The Operational Excellence (OpEx) Advancement Program is a campus initiative to incubate and accelerate projects to strengthen financial controls, streamline and simplify processes, and enhance administrative services for UW–Madison.
The OpEx Advancement Program does this in a unique way by bringing together cross-functional working groups to participate in future-state design and problem-solving and develop recommendations to advance these projects. Led by executives from across UW–Madison in consultation with an advisory committee composed of over 40 campus stakeholders—including academic, staff, and research representation, along with representatives from Shared Governance groups—the OpEx Advancement Program is focusing on three incubation initiatives:
- Co-designing a potential future operating model focused on human resource and finance functions in partnership with three prototype units: the School of Business, College of Engineering, and School of Veterinary Medicine. The goal is to better align authority, accountability, and responsibility between central and distributed units, strengthen financial management, and improve the service experience for faculty and staff.
- Developing an Enterprise Risk Management program aligned with the University’s mission and strategic goals. This includes establishing clear governance and building a framework for identifying, assessing, and managing institutional risks.
- Focusing on efficiency and effectiveness across several administrative areas, including travel and expense audit, position management, and exploration of enabling AI technology in key administrative policy and process areas to simplify work for faculty and staff while enhancing the performance and capacity of central teams.
Each project team during the current incubation phase will propose a design and roadmap for change to help inform go/no-go decisions made by the OpEx Advancement Program Executive Committee throughout spring 2026. Based on this review process, teams will then be asked to further advance designs or to begin implementation of their project pilot.
Major campus initiatives can be difficult to wrap your head around. So, we reached out to Emily Beach, Communications Director for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, to learn a little more about the OpEx Advancement Program.
Beach says it is important to note that the OpEx Advancement Program is really “a suite of projects, all with different impacts and timelines.” None of them are operational at the moment, as working groups for each project develop recommendations, revise with input from the Advisory Committee and campus engagements, and then go through a go/no-go decision point with the program’s Executive Committee. But even then, Beach says, “projects that are approved to move forward will have an implementation process that will factor in stakeholder feedback.”
When looking at the different OpEx Advancement projects, Beach anticipates “changes to travel and expenses reporting will likely have the most wide-ranging impacts on Academic Staff, since it is a process so many employees engage with. But the degree of impact will depend on the changes implemented, all of which will be communicated and supported with training and clear processes.” And even though AI is on everyone’s minds, Beach says that working groups are looking at “a few potential AI use cases that are limited in scope.”
A good way to understand the role of the OpEx Advancement Program, Beach notes, is as one program supporting how finance and administrative services can continue to “cultivate a culture of excellence to ensure a resilient future,” which directly supports the recently announced Campus Strategic Framework.
To learn more about the OpEx Advancement Program, look to these key resources:
- UW–Madison OpEx Advancement Program page
- Informational Sessions at Campus Events
- 4/23 – 8:00 am–12:00 pm @ UW–Madison Showcase
- 4/29 – 9:00 am–10:30 am @ Financial Management Meeting
- Virtual Deep Dive Sessions
- 5/5 – 11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Operating Model Prototype (Teams Link)
- 5/18 – 10:00 am – 11:00 am: Position Management (Teams Link)
- 5/21 – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Travel & Expense Audit (Teams Link)
In addition, look for updates at Academic Staff Assembly meetings or reach out to your ASA Representative for more information.