UA Travel Project Update

In May 2017, a University of Alaska Travel and Expense Program assessment was conducted by Huron Consultants. They completed interviews with key stakeholders, representing staff and faculty from across the three main campus units, to assess the current travel program and identify optimization and enhancement opportunities.

Key findings and observations: The current university travel system is no longer sustainable from a technological perspective, and must be replaced. Upgrades and enhancements are no longer supported by Banner (Ellucian), and must be replaced to avoid the risks of trying to maintain it without the ability to upgrade.

• Travel policies, processes and procedures need to be streamlined to create the best overall experience for travelers, department/unit administrators and the institution.
• The system does not meet all of the needs of University of Alaska business travelers. It provides expense reimbursement but no support for travel planning or tools for the traveler's convenience.
• Over 150 key stakeholders engaged in the needs assessment, analysis and selection of Concur Travel & Expense System (Concur), or implementation processes.

The new Concur travel program serves a variety of needs. The convenience of streamlined booking, recording expenses, and reimbursement, as well as mobile apps to support them, were incentives for choosing Concur over other options. It also integrates well with third-party travel vendors.

For specific background details on the travel streamlining recommendations and the integrated travel solution discovery process, see the Project Implementation Groups guiding documents.

How is Concur being rolled out? The university is scheduled to roll out the system incrementally rather than all-at-once. After the university completes the steps to make the system production-ready, a very small set of pilot users representing all campuses and statewide will have initial access to the production system.

See the status, travel project activity and projected completion below.

• Complete: Contract with Concur was finalized - Done
• Complete: Formed project implementation and focus groups - Done
• On-going: Project implementation and focus groups meetings - On-going
• In-Process: Define improved business process and rewrite policy and regulations based on travel project group recommendations - September 2018
• In-Process: System configuration and integration, testing, and technical training - September 2018
• Upcoming: Travel Card Integration Technical Testing - September 2018
• Upcoming: Concur Testing - Implementation Group - October 2018
• Upcoming: Concur Testing - Focus Group - October 2018
• Upcoming: Identify Pilot Participation - Pilot departments will be identified by each main campus and statewide - October 2018
• Upcoming: Rollout of updated travel policy and regulations - October 2018
• Upcoming: Unit Travel Coordinators - Training and implementation of travel booking tool and expense tool - November 2018
• Upcoming: Pilot - Training and implement travel booking tool and expense tool with the pilot departments November 2018 through - January 2019
• Upcoming: All Users - Concur training and phased implementation for use of travel booking tool and expense tool. Travel booked by users before moving over to Concur will be completed through the original process. - January 2019 through March 2019
• Upcoming: User Training Sessions - On-going

Sign up for bi-weekly updates regarding Concur System updates and features To receive updates about the travel project please subscribe to the project listserve.

Download a PDF of this announcement.

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