1. Team Members responsible for creating this innovation are all from Glendale Community College:
Regis Della-Calce, Manager of College Business Services (845-3590)2. Description of Innovation: The Planning and Budget Database is a program created in FilemakerPro that encourages an integrated approach to the college budgeting process by connecting budget requests to the college's strategic goals, the Governing Board ends, and to the goals of each unit or department. It fosters connections between objectives, activities, budget requests, and outcomes throughout the college planning cycle. The budget documents follow a standard format across programs and departments, and all of them reside on a college server, so anyone can read them. The program allows multiple views across the budget both horizontally and vertically, and has encouraged the college to look at itself in new ways. It has streamlined the budget development process so more of the time devoted to this activity is spent on critical activities; it has reduced re-work, especially the creation of multiple reports that serve the same ends; and it has increased the knowledge employees have about the college budget process, building more creativity and participation into the process.
Linda Hawbaker, Coordinator of Institutional Research (845-3560)
Nancy Larrick, Institutional Researcher (now at SMC) (243-8017)
Lindy Afek, Administrative Secretary to the Dean of Administrative Services (845-3400)
Joyce Elsner, Dean of Administrative Services (845-3405)
Efficiency -- The Planning and Budget Database includes a planning
calendar, checklists, definitions of terms, and the college's strategic
issues and the ends (all in one location). Items common to all planning
areas at the college
can be added once and flow throughout all the documents. In addition,
departmental goals, activities and outcomes move automatically from year
to year, eliminating rekeying. The standard formatting makes it easy to
create working documents for budget subcommittees that include not just
the dollar requests but also the goals they support; the inclusion of a
feedback location allows those subcommittees to insert the justification
for their decisions. Having all the information in one place and in a database
format makes it possible for departments and programs to update their objectives,
activities, measures, and outcomes at any time, making the planning and
budget process a continuous activity rather than an annual "event." Easy
retrieval and sorting across focuses, topics, and objectives allows multiple
views of the college. For example, it is possible to generate a report
at any time from the database about what the institution is doing as a
whole related to diversity or retention or transfer; these reports contain
specific details drawn from the database about objectives, activities and
outcomes organized by department, service area, or program.
Cost Effectiveness -- In its very first year of implementation, the Planning and Budget Database eliminated the necessity for departments to create a separate Institutional Effectiveness report at year-end. Over time, it should prove to be a very cost-effective way of managing the budget planning process by eliminating re-work; in the future, all of the time spent on budget planning can be devoted to budget "thinking" rather than to creating legible documents. The structure of the database encourages continuous improvement by integrating planning, budgeting and assessing, and has led to the reduction of parallel processes. Inclusion of general financial information in the program itself reduced the amount of supporting information managers needed to find elsewhere (average salary, benefits, etc.) and eliminated manual calculations that have, in the past, produced error. Integrating formulas into the documents allowed for the easy accumulation of totals at the end of the report.
Learning Community -- This process has contributed to college's growth as a learning organization. There was comprehensive training at Glendale for all managers; the program was presented to the Administrative Services Group and to other groups around the district, including the budget team at the district. The program is easily customizable to other campuses; it is created in standard cross-platform software that is well known and available across the district.
At GCC, the individual budget plans are available on the network, so anyone can see them. Model budget plans from other departments were integrated into the program so others could learn from them by example. The structure of the program has allowed the college to be more aware of the plans of other units.
In its first two years of use, 7 or 8 cross-functional teams or communities of interest (for example, Multiple Intelligences, Learning Communities, the Desktop Project, the GCIS group and the Student Success Council Mentoring Project) asked to be added to the database. Not all their planning documents included dollar amounts, but among those that did, several received new funding as a result.
Creativity -- In use for three years, this program has transformed the budget and planning process at the college. It spawned a new way of working, one that was more creative and participatory. While some managers borrowed laptops and worked on the documents over the weekend, others worked in a group environment (using computers and overhead projection) to involve members of their units in the process. This new way of working broadened involvement in the planning process and increased collaboration; the brainstorming that resulted produced many new ideas.
3. Executive Summary: The Planning and Budget Database, developed
in FilemakerPro, supports an integrated approach to the college budgeting
process by connecting budget requests to the college's strategic goals,
the Governing Board ends, and to the goals of each unit. Using the database
has increased the efficiency and accessibility of this critical college
planning process.