Umoja briefs Chief Procurement Officers

The Umoja team briefed Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) last week about exciting changes that are coming to UN procurement practices.

Thirty-five procurement specialists attended the annual, five-day CPO Conference in New York to exchange information and learn from each other and guest speakers. It was a chance for Umoja to reach key procurement stakeholders from Field Missions, Offices Away from Headquarters, Economic Commissions and Tribunals about how the Umoja administrative reform initiative will affect them.

Umoja will make it easier for the UN to purchase the wide range of products and services it needs to carry out its mandates - from helicopters and jeeps for peacekeeping missions to office supplies and construction services for all duty stations.

Umoja team members with UN expertise in procurement described how Umoja business processes and technology will enable faster and more efficient procuring of goods and services. Ian Divers, Paul Holden, and Joanna Porreca of Umoja, who together have decades of UN procurement experience, were able to speak to audience concerns about how Umoja will integrate with current tools and enable flexible workflows.

The Chief Procurement Officers expressed keen interest in the coming changes and showed enthusiasm about contributing to ongoing Umoja development. They were encouraged to explore the new procurement business processes on Umoja NET (www.unumoja.net) and leave their feedback about them.

Umoja NET is an online community where the Umoja team collaborates with UN staff in the creation of new business processes. There are 194 processes now available online for all staff to see and comment on.

If you’re not already an Umoja NET member, visit Umoja’s public website to request an account. Once your registration is confirmed, you can access the Umoja Solution to view presentations on all released processes and give us your feedback.

If you have questions, contact Umoja at (646) 380-0218 or email umoja@un.org.

Originally published on iSeek in English and French on 1 March 2011, New York

Umoja - creating breakthroughs in UN real estate management

The Umoja team recently concluded a two-week workshop on changes that are coming to UN real estate management.

Representative staff from offices away from headquarters and field missions who specialize in central support services attended the New York event, where they previewed the Umoja Solution for managing UN buildings and property.

One participant said it was a “huge breakthrough” to see that complete architectural details, including the measurements of floors, rooms, fixtures and fittings, will be accessible in Umoja, as well as building leases and staff office assignments.

Over the last year, these staff members have been working with Umoja as Subject Matter Experts in re-engineering a wide range of business processes - everything from lease management to garage administration and planning for office moves.

The Umoja Solution will replace current ways of tracking and managing this information which often involves many disconnected databases and unwieldy spreadsheets.

Participants gave their feedback about how the new approach may play out in their respective duty stations. The Umoja Solution takes into account the diverse needs of the UN system. In Nairobi, for example, all UN facilities are in one main campus whereas some peacekeeping missions may have over 100 different lease agreements across a given country.

The Umoja team and its Subject Matter Experts will be incorporating feedback from workshop participants into the ongoing design and construction of the real estate components of Umoja.

To learn more about Umoja visit www.unumoja.org

Originally published on iSeek on Tuesday, 22 February 2011, New York

Umoja - the future is online

Over the holidays and through the first weeks of 2011, the Umoja team has continued to work through the design and review phase of the Umoja solution.

As many of you know, Umoja is the administrative reform initiative which will harmonize systems that handle financial, human and physical resources.

Umoja will enable all of us to do our jobs more quickly and efficiently – whether we work in administration, political affairs, public information or any other discipline.

Working with Subject Matter Experts throughout the Secretariat, Umoja has already identified and re-engineered over 300 business processes in the areas of finance, human resources, supply chain and central support services. The Subject Matter Expert community has expanded to nearly 600 UN staff members who have attended 242 design and review sessions.

Subject Matter Experts and Umoja are analyzing how the UN works today and re-engineering processes into improved “to be” versions for the future. To date, over 200 “to be” processes have been released for review. All staff can see and comment on these processes; presentations about each process are available on Umoja NET, Umoja’s online portal. Log in and get a glimpse of our future way of working.

If you’re not already an Umoja NET member, visit Umoja’s public website to request an account. Once your registration is confirmed, you can access the Umoja Solution to view presentations on all released processes and give us your feedback.

