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TRAVEL @ STATE

Great Changes Coming for Michigan State's Travel Process


Current Travel Process at Michigan State

It is 3:00 pm on a Thursday. Scrolling your in-box, you see your Assistant Dean sent you an email stating that you need to go to a conference in Tulsa. In two weeks. Time is of the essence and you know there is so much to cross off the list before you can leave. A pre-trip authorization needs to be filled out and approved, flight and hotel must be booked, and you must find your receipt folder. Just thinking about how much paper and time is involved in going to a three-day conference is making you wonder if it is worth the effort. If only there was a better end-to-end travel experience at Michigan State.

Upgraded Travel Experience is Coming

By year’s end, rushing to find your Budget Officer and Chairperson to retrieve their signatures for a pre-trip will be a thing of the past. It will no longer be a hassle to book travel, having to go to multiple websites trying to book airfare, hotel, and a rental vehicle. In less than six months, approvals, bookings, and expense reports will all be in one place.

Travel at State is implementing Concur, an end-to-end travel and expense management tool that will allow travelers to book travel, create pre-trip authorizations and expense reports in one solution. Travel at State wants to provide you, travelers and travel administrators, with a better end-to-end travel experience.

Improved Travel Experience
Upgrade Your Travel Experience

Through Concur functionality, travelers and travel arrangers will experience a seamless process. When you receive that email about a short notice business trip, there will be no need to be frantic about looking for liquid signatures. Once you complete your pre-trip request (authorization) and submit, Concur’s automated workflow notifies your supervisor that your pre-trip needs approval.

Receipt management will also become simpler with Concur. Not only can you scan receipts as you do today, photos can be taken on the Concur mobile app, or if booked through the MSU Travel Program and Concur partners, e-receipts are generated. That means no more worrying about saving receipts in a folder, pocket, or envelope so they will not be lost.

Concur was chosen because it was the best way to provide quicker, and more efficient, travel experiences. The items described today are only a few of the benefits of implementing the solution. As the official rollout day approaches, more benefits will be announced. One event is coming up soon...

You Can Learn More

On February 6, 2019, University faculty and staff are invited to a special Sneak Peek of the new MSU Travel and Expense Solution, powered by Concur. You have the opportunity to attend the session that best fits in your schedule. There are three two-hour sessions: 8:30am - 10:30am, 12pm - 2pm, or 4:30pm - 6:30pm. In each session, the Travel at State Project Team will preview the new travel solution powered by Concur. To register for your session, log into EBS, go to My Career and Training, and search for “Travel Fair 2019”. If you have any questions you can reach out to TravelatStateProject@ctlr.msu.edu.