General Discussions

  • 1.  Routing

    RISING STAR CONTRIBUTOR
    Posted 12-15-2021 15:56
    How do campuses that use Cayuse for their routing (approvals from PI, Chair, Dean, etc.) like it? Prior to Cayuse, how was your approval routing done?

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    Jonathan Lew
    ERA Officer
    University of California, Irvine
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  • 2.  RE: Routing

    SUPERSTAR CONTRIBUTOR
    Posted 12-16-2021 06:12
    Before Cayuse, routing here was really more of an announcement to the stakeholders that a proposal was forthcoming, so it happened a) on paper, and b) very early in the process.  I wasn't ok with either one ;)  So, now we use Cayuse for routing, it happens late in the process when there's actually something to review, and there's no paper.

    I like it a lot.  No one (lately) has had any trouble figuring out what they should do to review.  Now and again, I get good questions from Chairs and Deans about the proposal.  It's fast.  It has almost-but-not-quite solved the problem of Business Managers meddling in proposals, changing budgets, etc....

    Downsides - and they're minor.  The "notice to campus" thing has been surprisingly important to the campus stakeholders and I have not figured out an easy way to make that happen.  Also, everyone in the routing chain gets the email saying "there's something to approve" at the same time.  But if someone higher up in the chain approves first, the others are locked out.  In the early days of having Cayuse, I accidentally did that once.  I needed to approve something eventually, right?  So I just did that while I was in the record for something else - thereby locking out the PI, Chair, and Dean.  Whoops.  It's an easy fix when that happens, but it's a bit of an annoyance.

    A

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    Andrea Buford
    Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
    Oakland University
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  • 3.  RE: Routing

    STAR CONTRIBUTOR
    Posted 12-16-2021 06:53
    Jonathan,

    Honestly, that is primarily what we've used it for historically.  I'll admit, I was a bit surprised when I came here and found Cayuse being used since most of our submissions are non-federal sponsors.  But everyone loved it for the routing purposes alone. It's still very useful for that.

    Prior to Cayuse, they walked things around campus, which had its challenges. Our office has been on the edge of campus for some time, so it was less than convenient.  And of course they had to drop things off and then usually go back and pick them up later.

    Please don't ask if Cayuse routing means the approvers actually read everything.  That's another issue, and it was the same with paper forms and wet signatures.

    Bonus story for you from a previous institution:  One of our colleges often had students walk proposals over to us.  They didn't always understand deadline pressures.  I can't tell you how many times our proposals stopped for ice cream along the way over to us.

    Pam

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    Pamela Vargas
    Director, Research & Grant Development
    Southeast Missouri State University
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  • 4.  RE: Routing

    TEAM CAYUSE
    Posted 12-16-2021 11:28
    That bonus story made me sincerely lol, Pam. I pictured like photos of Flat Stanley's travels, but it's a proposal with a sundae.

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    Simon Helton
    He/him
    Community Manager
    Cayuse
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  • 5.  RE: Routing

    SUPERSTAR CONTRIBUTOR
    Posted 12-17-2021 05:25
    Well, if the proposals stop for ice cream, they should at the very least bring you some ;)

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    Andrea Buford
    Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
    Oakland University
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  • 6.  RE: Routing

    STAR CONTRIBUTOR
    Posted 12-17-2021 06:24
    Seriously, Andrea!  Alas, they did not.

    Have a great weekend, everyone!

    Pam

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    Pamela Vargas
    Director, Research & Grant Development
    Southeast Missouri State University
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  • 7.  RE: Routing

    Posted 12-16-2021 07:47
    Hi Johnathan,
    I have used the routing at a former institution and we are launching it, along with Cayuse Proposals, at LMU.
    I love it.  At LMU we were using AdobeSign, which got the job done.  However, it requires so much manual processing, in terms of data collection for reports, where we are tracking information about submissions/awards/declines in unrelated spreadsheets, word of mouth, memory... Alternatively, Cayuse has all of that data in one place and reporting functionality.
    For Deans, Chairs, and PIs they too can run reports in Cayuse (this might require single sign on) to see all the grants that they have approved for the school, department or themselves.  This is something that really excites the Deans & Chairs.
    The routing also allows you to add someone to the approval chain, if they were inadvertently forgotten. For AdobeSign we would need to reconfigure and relaunch the package for routing when there were any changes. Cayuse will allow someone to retract approval send it back to the PI for changes, then reroute.
    So far, the consensus on campus has been favorable.
    I hope this is helpful,
    Angie

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    Angela Rochat
    Executive Director of Research
    Loyola Marymount University
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  • 8.  RE: Routing

    RISING STAR CONTRIBUTOR
    Posted 12-16-2021 09:01
    Hi Jonathan,

    Before Cayuse, Lamar University has a paper system in place. Completely manual. We had an internal routing sheet that the PI walked around to each person for their approving signature. It was tedious and time consuming, in the sense if the approvers (Deans, Dept. Chairs, etc.) were unavailable. Since Cayuse, the process is much quicker. Our office actually initiates the routing. This way we can make sure all required approvers are in the routing chain. This process runs smoothly as our PI's know we will take care of the routing for them.

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    Beverly Kemp
    eRA Research Coordinator
    Lamar University
    Beaumont 77710
    409-880-7670
    brkemp@lamar.edu
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  • 9.  RE: Routing

    Posted 12-16-2021 12:50
    We have recently adapted routing through Cayuse vs. a manual form.  Compared to the previous process it is a much needed improvement.  Getting everyone on board with the process has been/continues to be a bit bumpy.

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    DJ Swepston
    Director of Grants and Contracts Pre-Award Administration
    Oklahoma State University-Center for Health Sciences
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