Distributed Service Model
What is the Distributed Service Model?
In January 2007, ORSPA underwent a Peer Review to help identify strategies to strengthen the ASU research administration infrastructure. The Peer Review Committee recommended the University adopt a “distributed” model of organization that encourages cooperation, communication and universal training by relying on a system of shared roles and responsibilities between ORSPA, colleges and departments involving all staff whose job impacts research and sponsored projects administration.
The Enhance program was chartered to identify and complete the necessary enhancements to the research infrastructure at ASU required to grow our research enterprise to $350M by 2012. To date, we have defined the current and proposed future processes for research administration, standardized roles and responsibilities for ORSPA and Unit staff, completed a significant portion of the research administration procedure manual and are preparing to issue an RFP to evaluate options for electronic tools to support the research administration process. We are also rolling out an electronic solution for Proposal Routing & Approval, developing a SuperReport for a comprehensive view of sponsored accounts and providing a wide variety of training programs for both ORSPA staff and Research Advancement staff that reside in the units.
The roll-out of these standardized processes and tools to all units began with BioDesign and Engineering in late 2007. In upcoming months meetings will be scheduled with all Colleges/Units to discuss how to best implement this new model.
What are the Units responsible for in the Distributed Service Model?
The Enhance Project solicited input from the highly active Units, ORSPA and other administrative units associated with research and sponsored projects activities. A complete set of process maps were developed representing all phases of research administration @ ASU. The maps were coded to reflect the ownership of each process by either the Units or ORSPA. Roles and Responsibilities were further defined. These comprise the "Single Point of Truth (SPOT)" defining the Research Administration Enterprise @ ASU. The SPOT Summary page contains additional information, including process maps.
What kinds of support can Units expect from ORSPA and the OVPREA?
ORSPA is the technical resource to Units related to sponsor and regulatory requirements. Assistance is provided on a project by project basis and through ongoing training, including classroom workshops, online videos and more. ORSPA is fully responsible for their designated roles on the process charts and has developed a Service-Level Agreement (Word doc) to provide the current time frames for completing various tasks. To assist with Communication ORSPA has also developed other Tip Sheets. For example, the Point of Contact Guide (Word doc) helps users determine who to contact for various actions and the Communication Matrix (Powerpoint doc) maps routine communication between Units and ORSPA and explains who to escalate issues to when they are not being addressed within standard time frames.
The OVPREA is advancing development of better electronic tools to support research processes and reporting. View the Electronic Tool Summary (Excel doc) for more detail.
How have other Units staffed up to meet their responsibilities within the distributed service model?
The Distributed Service Model has been piloted by BioDesign and several Engineering Units. No two Units began their pilot from the same point. Each have different levels of sponsored projects activity and are staffing to meet their individual priorities. The only common factor is that all Units feel understaffed and concerned about the availability of back-up support from within their college/institute. We do not yet have metrics to help guide the optimal balance of staff to sponsored project activity levels, but we do have the benefit of the piloting Units so far. View the Activity vs. Staffing Balance (Excel doc) to see the activity indicators on the first pilot Units, how they are staffing and how the various units are integrating the new positions into their reporting lines.
Regardless of the various starting points, the ultimate goal is for all Units to migrate to uniform business processes and to staff up with like positions that have had the benefit of consistent and comprehensive training.
What are the “like” positions we are supposed to be hiring, how much do they cost, and who is going to subsidize them?
The Enhance Project worked with HR to define and classify position descriptions that contain the Unit responsibilities outlined in the Process Maps. The new Unit positions are counterpoints with parallel positions in ORSPA; this parallel is based on job responsibilities, skill level, and qualifications. Staff hired into these positions will have opportunities for career growth within and across Units/Schools and ORSPA. View the Unit Position Descriptions page to review the position descriptions and for salary information.
New positions hired in Units/Schools currently piloting the Distributed Service Model have been subsidized by those Units/Schools.
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If you would like additional information about the Distributed Service Model, please contact at 480-727-7962 or at 480-965-0718.