Your Ideas Matter
Jayhawks Elevate is successful because of you. Your ideas make us better. There are times when you might ask why are we spending money the way we are as a campus. Below are some examples of fellow Jayhawks who started asking why. Their questions turned into opportunities to reduce our spend as an organization. You probably have ideas too.
Switch KU/KUMC International Tax support to Sprintax
The Controllers office tried to minimize the increase in costs for our International tax support software Glacier. When they could not achieve much savings in our annual costs by working directly with the vendor, they explored other options with the State of Kansas and other KBOR schools. Sprintax was a solid option for KU and other state agency partners. KU is now utilizing a new software vendor, Sprintax, that supports multiple KBOR schools, provides a better user experience, unlimited records, and chatbots. This will help our teams better serve our campus community and achieve about a 90% reduction in expense.
Fellow Change Agents:
- Penny Kellum
- Richard Davis
- Melissa Bissey
- Mandy Tucker
- Kay Walden
- Mike Lewis
- Jo Hardesty
- Adam Mansfield
Impact of idea:
$14,000 in annual spend savings for KU
$5,500 in annual spend savings for KUMC
Replace Inefficient Freezers with Sustainable Ones
Ramia Whitecotton became aware of potential savings we could achieve by replacing some of our old, inefficient freezers on campus. When reviewing the latest freezer options, there will be some dramatic utility savings we could achieve with new freezers in research spaces. Because there is substantial investment needed to completely shift to new freezers this strategy will be incorporated through Procurement support when replacements are needed.
Fellow Change Agents:
Cassy Kuhn, Mike Russell
Impact of idea:
Improved utility savings and a more green campus
Reduce Trash Collection during Off peak times
Lawrence Chapman saw a City of Lawrence trash truck pickup an empty dumpster and wondered why we had them pick up trash so often during Summer and Winter breaks. This prompted some research with Facilities and the City of Lawrence to reduce the frequency of pickups during off peak times of the year.
Fellow Change Agents:
Cameron Lauer, Cassi Kuhn, Sarah Waters, Krissie Druen, and Shawn Harding
Impact of idea:
$24,000 in annual savings
Migrate Existing Security Cameras to Aruba Network with Internal Resources
Thomas Droge II suggested that internal resources of IT and PSO counterparts do the migration of existing security cameras to the Aruba network. Rather than outsourcing this work to a contractor, they were self-sufficient to handle the task.
Fellow Change Agents:
Fellow Change Agents: Ben Brassart, Mark Nace, Ray Buffalomeat, Callie Long, Sara Jean Coughlan, and Charles Ammel
Impact of idea:
$40,000 in Fiscal year 2024 savings
