The Challenge of Managing An Academic Travel Program

One of our University customers had developed a strong reputation for excellence in teaching and research, with strong links to business, and is widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading universities for high sporting achievement.

When Key Travel initially won the account, the University was entrenched in a slow Purchase Order (PO) process for travel that restricted the fares available to them. All travel requisitions required sign-off and a PO, before travellers could even think about their trip.  Costs were escalating as a result, as high value fares were increasingly unavailable closer to the actual trip dates.

The University had a low online booking rate compared to the sector average and a single invoice process which was proving cumbersome for their Finance team.

We were tasked to review and enhance their travel approval and invoicing processes and to drive up their online adoption, on-contract spend and policy compliance. We were also asked to improve their duty of care program.

The Solution of Managing An Academic Travel Program

Key Travel worked with the University to remove the use of purchase orders, speeding up the booking process and enabling the University to book dynamically priced travel options quickly rather than waiting for purchase orders to be authorised which often resulted in higher fares. We also transitioned the university from single invoice to consolidated invoicing, to reduce the number of invoices processed each month.

Additionally, we migrated the University to our holistic risk management platform which provides traveller tracking, destination risk assessments and dynamic risk alerts pre-trip and in-trip, and the ability to communicate and assist travellers in need backed up by our 24/7 inhouse emergency and crisis support service (provided free of charge as an inclusive service).

Finally, we launched our online booking system, empowering University staff to book their own travel through an easy-to-use process. To maximise policy compliance, we embedded the University’s travel and risk policy into the booking tool so that non-compliant requests were prohibited and flagged while permitted exceptions were sent for approval through an automated booking approval workflow which was integrated in the tool.

The Results of Managing An Academic Travel Program

Through a detailed and collaborative approach, the University and Key Travel were able to:

  • Increase on-contract travel expenditure over 3 years from 3,513 transactions and an on-contract spend of £1,111,293 to 14,381 transactions and an on-contract spend of £3,052,371.
  • Reduce the number of invoices received by the Finance team from 4,393 annually for to 24 per year, achieving an internal processing cost saving of £57,100.
  • Improve online adoption over 3 years from 53% to 79%.
  • Improve duty of care to travellers by being able to track employees travelling on University business across the globe and providing risk management tools and 24/7 emergency support.

Innovation In Practice

The University has shared the successes outlined here across their campus, using internal communications, supplier marcoms campaigns and by inviting stakeholders to a series of roadshow events and workshops.

Proactively targeting and sharing information across the University has significantly improved end user experience and engagement. Travelers and bookers, across all departments have seen for themselves, the benefits to the University of the travel program.

The University has also actively acted as a point of reference for other Universities sharing feedback with other Procurement and Finance departments, through calls, emails, meetings and on-site visits, and has become a highly trusted advisor in the sector and a true Key Travel partner.

Quote ““The partnership we have established with Key Travel has enhanced our insight into travel expenditure and helped us to ensure our staff can be located and given assistance wherever they are in the world should something go wrong.”

Director of Finance, University Customer