2018 Prudential Productivity Award winners announced

The Prudential Productivity Awards—which honor state employees across Florida who develop and implement innovative, cost-saving and efficiency improvements—recently announced its 2018 winners, including three winners from UF.

This year, 170 awards were presented to individuals and teams from throughout the state of Florida for their innovation and productivity improvements. Since 1989, award winners have produced approximately $10 billion in cost savings/avoidance or efficiency gains for Florida taxpayers and businesses.

Learn more about UF’s 2018 Prudential Productivity Award recipients:

MyCah Pleasant, Application Developer Analyst, Information Technology
Plaque Award

Pleasant took the initiative of designing a centralized web-based database while simultaneously integrating it with the public-facing IT service catalog. When designing and developing this database, he took into careful consideration the administrators who’d be using this database on a regular basis and designed the database in such a way that it could be accessed via an intuitive web-based application, making it easy for any credentialed user to add, update or delete information. Once information is updated in this centralized database, it is also updated in real time in the public-facing service catalog. Changes are made immediately, which is vital in the ever-changing world of information technology. Both technical staff and consumers of IT services at UF now have the latest and greatest information at their fingertips, making it much easier to obtain the support needed.

UF Enrollment Management Publication Wizards
Team Members: Renee Buchanan and Pamela Siwy
Plaque Award

The UF Office of Admissions, which has a budget for freshman student recruitment and enrollment, used an outside vendor in 2016 to handle the design and printing of the admissions acceptance package, which is mailed to all newly admitted UF freshmen. The following year, Enrollment Management communicators Buchanan and Siwy voiced that they could do equal, if not better, design work at a cost savings, producing the same caliber and number of printed materials. The total savings was nearly $85,000. The team produced two 24-page booklets (one for general admitted freshman and another for PaCE program-admitted freshman). The significant savings will allow Admissions to use the funds for additional communications or enhanced recruitment travel to bring the finest students to The Gator Nation.

For more information, visit the Prudential Productivity Awards webpage or contact Kenya Williams by email or at (352) 273-1761.