Business Travel at the University of Adelaide

In May 2007, the University of Adelaide’s Vice Chancellor’s Committee (VCC) approved the commencement of a project aimed at enhancing the manner in which travel and entertainment is managed within the University as the first stage of a wider Procurement Improvement Project.

Travel & Entertainment was selected as the first
commodity group as it:

• is a critical enabling strategy to support staff,
• as previously utilised a purchase card in limited capacity,
• is currently significantly paper based and administratively burdensome for booking and approval and therefore could benefit the most from the improved use of technology,
• has a significant annual spend, and
• as a large number of low value transactions.

Aims

To meet the approved project aims, since May 2007 the University has:

1. Undertaken a detailed analysis of current travel practices and transactions within the University and worked with Faculties/Divisions to identify opportunities for the wider adoption of efficiency delivering tools such as on-line travel booking systems for domestic travel, wider utilisation of T&E Cards and an expense management system for the approval and acquittal of travel and related expenses.  


2. Acquired a leading on-line travel booking tool. Whilst the initial use of this tool is focussed on supporting domestic travel it is planned that this tool will also be utilised to support some commonly utilised international routes into the future.


3. Reviewed its current domestic travel vendor arrangements in relation to air, accommodation and car hire.

Arrangements

In terms of air travel, the University has negotiated corporate arrangements with all airlines flying domestically in Australia that will ensure a traveller will never pay more than the relevant fares publicly available and in many cases will pay less.

In terms of accommodation, arrangements have been established to enable University travellers to access discounted rates across a wide range of hotel chains in capital cities and other major centres and to confirm room availability at the time of booking.

In terms of car hire, University travellers will have access to Avis, Thrifty and Europcar discounted rates.  The University has also reviewed its current international travel vendor arrangements in relation to air, accommodation and car hire aimed at ensuring they are best positioned to provide quality services and competitive pricing.

4. Selected the ANZ Visa program as its corporate credit card provider which will provide much greater levels of customer support and merchant acceptability.


5. Acquired a leading Expense Management System which is widely utilised by other Universities and includes modules for requesting approval for travel and acquitting travel expenses. 


6. Benchmarked other leading Australian Universities travel policies and developed a proposed process delivery model and new electronic travel request process. 


7. Acquired an on-line training tool that will be a critical component in the implementation of the new travel and entertainment tools. It is intended that these new solutions will be implemented from late 2007 / early 2008. 

Any queries in relation to the Travel & Entertainment Project can be directed to the Corporate Credt Card & Travel Services Support Desk or by telephone (08) 8303 3330 (33330 internal)