Welcome to Office of Business Transformation (OBT)
We're a team dedicated to partnering with departments across UC Davis to simplify processes, strengthen collaboration, and drive meaningful change. When your team faces complex challenges or resource limitations, finding the right support can be difficult - that's where we come in.
As internal UC Davis partners, we understand the unique needs, culture, and nuances of our campus—insights external consultants often miss. At the same time, being external to your organization allows us to bring a fresh perspective and objective insight to every project.
Through flexible service agreements, OBT offers a full range of expertise to help you improve how work gets done, build change readiness, and create solutions that last.
What We Offer
- Process Improvement Support
- We work with departments to understand current processes, identify challenges, and help design more efficient ways of working. Our services include documenting workflows, engaging stakeholders, analyzing problems (e.g., root cause analysis), and developing clear procedures. We support process reviews, redesigns, leading practice benchmarking, and creating actionable plans to support successful implementation.
- Organizational Change Management Support
- OBT supports sponsors and project teams with tailored change management consulting grounded in Prosci® best practices. Services include stakeholder analysis, communication planning, training design, resistance planning, leadership coaching, and embedded change advisor support. Our goal: enable smooth transitions, increase adoption, and sustain outcomes across campus initiatives.
- Technical Documentation
- We produce clear, accurate, and user-centered documentation – such as Knowledge Base Articles (KBAs), Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and process guides. This ensures processes are transparent, repeatable, and scalable across teams.
- eLearning Development
- Our instructional design team creates engaging online training programs, microlearning modules, videos, infographics, and animations for campus delivery. We’ll collaborate with your team to adapt existing materials or partner with your subject matter experts to create new content. Additionally, we offer consultation and support to help you determine the most effective way to host and deliver your materials.
- Facilitation
- OBT provides expert-led workshops and sessions tailored to team goals, including Lean Six Sigma training, root-cause analysis, value-stream mapping, and strengths-based coaching. We also host interactive webinars and community gatherings (such as the Lean Community of Practice and LAB Office Hours) to encourage learning, innovation, and continuous improvement. As a neutral facilitator, we guide strategy sessions to brainstorm ideas, set goals, and shape effective strategies.
How It Works
We partner with units through flexible service agreements, often structured as Memoranda of Understanding (MOU). These agreements clearly outline the scope of services, employee effort provided, and mechanism for cost recovery.
Rather than operating on a per-project or hourly billing model, our MOUs establish shared expectations and a simple cost-recovery approach. The arrangement is designed to recoup actual salary and benefit expenses only, with no overhead or profit margin. Costs are typically billed or transferred on a quarterly basis, ensuring transparency and compliance with UC Davis recharge and cost-transfer policies.
Whether you need support for a large-scale initiative or ongoing assistance from our team, we’ll work with you to determine the appropriate level of effort, document it in an MOU, and remain flexible as needs evolve. This approach allows us to provide steady, collaborative support while keeping agreements straightforward.
Sample Pricing
Our agreements are based on a percentage of a full-time equivalent (FTE) at a flat rate for all services. This approach provides a predictable cost and flexibility to scale support as needed. For example, a 20% FTE - ideal for teams with ongoing needs or for managing a large initiative over time – would cost approximately $36,480 for a 12-month agreement.
A few more examples to help you estimate:
- 10% FTE (15-20 hours/month*): $18,240 per year
- 25% FTE (40-45 hours/month*): $45,600 per year
- 50% FTE (80-85 hours/month*): $91,200 per year
*Estimated hours per month are approximate and based on standard full-time hours.
Note: These percentages represent common engagement levels, but time allocations can be customized and broken down further to meet the specific needs of your project.
Connect With Us
Not exactly sure what you’re looking for? No problem – we’re here to help. Whether you’re exploring possibilities or need a hands-on partner to bring your ideas to life, our team is ready to collaborate. Connect with us for an open, no-obligation conversation and discover how we can best support your goals.