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Capturing Administrative Cost Savings

Administrative Service Reviews seek to maintain or enhance service levels and remove “pain points,” while also reducing the cost of service delivery. Key areas of focus include:

  • Organization restructure (How might we create essential service areas and streamline workflow and decision making?)
  • Spans and layers (How much management are managers doing?)
  • Shared services (How might the institution consolidate service areas?) 
  • Third-party partnerships (What partnerships are available to increase quality and reduce cost?)
  • Leveraging technology (How can we reduce manual processes?)

These explorations allow institutions to adopt a transformation framework, moving from simple cost savings opportunities, to more significant changes in organization structure, and ultimately toward the creation of an entrepreneurial culture.

Throughout a decade of work on administrative services, rpk has always successfully captured more than 5% of total operating expenses for its clients — savings that can be reinvested in mission and student success efforts.

Case study: Gallaudet University (Washington, D.C.)

Gallaudet has generated millions in costs savings, while also opening up the “black box” of institutional finance for its faculty and staff.

Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., was looking to reallocate is current resources toward initiatives that would best support mission and student success. At the same time, the University wanted to raise the capacity of faculty and staff to engage around resource allocation decisions and consider a return on investment lens. 

The solution? The creation of a Rapid Response Team (RRT) process by rpk GROUP.

Rapid Response Teams provide a structure with which an institution might quickly (30-90 days) analyze an issue, develop options and implement them. The intent is to broadly but quickly engage the college community in identifying and evaluating solutions. Through Gallaudet’s process, dozens of faculty and staff members were engaged, and the university ultimately captured cost savings opportunities totaling 5% of operating expense, addressing auxiliary services, personnel benefits, organizational structure and information technology.

Resources

Article — Building the Streamlined College
Deck — Admin Services Review – Sample Deliverable
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“rpk’s analysis and change management framework brought the leadership team together to quickly eliminate pain points and capture cost savings—savings we reinvested in our future with better business intelligence and a focus on new market opportunities.“

Laura Casamento, President, Utica College