OBFS Information Footprint Challenge 2016

WHAT: For six years in a row, OBFS has been participating in an Information Footprint Challenge.
WHEN: The 2016 Information Footprint Challenge ran from October 24 through October 28.
WHERE: Everywhere there’s an OBFS unit.

GOAL: Get the skinniest Information Footprint you can!
HOW: Each OBFS unit purges as much non-record materials as they can.
WINNING Criteria: Unit with the biggest % reduction from last year to this year is the winning unit!
PRIZES: A pizza party, a skinny-foot trophy, and bragging rights!

May the Skinny Foot be with you!

More Details

During the week of the sixth annual Information Footprint Challenge, each OBFS unit was asked to delete old non-record electronic files and documents as well as e-mail messages that don’t support business operations. At the end of the week a “snapshot” was taken of the size of the electronic files directory structures (both shared and home directories) and email accounts of each units’ employees. This info was compared to the snapshot taken at the end of the 2015 Challenge. Since the goal is to decrease each unit’s information footprint by the largest percentage, both large units with lots of employees and smaller units with just a few individuals had an equal chance at success.

New This Year

This year the organizers took a new approach to providing information to the participants before and during the week-long event. To avoid the irony of sending extra emails to all of OBFS - which would increase the information footprint that they were looking to reduce - a special OBFS SharePoint site was set up to share helpful reference materials. All OBFS employees were provided access to the site and during the weeks leading up to the Challenge, a new fact was added to the site each day. These daily facts were designed to provide small pieces of information in a “footprint friendly” manner, helping OBFS employees better understand, prepare for, and get excited about the 2016 Challenge.

Just the Skinny Foot Facts, Ma'am.

You can read through the OBFS Information Footprint Challenge Overview 2016 document if you’re interested in more details about the Challenge.

Results

The organizers want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated. Their support made this year another resounding success. As stated above, this challenge focuses on continuous improvement and sustainability so the winners are based on the total overall year-to-year reduction of the unit’s information footprint.

That being said, many of the OBFS units showed amazing efforts during the actual week of the challenge resulting in a total reduction of more than 151.6 GB of data.

Congratulations to this year’s joint winners:

Enterprise Risk Management!
They reduced their footprint by 62.1% and will receive a one-of-a-kind 2016 Information Footprint Challenge Trophy and a pizza party from the pizza place of their choice.

UIS Business Services!
They reduced their footprint by 6.2% and will also receive a one-of-a-kind 2016 Information Footprint Challenge Trophy and a pizza party from the pizza place of their choice.

This year’s honorable mentions are those units who had a notable reduction during the actual Information Footprint Challenge:
University Payables – 5.9%
Administrative Services (now Business Solutions and Support) – 5.9%
Business Information Systems (part of Business Solutions and Support) – 5.2%
Office of the Assistant Vice President for Business & Finance at Urbana – 2.9%
University Student Financial Services & Cashier Operations – 1.8%
University Sourcing (now Strategic Procurement) – 0.5%
University Accounting & Financial Reporting – 0.3%
University Payroll & Benefits – 0.3%

A special mention goes to the unit who followed the University’s guidelines for disposing of orphaned data when an employee leaves the University which caused them to have a significant reduction in their overall year-to-year information footprint:
Utilities – University Administration – 20.8%

Congratulations to all of OBFS for the hard work they put into making the 2016 Information Footprint Challenge a success.