Success Story
How VCU School of Medicine Simplified a Complex Faculty Contracting Process
Academic Medical Center
What happens when faculty contracting spans multiple systems, 20+ contract variations, and data that directly affects payroll? This case study explores how VCU School of Medicine partnered with Tru and Anaplan to replace a fragmented, manual process with a single centralized platform — improving accuracy, reducing back-and-forth, and giving every team clear visibility from data collection to signed contract.
Industry
Academic Medical Center
Platform
Anaplan
Use Case
Faculty Contracting
Connect With an Expert
Before Tru
Faculty contracting at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine is inherently complex. The School of Medicine operates within a broader university structure while also interacting with a separate practice plan and health system. As a result, faculty compensation and employment data originate from multiple systems.
Each year, that data must be consolidated into a single contract for every faculty member. Requirements vary based on tenure status, appointment type, and funding structure, resulting in more than 20 contract variations.
Over time, the process shifted from paper to digital, but remained highly manual. Teams relied on spreadsheets, email, and repeated reviews to reconcile data across sources, making it difficult to maintain consistency or trace where issues originated.
“When the same data is being handled in multiple places, it’s very easy for things to get out of sync.”
Because contract data feeds directly into payroll, errors could affect compensation.
Why Tru and Anaplan
VCU School of Medicine sought a way to bring structure and consistency to its faculty contracting process while extending its use of Anaplan beyond budgeting. The goal was to create a single system where data could be consolidated, reviewed, and used to generate contracts.
VCU Partnered with Tru Consulting
VCU School of Medicine partnered with Tru Consulting to redesign its faculty contracting process and build a centralized, system-driven approach.
Together, the teams:
- Brought data from university systems and the practice plan into one place
- Eliminated duplicate files and manual re-entry across departments
- Introduced a structured workflow with department-level review and attestation
- Implemented automated logic to determine contract types and templates
- Enabled contract generation and routing through DocuSign
“It gave us one place to review everything instead of chasing spreadsheets and emails.”
The Impact
Improved accuracy:
Errors — especially those affecting payroll — were reduced, and when issues did occur, they could be identified and corrected at the source.
Faster contract generation:
Contracts can now be generated in batches using validated data, eliminating the need to sort spreadsheets or manually select templates.
Greater visibility:
Teams can track progress across the entire cycle in one place, making it easier to see what’s complete and where follow-up is needed.
More efficient workflows:
Centralized data and fewer manual handoffs reduce back-and-forth communication and keep the process moving.
Consistent processes across departments:
A shared system and standardized workflow reduce variation and improve coordination across teams.
“We have greater transparency, faster collaboration, and a strategic edge that allows us to focus less on chasing numbers and more on shaping the future of our campus.”
What’s Changed
Today, VCU School of Medicine operates with a more consistent and transparent contracting process. Teams have greater visibility into data, clearer ownership of reviews, and a more efficient path from data collection to contract generation.
“Now we can see where something went wrong and fix it at the source.”
Ready to Do the Same?
Tru Consulting helps institutions replace manual processes with connected, scalable systems. As an Anaplan implementation partner, the team works with higher education institutions to bring structure, accuracy, and visibility to complex operations.