Last spring, the Pre-Planning Advisory Council (PPAC) began the Budget Modernization initiative – RCM style budget approach. The change is necessary to align academic, administrative and auxiliary budget approaches into a single budget approach for all university areas and funds. Currently, the university has different budget models, including Bronco Budget 2.0, a hybrid RCM-style budgeting approach on the revenue side in academic areas. The PPAC focused on research and resource review on the RCM-style budget model examples, completed campus visits to better understand the RCM-style budget model in action and began a process for identifying potential consultants to support the budget modernization process.
Members of the Pre-Planning Advisory Council (PPAC) include: Brian Bolt, Lisa Bostaph, Lisa Cochran, Leslie Durham, Brenda Robinson, James Satterfield Jr., Jeremiah Shinn, Matt Smith, Mark Wheeler and the facilitation team from the Provost’s Office and the Office of the Budget and Planning, including Zeynep Hansen, Chris Johnson,Shari Ellertson, Eric White, Judith Todd, Irene Pedraza and Jennifer Jayne.
Due to our current complex approach to budgeting, as well as a desire to implement in fiscal year 2026, the PPAC’s charge included evaluating a process to retain consulting services that support the initiative. The objective is to retain a company with broad higher education experience – especially with RCM budgeting, commitment to collaborate with the university on change management and sound project management experience. Generally, these services will support Budget Modernization leadership and the newly convened Planning Advisory Council (PAC) with the initial phase of Discovery, during which the team will evaluate the current state; develop a robust change management plan; and develop the framework of the budget model and key components of the model. We envision phase 2 of the initiative will include data modeling, model developing, prototyping, testing, implementation and stabilization. Any potential consulting services for phase 2 will be determined at a later date.
A subset of PPAC members interviewed multiple firms and rated them based on the following:
- Technical Expertise: RCM-specific
- Project Management Expertise
- Change Management and Communication
- Company Qualifications
- Overall Quality
The two highest rated companies were invited to provide references. References were interviewed by a subset of PPAC members. A comparison of pros and cons for each finalist was developed and provided for consideration.
Based on the evaluation by the PPAC, the university has started negotiating a professional services contract with RPK Group.
We would like to again thank the PPAC members for their past service, and also recognize the ongoing efforts of the PAC membership for their continued support of the Budget modernization initiative. We will continue to update the campus community as this process evolves. We will employ additional venues to gather information and solicit feedback from all campus members, and will create additional working groups to assist with model development after onboarding our consultant.
Thank you for supporting this very important initiative. To learn more about the project or review recent updates, please visit the Budget Modernization web page.
Sincerely,
John Buckwalter, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost
Alicia Estey, Vice President of Finance and Operations, Chief Financial and Operating Officer
Planning Advisory Council (PAC) members
- Dr. Leslie Durham, Dean, the College of Arts and Sciences
- Dr. James Satterfield, Dean, the College of Education
- Dr. Mark Wheeler, Dean, Extended Studies
- Dr. Lisa Bostaph, Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, President of the Faculty Senate
- Matt Smith, Assistant Vice President, Research Enterprise Services
- Dr. Jeremiah Shinn, Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management
- Brian Bolt, Assistant Vice President, Deputy CIO
- Lisa Cochran, Executive Director, Extra Mile Arena
- Lynn Humphrey, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management
- Annie Hightower, Associate Vice President, Finance and Operations Administration
- Tony Marker, Professor, Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning, Faculty Senate representative
- Ed Vasko, Director, Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity, the Division of Research and Economic Development
- Heather Berry, Senior Associate Athletic Director, Athletic Personnel Services and Chief of Staff
- Makenzie Phillips, Assistant Dean of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, the College of Arts and Sciences
- Matthew Ewing, Vice President of University Advancement
- Troy Hyatt, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Accountancy
- Joelle Powers, Senior Associate Dean, the College of Health Sciences
Initiative Facilitation Team mentioned above, along with:
- George Thoma, Communications Specialist, Office of Communications and Marketing
- Mike Chambers, Program Manager, Office of Continuous Improvement