At-a-glance
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Following more than three years of collaborative planning with Penn State’s community of financial professionals, faculty and staff, and University leaders, Penn State Finance and Business launched a new financial operating model on Feb. 24.
The multiyear transition, led by the Finance Optimized Service Team (OST), brings together financial staff from across the University into a unified structure within Finance and Business. The new model is built on a shared-services framework, moving away from decentralized processes to a more robust, resilient and efficient structure designed to meet the needs of faculty, staff and University leaders as they carry out Penn State’s mission.
“I am grateful to the hundreds of Penn Staters who have collaborated to help us reach this milestone,” said Sara Thorndike, senior vice president for Finance and Business/treasurer. “In a time of ongoing change across higher education, the shared services business model modernizes our financial operations and allows us to be responsive to the needs of our faculty, staff, students and administrative leaders. It also positions our valued financial professionals for long-term success in a new, University-wide structure.”
While most units at the University will adopt this new operating model, collaborations with the College of Medicine are ongoing and their financial processing will be folded into the new workflows at a later date. Some units at Penn State, such as the Applied Research Laboratory, are not within the scope of this project and will experience minimal changes.
“Transitioning to a shared service model reflects the best practices seen in industry,” said Saurabh Bansal, OST co-lead, chief of staff for Finance and Business, and professor in the Smeal College of Business.
Bansal’s academic research centers on decision-making under uncertainty and the use of data to improve organizational outcomes, which has been used extensively to shape the OST’s implementation.
“As a leading research institution, we had the opportunity to apply best practices guided by well-established research findings to ensure our decisions were grounded in evidence and focused on supporting our employees,” Bansal said.
Streamlined experience for unit employees to request financial transactions
All financial transactions will begin in ServiceNow, the same platform currently used by Penn State Information Technology for support. To simplify the experience of nonfinance staff, a user-friendly portal to ServiceNow forms has been created on the Finance and Business website.
This portal serves as the gateway for “initiators” — employees in each unit who have been identified by their business executives, such as deans and chancellors in academic colleges — and who will be prompting requests in ServiceNow forms for financial transactions. Employees in five financial hubs will receive these requests and perform the processing.
Bansal said the goal is for initiators to enter information to the best of their ability; after that, finance hub employees will collaborate with initiators to gather any other needed information.
“Once a form is submitted, our hub employees will work directly with initiators to gather any additional details, then will work within our new finance hubs to complete the transaction for you and your unit,” Bansal said.
‘Hypercare’ and continuous support
From day one, to support the transition, Finance and Business is entering a minimum 90-day period of “hypercare.” During this time, additional resources will be dedicated to guiding initiators through new workflows, answering questions and troubleshooting.
Employees are encouraged to reach out to their unit Strategic Finance Partner (SFP) teams with any questions or concerns. These partners and their teams will be ready to provide personalized, high-touch guidance from Feb. 24 onward.
“Our SFPs and financial coordinators remain dedicated to each unit, as they always have been, but with expanded support through the hub model,” said Kim Fisher, senior director of financial planning, analysis and coordination. “Our SFP teams will be on standby through launch and beyond to provide the strategic and grassroots support units need to navigate this transition.”
Employees can find contact information for their unit SFP teams.
Initiator training
Throughout January and February, training sessions to equip unit initiators saw strong engagement, with more than 7,500 seats taken across both deep-dive and initiator overview training sessions by 2,000 community members across the University.
“We have been really encouraged by the high level of participation,” said Christy Helms, senior director of Talent Management. “Each session was thoughtfully designed by subject matter experts to not only share concrete steps, but also to increase confidence in navigating the new systems and provide assurance of the support available within the new model.”
For those unable to attend a live session, or for those who prefer self-paced learning, recordings of each session are available on the Office of Enterprise Change & Transformation website.
As the model matures and adapts to enhance University operations, the Finance OST will continue to integrate feedback from both initiators and finance professionals to refine its support.
“This shared services model is a vital investment in our collective future,” Thorndike said. “By transforming our operations today, we are helping to position Penn State for continued strength and success.”
More information on the Finance OST can be found on the Office of Enterprise Change and Transformation web presence.