Saving Time and Money and Working Smarter - Latest Headlines

Use P-Cards for all Airline and Rail Tickets

You can now use a PCard for all airline and rail tickets, so you won't need to use your personal charge card and wait for reimbursement after the trip. We heard from many people that the reimbursement process was frustrating and time consuming, and this change should help greatly. Talk with your business manager if you'd like to open this function on your procurement card. Click here to learn more

$250,000 Savings: Pooling University Cell Phone Minutes

We're saving $250,000 annually by pooling University cell phone minutes. Rather than have an individual plan for every cell phone, we've reached an agreement with Verizon to pool all of Yale's minutes. Next, we'll implement a similar program with Nextel.

40% Drop in Domestic Long Distance Rates

Domestic Long Distance rates will drop by 40% to 6 cents per minute, effective July 1 due to continued restructuring in Telecommunications.

On-Line Access to Financial Aid Awards

Students now have on-line access to financial aid awards and automatic email notification of award changes. This has greatly reduced reliance on paper and postage. Also, a new electronic scanning system has cut the number of paper documents by half--from 100,000 to 50,000.

Employee Access to Campus Wide Kiosks

By the end of June, employees will have access to conveniently located kiosks on campus. We learned that many service and maintenance employees don't have an easy way to receive and send email or to participate in many services that are web based, such as parking applications and benefits information. We'll work with staff and the union to provide email accounts and training for those interested. Click here to learn more

On-Line Reporting and Tracking of Facilities Requests

Students will be able to report any type of building related problem and to track the status of Facilities requests by using an on-line system. This idea came from the Why Not website, and Facilities will have the program in place this fall.

$100,000 Savings: Consolidated Elevator Maintenance Contracts

We've consolidated elevator maintenance contracts, saving $100,000 annually. This came about from a partnership between Medical School Facilities, central campus Facilities and Procurement to leverage the buying power of the University.

Accuship Incentives - FED EX and UPS

We're creating incentives for departments to use an on-line tool, Accuship, that greatly improves the way we track and pay for FedEx and UPS. This tool creates an online FedEx air bill (with UPS soon to follow), which can reduce invoice mistakes from 42% to less than 1%. To encourage greater use of this feature, departments will now receive an 85 cent discount on every transaction processed through Accuship. Click here to learn more

$168,000 Savings: Corporate Express Brand Toner Cartridges

The University can save over $168,000 by using Corporate Express brand toner cartridges. These new products are guaranteed and can provide savings of up to 69% over name-brand cartridges. Click here to learn more

Virus and SPAM Management Services

ITS just announced improved server-based virus and spam management services and immediately doubled the number of clients at Yale using these services - ITS is now managing a quarter of a million virus and spam email messages per day on behalf of the Yale community.