From the UMN News coverage of the University Board of Regents May meeting:
"The president also updated the board on his "operational excellence" initiative—a key priority, which he believes could drive substantial cost savings. Kaler called the initiative a long-term commitment to working smarter, reducing costs, enhancing services, and increasing revenues throughout the University. It includes a variety of integrated activities with the collective goal of mitigating the impact of state budget reductions and keeping tuition increases low; improving operations and processes; promoting entrepreneurship, intelligent risk-taking, cooperation, and engagement; and freeing up dollars to be reinvested in the core academic enterprise. He offered the board one simple and humorous example of that work: 5.3 million voicemails a year are left on the U phone system. The Office of Information Technology recently shortened the automatic voicemail instructions by 15 seconds—saving 22,000 hours per year. For more information, see Operational Excellence. See the President's complete remarks to the board."
http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2012/UR_CONTENT_388982.html
Pres. Kaler talks in greater detail about the "OIT whizzes: in his comments about Operational Excellence:
http://www1.umn.edu/president/speeches-and-writing/report-to-board-of-regents-may-2012/
"The president also updated the board on his "operational excellence" initiative—a key priority, which he believes could drive substantial cost savings. Kaler called the initiative a long-term commitment to working smarter, reducing costs, enhancing services, and increasing revenues throughout the University. It includes a variety of integrated activities with the collective goal of mitigating the impact of state budget reductions and keeping tuition increases low; improving operations and processes; promoting entrepreneurship, intelligent risk-taking, cooperation, and engagement; and freeing up dollars to be reinvested in the core academic enterprise. He offered the board one simple and humorous example of that work: 5.3 million voicemails a year are left on the U phone system. The Office of Information Technology recently shortened the automatic voicemail instructions by 15 seconds—saving 22,000 hours per year. For more information, see Operational Excellence. See the President's complete remarks to the board."
http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2012/UR_CONTENT_388982.html
Pres. Kaler talks in greater detail about the "OIT whizzes: in his comments about Operational Excellence:
http://www1.umn.edu/president/speeches-and-writing/report-to-board-of-regents-may-2012/