travel procurement programme at once, rather than the more common phased roll-out.
Prior to 2010, The University of Nottingham ran a small corporate card programme for senior managers, resulting in around 30 cardholders. Now the AirPlus Corporate Card is available to all its 6,700 UK-based employees who need to travel on business and reclaim expenses.
Michael Domokos, Project Manager, was seconded from the University’s Information Services Department to work on the project. “The programme was implemented over a six month period and rolled out following a six week pilot in the Faculty of Engineering. The purpose of the pilot was to confirm the processes and the technology configuration post testing, and to ensure that we fully understood the impact of the deployment plan.”
“The pilot confirmed what a massive change going from paper-based to automated processes would be. We implemented a full change management programme to communicate why The University of Nottingham was making these changes. This was imperative for the success of the project and to secure stakeholder buy-in.”
AirPlus solution deployed AirPlus Corporate and Lodge card expenditure is imported on a daily basis into the online expense tool, thereby making it easier for the user to reconcile expenses.
Benefits to the University Harrison and Domokos are now examining the data coming in from AirPlus and other providers to quantify the savings achieved.
“We’ve achieved 77% online adoption, compared to the UK average of 44%” says Jeannette. “We believe we are the first HE Institution to introduce an online booking tool and to mandate through one supplier. Travellers are now able to use the AirPlus card to settle budget airline costs, so we are saving on air fares, booking fees and cutting process costs.”
AirPlus’ detailed management information (MI) brings new transparency to how many of the Universities 6,700 people are travelling, to where, and when.
The next stage of the project is to harness the enhanced data received from AirPlus to fulfil duty of care and to leverage the University’s spend more effectively.
As Harrison also confirms, the data brings clarity to
emissions output too. “Now we can see each trip’s emissions, and shortly we will be able to provide a comparison of emissions between rail and air travel on specific trips.”
Lessons learned One of the learning points to emerge from this project is the need for in-depth understanding amongst buyers and suppliers of who and what they are dealing with.
Domokos says “although HE procurement teams need to have travel knowledge, it’s important that suppliers understand the HE sector and each other too. All our suppliers have learned from working with us”.
AirPlus Key Account Manager Patsy Adjei agrees. “The challenge for us was to collaborate with two new suppliers and so many stakeholders.”
“The academic sector is very thorough. We couldn’t move forward until all the processes were clear and everything had been effectively communicated”
Harrison believes senior management buy-in is essential “from the earliest stages in the process, although it is just as important to ensure that adequate resources are provided across the Institution to implement such a cultural change.”
Summary – benefits of AirPlus’ solution > Greater transparency of spend > Better control > Future spend leverage – Richer data will facilitate effective supplier negotiations
> Process cost savings – Freed up staff time
> Improved user experience
HE travel trends > Varying levels of spend > High levels of un-managed spend > Data quality often poor > Added complexity of up to 50% of business travel spend being funded by research projects
For more information on AirPlus’ products and services, please contact us directly at: AirPlus International Ltd T +44 (0) 20 8994 4725 F +44 (0) 20 8987 6113
london@airplus.com www.airplus.com
AirPlus International is the world’s largest issuer of Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP).
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