Q&A: Ronn Kolbash, Yale University Shared Services

The Shared Services Newsletter team recently sat down with Ronn Kolbash, the assistant vice president of Shared Services at Yale University. Ronn, who was a guest speaker at the Unit Representative Kickoff Meeting in May, spoke about the benefits and challenges faced by Yale University as it migrated to a the Yale Shared Services Center (YSSC). He answered questions and provided insights to the unit representatives and the project team.

The YSSC is helping Yale realize cost savings through the co-location of administrative activities, a focus on standardization, and by actively partnering with academic units across campus to provide outstanding customer service. Before joining the YSSC in 2010, Ronn held a number of leadership positions at the state of Ohio, including director of the statewide Shared Services Center.

1) Shared Services Newsletter (SSN): First, can you give us some quick facts about Yale?

Ronn Kolbash (RK): Sure—Yale, which is located in New Haven, CT, is home to about 12,000 students, 4,100 faculty members, and just over 9,000 staff employees. In FY 2012, our total endowment was $19.3 billion and the university had research expenditures of about $590 million. Our total operating expenditure for FY 2012 was $2.82 billion.

Learn more about Yale University

2) SSN: When did the YSSC go live and what services do you provide for the Yale community?

RK: We merged three regional centers in 2010 and opened the YSSC in 2011. The YSSC provides a variety of financial and transactional processing services. Our financial management services include financial review, budget monitoring, forecasting, management reporting, and budget development. On the transactional side, the center manages several procurement, accounting, accounts payable, travel expense, and other account-related processes for clients.

Learn more about the Yale Shared Services Center

3) SSN: You’ve led two Shared Services operations, first at the state of Ohio and now at Yale. State government is very different than higher education, but what are some common factors—from a success perspective—that were applicable at both organizations?

RK: At Yale, one of the questions we asked ourselves was “Can we replicate a Shared Services model from a large state operation to ensure the vitality of higher ed for the next 60 or 70 years?” With that as a backdrop, we took a university-wide view to Shared Services, but knew we needed to build local support.

At both the state of Ohio and Yale, establishing—and maintaining—a relationship with our customers was integral. At both organizations, our customers wanted to be involved in the development, implementation, and ongoing operation of Shared Services and we very much wanted—and welcomed—their feedback.

This partnership approach was invaluable in the successful launch of Shared Services at both Ohio and Yale. It’s really important that the service provider and the customer work collectively towards common objectives. In addition, both operations have jointly developed and agreed-upon metrics, service level agreements as well as an account manager model—all of which goes a long way in strengthening the relationship between the Shared Services operation and its customers.

Finally—and just as importantly—both Ohio Shared Services and the YSSC have created a culture that encourages and fosters employee collaboration, transparency, and a focus on providing outstanding customer service.

4) SSN: Can you elaborate on the “account manager” concept as it relates to Shared Services?

RK: At Yale, these members of our team are formally known as service and quality managers while at Ohio we had an agency interaction relationship team. Regardless of the name, the concept is essentially the same—these employees or teams work very closely with customers, before they even begin using Shared Services, to understand their needs, answer questions, explain processes, and gather feedback. In short, they serve as a single point of contact well before units start to transition to Shared Services and can sometimes maintain that relationship after they begin using Shared Services in the event unusual questions or issues arise. This model has proven to be very effective at Ohio, Yale, and other Shared Services operations.

5) SSN: What’s it like to work at the YSSC?

RK: We have worked very hard to create a collaborative and open atmosphere. No one, for example, has a private office, and everyone has the same-sized work station. We also have a number of common areas where employees can gather for meetings, social events, and other activities. We really strive to be transparent with each other and our customers. There’s also a very strong commitment to employee training and development at the YSSC. We have monthly “Lunch and Learns” and make an effort to collectively celebrate our successes. Our employees are very proud to be part of the Yale community and that connection is very important to us.

One of the things we do to maintain that connection is have guest speakers from the university come to the center and talk about their role at Yale. The Chair of our Anthropology and Archeology Department, for example, came to the YSSC to speak about his work in South America, which our employees found extremely interesting. And the fact that a university leader made time in his schedule to come to the YSSC to speak to us about his work really let us know that we’re a key part of the university. Whether it was helping him get to South America by buying his plane ticket, purchasing a collection of books for the library, or any of the other services YSSC employees provide, they know they’re working every day to support the mission of the university. All of this has resulted in a talented, enthusiastic team that is really focused on doing the very best for Yale.

6) SSN: Shared Services is still in its infancy in higher education. What are your views on the prospects of Shared Services as a means of sustaining quality and efficiency improvements in higher education?

RK: I’m excited that Yale has been an early adopter of Shared Services. One of the best parts of my job is to interact with universities around the country such as UC Berkeley, Cornell, and Michigan to talk about the Yale experience and share the lessons we’ve learned. I’ve had firsthand experience in seeing how Shared Services can improve operations at a large state government as well as a world-class university. Based on these experiences, I’m bullish on the prospect that Shared Services can deliver significant value in large-scale, decentralized environments like universities.