Innovative solutions to cost-savings: How this unit got started

McMaster University and the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) have maintained a solid financial footing, but proactively finding efficiencies and cost-savings is a commitment that can be shared by everyone.

To support staff in this endeavour, FHS launched a new web hub that provides links to several services that are offered by preferred vendors, including some that are discounted. Some products like Endnote and Microsoft Copilot, are approved for use by the university and free to employees and students within the faculty.

The Computer Services Unit (CSU) saw great success in finding cost-savings when they undertook efforts. We spoke with Tracy Mestdagh, director of CSU, and Jaclyn Clark, the team’s operations manager, about their efforts to find savings, how they got started and the things they learned along the way.

You’ve been able to find cost savings within CSU. How did that process start?

Mestdagh: When I stepped into this role almost four years ago, we started to examine all our costs. Because we were all still working remote at the time, an easy one that we started looking at was the cost of phones. We decided to cancel the majority of our landlines and switch everyone to mobile phones. We were able to get a deal on plans because McMaster University just signed a vendor agreement with Rogers.

We went from 30-ish landlines to five. We have now moved most of those landlines to  a softphone, which provides the functionality of a traditional landline on a computer or mobile device.

Clark: We also found savings beyond just telecom. We looked at every single contract and terminated some and renegotiated others. Another big cost-saving measure came from moving everything to SharePoint. We were hosting space and backups for the entire Faculty, but we were able to move that service to SharePoint which is at no cost to us. So, that was a significant savings as well.

What advice would you have for those embarking on contract negotiations?

Mestdagh: One thing we do is try to negotiate long-term contracts. So rather than paying every year, we negotiate for three to five years. The reason that’s advantageous is you get fixed pricing and you’re guaranteed that price for several years as opposed to being at the mercy of price changes year after year. This way you can budget.

In the first few years, Jaclyn and I were challenging vendor contracts. Now, all CSU managers are taking this on themselves and are aggressively negotiating with vendors. People understand they need to do their part to find solutions in light of financial constraints.

You’ve talked about renegotiating and examining contracts. Were there any other learnings you found while looking for cost savings?

Clark: The department previously had multiple PCards [purchasing cards], which made it difficult to track purchases and budget accordingly. To streamline the process, we reduced the number of PCards to just one, with a backup card in case of emergencies. This change required purchases to be run by the cardholder, improving tracking and budgeting.

Doing this led to the discovery of subscriptions and services that were no longer necessary, resulting in even further savings.

If any of the other managers need to purchase something, they know to send me an invoice and explain why the purchase is necessary. Our processes and workflows are now more streamlined because everyone knows what’s expected, and that just helps us in the long run.

Aside from finding savings, has this process resulted in any other improvements?

Mestdagh: As we navigated this process, we created a comprehensive spreadsheet that Jaclyn and I share, allowing us to look at on any day and see our budget. We track everything: phones, equipment replacement, vendor contracts, etc. It makes budgeting much easier and allows us to track our budget in real-time. As soon as we renegotiate a contract, for example, we can go into the spreadsheet, make adjustments and instantly see the benefits.

These financial changes allowed for better transparency across CSU. Staff know exactly what’s expected, they know where we stand and can answer any question. It brings fairness and equity.

We also saw a morale boost because we instituted a policy where everyone on staff will get a new phone every three years and a new laptop every four. This has resulted in fewer broken devices. The best part is this is all built into our budget model so equipment replacements is just no longer a concern.

Clark: As I said, our processes have just become streamlined. All the work we put into negotiating and cost saving is now baring fruit. It can be a lot of work, for sure, but we’re better for it now.