The Staff Team Award for Creativity and Innovation recognizes one group/team per year for excellence in creativity and innovation demonstrated by proposing and/or implementing a new or improved process, methods, systems or services, while encouraging reasonable/calculated risk-taking among their colleagues and/or teams. These efforts should show that they will or have resulted in great efficiency, effectiveness and cost savings through time or money spent while further advancing shared leadership goals.
Criteria:
- Be comprised of at least two or more regular staff members at NIU who are at least 51% time and/or full-time employed temporary staff members at NIU (if a team includes non-NIU team members, monetary awards will be provided to NIU staff members only)
- Have demonstrated the development and/or implementation of ideas that drive the organization, its mission, vision and values forward
- Have demonstrated the questioning of existing assumptions and beliefs; encouragement of others to think of alternative ways to do things or to stop doing things
- Have shown careful consideration of the impact both through implementation and after
- Have demonstrated analysis of constraints and how they were overcome using existing resources (for example, stopping doing something that was no longer contributing to NIU moving forward) and/or generating new resources to advance a project
- Have shared both the actual and/or expected challenges, successes and lessons learned
The team of David Click, Elson Smith, Dan Ihm, Jessica Nunez, Beth Zarek, Joe Talbert, George Nunez, Rachel Xidis, and Len Lennergard have been named the recipients of this year’s Staff Team Award for Creativity and Innovation for their work implementing NIU’s digital parking permit system.
David Click, Elson Smith, Dan Ihm, Jessica Nunez, Beth Zarek, Joe Talbert, George Nunez, Rachel Xidis, and Len Lennergard
NIU’s days of hangtag permits and coin-fed meters have been replaced with a future of License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology and the AIMS Mobile Pay (AMP) system. Responsible for making the recent updates was no easy feat, but this team of individuals managed to seamlessly navigate the process and positively impact the experience of the thousands of students and employees living, learning and working on campus.
“All of those named played a role in the implementation and roll out of these systems that have streamlined and changed how our parking operations staff are managing parking permits and temporary parking,” said Laura Lundelius, director of Campus Services. “These systems have met Parking Services mission to enhance our customers’ experience with innovative technology while also helping us maximize our resources.”
The implementation of these new systems has significantly reduced waste—both environmental and fiscal. By no longer having to replace plastic hangtags on an annual basis, nor use paper to mail permits to offices on campus or to home addresses, NIU is contributing less waste to a landfill. The new systems have also saved money by reallocating time for Parking Service employees to work more efficiently.
“The elimination of physical hang tags and coin operated parking meters has significantly reduced the time that was required to process physical permits and streamlined parking enforcement efforts,” Lundelius said.
Betty La France, professor in the Department of Communication and member of NIU’s Campus Parking Committee, agrees with Lundelius.
“The old parking and permitting process was time-intensive, cost-intensive and had several points of possible confusion,” said La France. “The team did their due diligence in comparing the difference between the significant resource costs of the old system versus the new digitized system–including upstart costs. Furthermore, thorough research was conducted when selecting the best vendor to provide the necessary services and products.”
“I was so impressed by the conversion to a new systems,” continued La France. “It is a shining example of innovation thought about and implemented well! The nominating team was transparent in all phases of this project, and they should be consulted by other teams as a source of best practices.”
