Organized for Success Update for Aug. 30

Dear colleagues,

I am sharing below the latest update from our Mindsteam consultants who are helping to best position Regis’ structure and operations for future growth. There was a lot of work to do to collect data and other information for these assessments, so we are still in the gathering and discussion stages. However, as we move toward decisions in the next 60 days, we will keep everyone apprised and ask for additional input as needed. Thank you to everyone for your patience and to those who have given their time and energy to help Mindstream do its work. 

Cody Teets

Interim President

From Mindstream: Our team has completed the Phase 1 focus area assessments, which included Student Affairs, Admissions and Enrollment, Marketing Communications, the School for Professional Advancement and the Anderson College of Business and Computing. We delivered our findings and options for improving efficiency and effectiveness in each of the focus areas to your leadership, which will evaluate the options and consult internal constituencies, including RUAC, before selecting the options that best meet the university’s needs. Once your leadership has selected the options that they want to implement, we will help Regis prepare detailed implementation plans (design and mobilize) for those options. That work will take varying lengths of time, depending upon the complexity of the option.

It became clear to us during Phase 1 that Regis can “turn the ship” by the fall of 2023. Hence, we recommended to your leadership that we focus our improvement efforts the remainder of 2022 on academic affairs, admissions and enrollment and student affairs, as well as key support areas such as Information technology Services and Financial Affairs. 

During Phase 1, we identified several options, some of which will increase revenue, some of which will decrease costs. Some options can be readily implemented; some options are more complex and will take longer to implement. Two options that your leadership has decided to implement with our assistance bear mention. The first option is to develop and implement a “master database” that will enable both comprehensive academic program analysis and prescriptive analytics for marketing and recruitment. The second option is to improve the purchase of goods and services across the institution.

We identified an opportunity to dramatically improve institutional effectiveness by designing, developing, and helping the university deploy a “master database.” This database will pull information from key sources, such as University Academic Research, EAB, Financial data, Workday and Salesforce. The master database will give the university a powerful analysis tool and “one source of truth”. It is important to stress that, as part of the design phase, we will invite departments and units impacted to help develop a work plan for the project.  Workload, prioritization, funding, and governance will be critical elements of the plan.

Currently, the University secures most goods and services in a decentralized manner, so Regis doesn’t always get the best price. There is an opportunity to obtain much better pricing/ volume discounts by implementing a formal procurement process for buying goods and services over a certain amount. Departments would retain the ability to make certain purchases up to that amount. The result? More strategic purchasing, centralization of commodity purchases, inventory control, and better control of spend. Like the “master database” initiative, in the design phase, we will invite departments and units impacted to help us develop a work plan for the project.  Workload, prioritization, funding, and governance will be key elements of the plan.

On a final note, we would like to thank focus area stakeholders for their willingness to work with us. We appreciate your time, your ideas, and most of all your candor. Please know that my team is committed to your success!

Joseph Garcia

President, Mindstream