As part of Memorial’s ongoing efforts to improve services through modernization, the university is at the early stages of procuring and implementing a travel and expense claim system.

Travel claims processing volume is significant, with nearly 800 claims processed on average each month across Memorial. The system is currently manual, which can result in reimbursement delays due to missing information or processing errors and places a significant demand on administrative resources. It is a source of considerable dissatisfaction among both travelers and administrative staff involved in processing travel and expense claims.

Memorial is investing in software to automate the entire travel and expense lifecycle and will soon issue a request for proposals (RFP) for this software.

The implementation of such a system has been suggested multiple times by members of the university community as a process improvement that would benefit the institution as a whole. This is expected to improve productivity and morale for all involved, including student and employee travelers, unit administrators and financial services employees. In addition, analytics from a new system are expected to provide greater insight into patterns that could be leveraged for potential future cost savings (i.e., explore contract pricing for hotels).

It is anticipated the RFP will be posted in the coming weeks. More information will be shared with the university community as the project progresses. This project is a collaborative effort involving the newly established Transformation Office, the Office of the Chief Information Officer and the Office of the Associate Vice-President (Finance) and Chief Financial Officer.