CAT Purpose

What is the CAT?

The guiding philosophy of the Customer Advisory Team (CAT) is to assist with the development and refinement of the A&FS Financial Information Systems and its sub-systems, policies, and procedures, and to be responsive to the campus community in this process.

The Customer Advisory Team reports to the Vice-Chancellor for Administration and consists of appointed representatives from each school, college, division, and vice chancellor's organization, and members of CAT subcommittees. CAT meetings are open to all interested parties in the campus community.

Members of the campus community may send suggestions for A&FS Financial Information Systems related changes and enhancements to the DaFIS Help Desk. Other suggestions should be sent to their CAT representative. The Customer Advisory Team, through a system of working subcommittees, reviews recommended enhancements and evaluates them with regard to several criteria including the number of users affected, how critical the enhancement is to the campus community, and the amount of time saved if changes were implemented. Each subcommittee evaluates and prioritizes the requested changes and forwards recommendations to the CAT. After review, the CAT may agree to forward the recommendations to the appropriate individual(s) for review and discussion of possible solutions or may return them to the subcommittee for further evaluation.

School, college, division, and vice chancellors' offices may appoint members to the Customer Advisory Team to represent their units for terms of two years. Participation on subcommittees is open to the campus community at large. Announcement of opportunities to participate on subcommittees will be made at the monthly CAT meetings, held every third Thursday from 1:15 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The CAT representative for each unit is responsible for notifying those whom they represent of these opportunities. Should a CAT member move to a position in another unit on campus or leave the CAT, the school, college, division, or vice chancellors' unit he/she represents will appoint a replacement for new term.

A chairperson will be elected by the Customer Advisory Team for a two-year term and may be re-elected. Upon completion of his/her term, the outgoing chair will continue to serve as a member of the CAT for six months to assure a smooth transition and to provide continuity to the CAT's work. Each school, college, division, and vice chancellors' office may, at their own discretion, appoint an additional CAT representative from their unit if their representative is elected chair. The duties of the chair are to schedule and preside over meetings, set agendas, and act as a campus contact for the Customer Advisory Team. The chair, or an appointed delegate, will also participate on campus committees, including the DaFIS Steering Committee, and attend other meetings as requested, representing the CAT and campus community at large. The CAT chair will appoint a vice-chair whose duties include oversight of CAT and subcommittee membership. Subcommittee chairs are appointed by the CAT chair and confirmed by the CAT members.

Customer Advisory Team representatives and subcommittee chairs will attend the monthly CAT meeting. If a representative is unable to attend, he/she will send a substitute to represent their organization or subcommittee. CAT representatives will keep those in the unit they represent informed of the ongoing work of the CAT. CAT representatives will also, by what ever means they choose, develop a system of receiving feedback on various issues from those whom they represent, so that members of the campus community will have an opportunity to impact the decisions and recommendations of the CAT. Subcommittee members who are not representatives are encouraged to attend the monthly CAT meetings but are not required to do so.