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April 2024 Update

Message from the Director

Message from the Director

Last updated April 16th 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the April edition of the monthly update.  With the Easter break behind us, we are heading into the end-of-trimester activities, one of the year’s peaks for faculty, staff and students.

This month, alongside our usual project updates, we have interviews from our Programme Management Office (PMO) team which supports these projects. 

In the first interview, Emma Donnelly from the UCD Admissions team discusses the Mature Applicant Assessment project and her role within it.

Louise Bloomfield, on the FinPOST project from her HRIS role, talks about how she is helping shape the integration between the new Finance system (Workday) and our HR system (PeopleXD - formerly known as Core).  

The third interview is with Paula Flanagan, who leads the POST PMO.  Having recently joined UCD, she brings great experience to bear and talks about her approach as part of POST.   

Enjoy the material we have gathered for this month - a common theme is how a well-planned approach to implementing change can help get great outcomes from a project.  And in all of this are the goals of freeing up time and transforming all our daily activities, making it easier to do great things in UCD.  

As usual, if you have any questions about the content of this update or any ideas you would like to share then please do not hesitate to get in touch at (opens in a new window)ucdpostpmo@ucd.ie.

Regards,
Michael

Projects in Focus

Enabling Employee Engagement & Internal Communications
Enabling Employee Engagement & Internal Communications

Our new employee engagement and internal communications platform ‘UCD Workvivo’ will be launched across the university in May.

The project team is working with space owners and administrators to develop individual spaces that will enable you to connect, engage and communicate more easily with colleagues. Look out for some explainer videos, coming shortly. For information about this project, click here to view project details or if you have any questions, please contact Mark Simpson (mark.simpson@ucd.ie).

Library Management System (LMS) Discovery Project
Library Management System (LMS) Discovery Project

This project aims to define the requirements and specification for a new library management system and archives management system. In order to ensure a people-focus, the project team will be engaging key stakeholders which include faculty, students, library staff, researchers, and external readers. Recruitment began in March for two Project Officer positions who will join the team for 12 months. Once the team is fully resourced, work will commence on the gathering of requirements, analysis of workflows and processes, and on the integration options for such a system.

For more information about this project, click here to view the webpage and if you have any questions, please contact Samantha Drennan (samantha.drennan@ucd.ie) and Arlene Healy (arlene.healy@ucd.ie).

Clinical Placements Strategy Project
Clinical Placements Strategy Project

As per the February update, this project aims to enhance the experiences of students engaged in Clinical Placements and of the staff who support them. The project team held a number of interviews and workshops with representatives from ten disciplinary areas across UCD's human health and social care and veterinary programmes, from the College of Health and Agricultural Sciences and from the College of Social Sciences and Law. These engagements highlighted some of the challenges and associated risks encountered by students, faculty and staff.

The next phase of the project will focus on translating these findings into an agreed scope of work with key deliverables and on establishing and activating a project team to deliver these changes.

Click here to read more about the project.

Mature Applicant Assessment
Mature Applicant Assessment

Training sessions were held and attended by professional staff and faculty from Schools and Colleges on 26th March and 4th April. This new assessment tool will be implemented across all programme areas during the month of April. Folders for each programme area were prepared with spreadsheets and an instruction sheet. This forms part of the support available to staff utilising this tool over the coming months. Feedback is welcomed in relation to the new process.

To learn more about this project, you can view the project profile by clicking here or email mature.students@ucd.ie with any questions you may have.

Click here to view the project webpage.

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University CRM
University CRM

The development phase for the University CRM Applications System has now concluded, and the project will move into User Acceptance Testing in May. A full test strategy has been developed with extensive involvement from a wide range of stakeholders across UCD. Training will be available following this testing phase.

The project team has created an introductory video, featuring members of the team answering questions about the new CRM Applications system. Information Roadshows are being held in April and May to explain more about the project and to answer any questions that colleagues may have.

Click to view the video in full or to book your place on one of the roadshow sessions.

People in Focus

Emma Donnelly
Emma Donnelly

Emma Donnelly, Mature Student Administrator outlines her involvement in the Mature Applicant Assessment project. Click here to read the interview in full.

Louise Bloomfield
Louise Bloomfield

Louise Bloomfield, HRIS Analyst, FinPOST gives an insight into the transformational changes being implemented through the FinPOST project. Click here to read the interview in full.

Paula Flanagan
Paula Flanagan

Paula Flanagan, the UCD POST Programme Management Lead gives us an overview of the projects being managed within the POST portfolio. Click here to read the interview in full.