September 28, 2023
From the vice president for administration and finance: Increasing operational excellence through Concur implementation
The Next-Gen K-State strategic plan challenges us to establish a culture of continuous improvement and excellence across operations. This requires streamlining and standardizing business processes and investing in new technologies. Feedback from campus stakeholders indicates our current systems and technologies often prevent us from achieving our goals as a university.
Today, I am pleased to announce that as part of our work toward operational excellence, the university is implementing Concur, a travel and expense management tool, to modernize university travel and procurement card processes. Through Concur, employees can electronically submit travel requests and manage travel receipts. Employees will also have the option to book travel directly through the tool. Additionally, Concur will be used to manage procurement card receipts. This new technology is made possible through the first year investments for strategic plan implementation.
With Concur, university employees will experience the following benefits:
- Simplified business travel reimbursement request process.
- On-the-go capabilities through user-friendly mobile applications.
- Pre-populated expense reports.
- Reduced time spent making travel reservations.
Benefits of using Concur include:
- Unified travel and expense processes.
- Potential to leverage our buying power with travel vendors.
- Elimination of the need to collect, manage and store paper receipts.
- Provided guidance on university travel policies.
- Information about university employees traveling abroad in the event of an emergency.
- Elimination of outdated technology.
A project steering committee and a dedicated project team have been established to oversee the project. Updates regarding the Concur implementation timeline, training and transition process will be made in K-State Today and on the project website.
This is an exciting time at K-State as we improve the fundamental technology and business process infrastructure of the university.
Go 'Cats,
Ethan Erickson
Vice president for administration and finance