For new NUS staff, their first touchpoint with the University starts when they receive an NUSNET-ID (ID) which is pre-created and a password slip sent to their department.
With Organisational Excellence (OE) and the professionalisation of corporate functions happening on the ground, rotating staff will require new IDs and email addresses that reflect the current departments, new Skype numbers and a re-registration for the Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).
These various pain points inspired the NUS IT team to relook at the ID lifecycle. The existing format has been around for three decades, with systems that depend on the “as-is” state. After reviewing the current process, the project team brainstormed a re-engineered process flow to improve the ID provisioning and ensure that this new format will not affect any existing systems. The staff responsible for the existing systems were also rallied to help make any required changes and support the new ID format.
Tan Khon Han, Initiative Owner (IO) and Senior Associate Director at NUS IT shared that the project took a few months to conceptualise before the design, development, testing, implementation and communication phases, which took six months to complete. “With the new ID provisioning process, new staff is able to choose their preferred NUSNET-ID and password in a secured and seamless manner even before joining the University. The new ID format is more personalised and flexible, making it easy for future department transfers without the hassle of managing account transitions,” Khon Han said.
With the elimination of the hardcopy password slip and the need to re-register the 2FA for transferring staff, turnaround time was improved. The need for transferring emails and files during staff movement was also eradicated. This resulted in annual manpower savings of 950 days for staff transfer and 750 days for staff onboarding.
Hinsline Chandra, Co-IO and Principal Systems Analyst observed that staying open to change was crucial in re-engineering a business process that has been around for decades. “We are appreciative of the strong support received from both management and colleagues on the ground,” he expressed.
The new NUSNET-ID format is currently being rolled out to the staff community in phases, with the aim of onboarding all 12,000 staff to the new NUS-ID in due course.
The NUSNET-ID team (from left): Kusumakar Pankaj, Lead Systems Engineer (NUS IT); Rachel Ang, Senior Manager (NUS IT); Tan Khon Han, Senior Associate Director (NUS IT); Hinsline Chandra, Principal Systems Analyst (NUS IT)
OE is a strategic initiative undertaken by the University to develop best practices for an efficient and world-class administration to better support NUS’ Vision and Mission. It aims to bring about improved work processes and policies as well as create opportunities for talent development and growth.