Becoming Knowledge Driven—
Changes in Financial Services

by Ann Anderson

The Financial Services organization has been undertaking a transformation. What began five years ago as minor tweaking has blossomed into a reorganization that will set a foundation for the future of Financial Services. Financial Services is a unit in Financial Management that includes the following departments:

• Payables Administration
• Travel
• Equipment Inventory
• Procurement Card Administration
• Administration/Data Entry

As a result of opportunities resulting from increased technology, the work of our unit is being transformed. We are using data to make decisions more than ever. We are evaluating risk in assessing the degree to which we will monitor compliance. We are more customer service focused than ever in the past. We are increasingly expected to provide evidence of our efficiency and effectiveness. As a result, we are evolving into a knowledge-driven organization. What does it mean to be “knowledge-driven”? For starters, it means the organization is less focused on processing transactions. Rather, more effort is directed to activities such as analysis, problem-solving (sometimes even before problems occur!), outreach, training, and using data to make decisions and to deploy resources. The Lead Team has defined transaction-driven as focusing on “processes that require repetitive or routine work day after day”. In contrast, the Lead Team describes knowledge-driven as:

• Creating knowledge – knowledge of what our customers need before they even know they need it;
• Sharing knowledge – amongst ourselves, with our process partners and with campus.

We have traditionally been a transaction-driven organization. This work is increasingly migrating to technology and on-line processing. Thus, the structure of the organization needs to reflect this new and emerging reality. We are becoming knowledge-driven. An organization that considers itself knowledge-driven should be structured as such. In Financial Services, this has resulted in establishing positions focused on customer service, analysis, problem solving, and data analysis. Over the last five years, we have been slowly reallocating our resources to support a new organizational structure. We have established a customer service unit in Payables Administration, established the Procurement Card Program, and hired a Financial Data Analyst. Knowledge activities include the creation of and active use of our Operational Dashboard (similar to other Financial Management units), training conducted by all units, analyzing department activity using specific transaction data, migrating forms and information to the Web, and implementing document imaging. And, we need to do more.

This has been an ongoing journey. Most recent reorganization activities consist of establishing additional customer-focused positions, including two supervisor positions. We have also reclassified other positions to more consistently represent ourselves as a fiscal organization. An example was to submit requests to Human Resources to reclassify program coordinator positions in the Travel Office to Fiscal Specialists. While we don’t underestimate the impact of the transformation in terms of change management as well as managing both knowledge and transaction work in the transition, we believe these actions will result in the following knowledge-driven outcomes:

• Providing better customer service to campus
• Sharpening our ability to solve problems
• Expanding the skill base of our staff
• Providing additional career paths in Financial Services

This transformation will not end with our recent activities. The journey will continue as long as our work is impacted by technology, customer expectations increase and change, and our desire to maintain an organization that is both vibrant and competent continues.