Service Excellence Awards given for outstanding projects

The awards were presented for outstanding projects within University Services by Robert J. Wagner, senior vice president, in a ceremony at the Center for Tomorrow.

First Place Award went to the Departmental Computing Consultants Forum, a voluntary group of 180 information technology (IT) professionals whose mission is to share computing expertise and resources and to explore new technologies and their potential uses on campus. The program encourages IT professionals from different university units to work as a team to provide specific product recommendations and services.

Second Place went to a system contract for office supplies with Staples Business Advantage. The system contract for office supplies provides for a full line of office products at very competitive prices to be delivered directly to the requisitioner within 48 hours. It will eliminate much paperwork and processing time for placing, receiving and paying for office supplies. Since 5,000 orders for office supplies are placed yearly, cost savings of $82,300 are expected with the purchase of supplies through Staples vs. Central Stores.

Tie for third place
Third Place Award, a tie, went to Renaissance System and to SUNYcard. Renaissance System facilitates personnel transactions by providing help functions, definitions, transaction edits and valid values to walk the user through the transaction. A microcomputer-based Foxpro application that runs on a local area network, the system eliminates redundancies and duplicate data entry; serves as a user-friendly tool to facilitate the appointment/change process, especially for those with little or no training, and reduces paperwork and manual edit checks.

SUNYcard was introduced to provide one consistent form of identification for all service providers on campus. It also includes a magnetic strip like an ATM or credit card so that it can be used to purchase food, place phone calls or function as a debit card for banking. The immediate income-producing ability of the SUNYcard system is estimated to be at least $100,000-with the potential for many times that amount. This project marks the first time that a distributed client/server model was used for an administrative system on campus.

Honorable mention given
Honorable Mention went to UB InfoSource. Participants developed a new data delivery mechanism for UB's information systems-a data warehouse for historical information that is accessible through familiar and economical end-user tools, such as Microsoft Access and Excel. Almost all administrative operational data have been moved into this environment.

InfoSource incorporates data contained in a variety of disparate administrative systems into a single source that allows the client to choose the cycle, population and format of the output generated.

Other nominated projects include the Five-SUNY Campus Trademark Licensing Consortium; the On-line Project Status Report; the Migration of Business Computing System and Sewage Metering Project.