If you have questions, contact Umoja at (212) 963-2120 or email umoja@un.org.

Learn about Umoja today. Preview the future Umoja Solution get involved and help create a more effective United Nations.

The future is online!

Umoja's public website: www.unumoja.org

Umoja NET: www.unumoja.net (members only)

Originally published on iSeek on Tuesday, 15 February 2011, New York

Umoja Times - December 2010 released

In this issue of Umoja Times:

1. End of year message on Umoja's progress by Paul van Essche, Umoja Director
2. Join Umoja online @ Umoja NET

Umoja moves into its new “green home”

As noted in the July 2010 issue of the "Umoja Times", the Umoja team has been on the move since 2007. Some members of the Team have relocated six times over the past 18 months! Thus, after several moves - the most recent of which split the team into different buildings - the Umoja team is settling into its new office space on the 24th floor of the Mobil Building at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue.

Now the team has a work space that truly reflects the Umoja work ethic

• transparency and openess
• cross-functional collaboration
• making the best use of the Organization's resources
• transformation of the best of what "is" into a better "to be"

Umoja' new address:

150 E 42nd Street
24th floor
(between Lexington and 3rd Avenue)

Learn more about Umoja's new "green home" from iSeek:

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New York's newest office facility an example of efficiency and "Greening the UN"

When entering the United Nations' newest office facility in the Mobil Building on East 42nd Street in New York, the first thing you see are long rows of desks lining the corridors. Images from the early days of the UN come to mind.

Since the 1950's, the UN has undergone successive organizational reforms and adapted its office environments to changing working practices. As if to prove the saying "there is nothing new under the sun", the specific needs of the Umoja team have called for the reconstruction of what looks like an office environment of a half-century ago. The design and space layout support highly collaborative and non-linear working methods with constant interaction among staff and allow Umoja to leverage the broad cultural diversity of their team. While meeting the user needs, the design also maximizes space utilization.

It all began when the Facilities Management Services (FMS) in the Department of Management (DM) was approached to find new space for the expanding Umoja team. From several available options, the Mobil building's 24th floor was chosen because of its open plan configuration. Following the efforts of the Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) and the Procurement Division (PD) in DM to secure the lease, on 15 August FMS started to turn the plans into reality. After receiving the keys, the office was constructed and the project fully completed in a record six weeks.

Not only is the new office tailor-made for its users – it also fulfils the goals of "Greening the UN" and follows the General Assembly mandate to maximize the reuse of furniture and fittings in a cost-efficient manner. Carpets, lights, tables and chairs are reused, offering considerable savings to the Organization. Unused work desks dating from 1950s were transported from the Secretariat building to the Mobil building. The new office has also been fitted with items such as telephone booths from the 3rd floor of the Secretariat building, salvaged from disposal initially foreseen during the renovation.

Umoja started moving in on 27 September and within a few days the whole team was on site and operational, thrilled with its new office and fittings. For more pictures of the construction and refurbishing process, please click here.

FMS would like to express a special thanks to all our colleagues from the Department of Safety and Security (DSS), the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT), OLA, PD and Umoja who helped make this challenging project a reality.

A special mention goes to FMS project manager Francisco Solino and to: Steve D'Alessio, Abdual Ben-Farhat, Mario Castro, Claudio Conti, Thomas Cortijo, Aklilu Dawit, Eduardo Diaz Sosa, Preyapan Ekpitakdamrong, Karim Elsaadi, John Finnegan, Robert Fischer, Orville Forbes, Glenn Giron, Linda Gomes, Carl Gonsalves, Juan Guerrero, Steve Jacobs, Milton Kerr, Michael Korsanos, Gerard Lawlor, Carlos Montequin, T.Myint, Sverrir Petursson, Richard Ryan, Claudio Santangelo, Roman Silwowski, Yuvasida Thol and Al Vanegas.

To learn more about Umoja, please click here.

For a map of the UN locations in New York, please click here.

Published on iSeek on Wednesday, 20 October 2010, New York