual savings by not creating the CDs is $5,000.
Blackberry Devices (Technology) = $33,000
IT Services Telecom area worked with university staff with Blackberry devices to convert them to smart phone technology instead. The savings this fiscal year amount to just under $10,000; however, after the remaining Blackberry devices are converted next fiscal year, annual savings of $33,000 will be realized.
Yellow and White Page Advertising (Publications/Printing) = $40,000
The Office of Marketing and Communication and IT Services reviewed the existing Yellow and White Page advertising listings and made numerous deletions.
Pay Phone Removal (Technology) = $4,500
After a review of telecom billing, IT Services consulted with university staff members to remove the remaining five pay phones from campus. The pay phones were removed in January, creating a savings of $675/ month for a total in FY ’08 of $1,875. The annual savings due to the removal of the pay phones is $4,500.
Purchasing Contracts (Operations) = $334,100
The Purchasing Department closely scrutinized contracts coming to term in 2008 for savings and cost efficiencies.
Data Center Support Contracts (Technology) = $300,000
IT Services restructured the annual support/maintenance contracts for the Microsoft (MS) Windows equipment in the data center. In the past, Hewlett Packard (HP) was the sole support vendor. However, due to the sophistication of the MU Windows environment and the expert systems support group in IT Services, HP was acting as a middleman for application and OS related issues and passing the more difficult support requests directly to MS thereby unnecessarily delaying getting systems back online. A new 24x7 Premium Support Contract was signed with MS to provide the operating system (OS) and Microsoft application support for the MS Windows environment at a better rate, with improved support response, and improved quality as support is coming directly from MS. This allowed for a hardware only contract with HP for the MS Windows equipment. At the same time, the HP hardware support contract was increased to a six (6) hour call-to-repair from a four (4) call-to-response type of support. Overall, there is a net increase in support and a net decrease to the total support cost by over $300,000.
