Recently Completed Projects and Engagements

This project aimed to document general standards for design and data integration, setting a foundation for consistent application development and integration throughout campus. Two workgroups convened to develop these standards: User Experience (UX)/User Interface (UI) and Data/IAM. SPMO directly assisted with the development of the Data/IAM standards. Documented standards for Data and IAM were presented to and approved by the App Services Subcommittee on May 21, 2025.

The 2025 Business Excellence Symposium, held on February 4 at the I Hotel, received mainly positive feedback from attendees. Participants expressed appreciation for the well-organized event and the valuable content presented. There were 220 attendees at the symposium. Sixteen exhibitors participated from across the campus and system. The event featured breakout sessions led by Becky McNaught, Kristi Moore, and Stephen Kemp. The keynote speech was delivered by Robin Kaler, which was also well attended. The symposium was successful in terms of turnout and engagement. The SPMO plans to continue hosting the Business Excellence Symposium at the I Hotel in the future, building on the success of this year’s event. Plans may include expanding the range of topics covered, increasing exhibitors participation, and further improving attendee engagement.

The Data Resource Inventory project sought to gather information and produce an inventory of existing administrative data resources that are utilized in strategic decision making. This inventory will be leveraged for future projects that address OpEx recommendations and will ultimately improve the way the university community interacts with the available data resources. This project identified and documented over 90 data resources spanning across 16 administrative areas. The information collected has been captured in the Smartsheet tool that will be easy to expand upon and leverage as additional projects related to the creation of a data services catalog are executed.

The Defining Purchasing and Procurement Roles and Responsibilities project spanned much of 2025. During the year, procurement and purchasing professionals from across campus came together to work through who should own various steps in different procurement processes. This collaborative project resulted in an interactive web page (https://www.uiucpurchasing.illinois.edu/roles-responsibilities/) that guides working professionals through various purchasing and procurement processes and helps shed light on who is responsible for which area.

During the Spring and Summer of 2025, the Purchasing and Contracts Management Office (PCMO) turned their attention to enhancing its communication strategy. The PCMO Communication Strategy Project established formal and consistent methods for the PCMO to communicate to various campus stakeholders on things like policy changes. They implemented a forum, office hours, and established a plan on what to communicate to key audiences like BAC and BMG.

Directly tied to the Operational Excellence recommendation calling for the proposal of a campus-level data governance structure, the Permanent Data Governance Recommendation Project successfully brought together stakeholders from across campus to evaluate potential, comprehensive solutions for data governance. From those evaluations and additional research this team composed a thorough recommendation for a proposed permanent data governance solution and presented it to executive leadership.

Directly tied to the Operational Excellence Data Recommendation #53 calling for a campus-level data governance structure, the Permanent Institutional Data Governance Implementation Project successfully brought together stakeholders from across campus to implement the approved Permanent Institutional Data Governance structure that was drafted by the Permanent Data Governance Recommendation. Provost Coleman formally charged the Institutional Data Governance Board in January 2026.

The Swanlund IT state analysis ran from May to September 2025. The final report offered key insights and actionable recommendations to improve their funding model, operational structure, and processes.  The project gathered data through previous projects, lessons learned, and departmental data, surveys, and meetings with staff and other IT departments. Swanlund IT will utilize the report to streamline operations, enhance funding management, and optimize workloads for improved future efficiency.

The Website Management Center of Expertise (Web COE) project, which began in the fall of 2023 and transitioned to a fully operationalized model in the fall of 2025, leveraged collaboration of university experts to help University departments with their various web needs, from web hosting and consulting services, to hosted Illinois-branded assets and themes, to website accessibility evaluation. The ongoing mission of the Web COE is to:

• Create efficient web processes
• Define best web practices
• Elevate existing university web resources
• Identify needed web resources
• Provide collective web knowledge and expertise

The 2026 Business Excellence Symposium was held on February 10^th at the I Hotel and received largely positive feedback for its organization and content. The event drew over 180 attendees and featured 17 vendors from across the campus and system. Breakout sessions were led by Becky McNaught, Kristie Nock, Stephen Kemp, and Julie Block with her HR team, and the keynote by Dr. Jennifer Nelson was well attended. Building on this success, the SPMO plans to continue hosting the symposium at the I Hotel, with potential enhancements including expanded topics, increased vendor and networking opportunities, and improved attendee exposure to breakout session content.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (OVCSA) is seeking to strengthen its Marketing and Communications (MarCom) capabilities. Phase 1 initially aimed at developing two options for a dedicated Student Affairs MarCom team. Feedback from focus groups shifted the focus to recommending actions to incrementally improve MarCom operations across the division and encourage collaboration. This phase produced two primary areas of improvement that will be implemented in Phase 2 of the effort.

The Remote and Hybrid Work Agreement Platform Review successfully reviewed the platform and form for functionality and accessibility, gathered feedback, and developed a document outlining process improvements for the form. This resulted in the suggestion of 28 improvements that are expected to be completed through future release cycles.