The Challenge of Managing An Academic Travel Programme

One of the UK’s most respected universities, known for its academic excellence, industry partnerships, and elite sporting achievement faced significant challenges in managing its academic travel programme.

The existing travel process was hindered by a time-consuming purchase order requirement. All travel bookings had to be approved and issued with a purchase order before any reservations could be made. This created long delays and meant that competitively priced fares often became unavailable, resulting in increased travel costs. 

In addition, the University’s online booking rate was well below the sector average, and a single-invoice process for all travel was placing a heavy burden on the Finance team.

Key Travel was appointed as their Travel Management Company to help the University modernise its travel programme. The brief was clear:

  • Accelerate the approval and booking process
  • Increase online adoption and policy compliance
  • Improve financial controls and reporting
  • Strengthen duty of care for staff travelling globally

Our Solution

We worked closely with key stakeholders across the University to redesign the travel and approval process from the ground up.

1. Streamlining the booking process
We removed the requirement for individual purchase orders, allowing travellers to book more flexibly and at the point of best price. This shift to dynamic booking options significantly reduced delays and improved value for money.

2. Simplifying finance administration
The University transitioned from a single invoice approach to consolidated invoicing, dramatically reducing the volume of invoices processed and freeing up Finance team resources.

3. Strengthening risk and traveller support
We implemented our integrated risk management platform, enabling the University to:

  • Track travellers worldwide
  • Assess risks before and during travel
  • Receive real-time alerts and updates
  • Communicate with and assist travellers during emergencies

All of this is underpinned by our 24/7 in-house emergency support service, included as part of our standard offering.

4. Enabling self-service with built-in compliance
We rolled out our proprietary, user-friendly online booking tool to University staff, embedding their travel and risk policy directly into the platform.  Non-compliant bookings were automatically flagged or restricted, while permitted exceptions were routed through an automated approval workflow for review, all within the booking tool itself.

 

The Results

Through a detailed and collaborative approach, the impact of this partnership has been significant:

  • On-contract spend rose from over £1 million (across 3,500 transactions) to more than £3 million (across 14,000+ transactions) within three years.
  • Invoice volume reduced from 4,393 annually to just 24 per year, saving the Finance team over £57,000 in internal processing costs.
  • Online booking adoption improved from 53% to 79%.
  • Duty of care was dramatically enhanced, with real-time tracking, dynamic risk alerts, and 24/7 emergency support for all travellers.

Creating a Ripple Effect Across Campus

The University took a proactive approach to internal engagement, running campus-wide communications, supplier campaigns, and roadshow events to promote the benefits of the new travel programme.  As a result, buy-in across departments has grown, with travellers and bookers alike recognising the value of the improvements.

Moreover, the University has since become a reference point for other institutions, generously sharing insights with procurement and finance professionals across the sector. It has become both a trusted peer advisor and a valued Key Travel partner.

Quote ““The partnership we have established with Key Travel has enhanced our insight into travel expenditure and helped us to ensure our staff can be located and given assistance wherever they are in the world should something go wrong.”

Director of Finance, University Customer