When traveling on University business, booking through travelND’s online Concur system offers many advantages, saysVaibhav Agarwal, director of procurement services.

TravelND (travel.nd.edu) offers users 24/7 access to booking air, hotel and auto reservations, with the University’s special contract pricing built in. Flight options include Southwest Airlines, unavailable on other travel sites. In addition, if you’re stranded while traveling or need to change a reservation, Anthony Travel offers full support of all online bookings.

One of the many advantages to booking in travelND’s Concur system is that the itinerary detail is available to drag-and-drop into an expense report. The site is also mobile enabled, with smart phone apps that allow both booking and expense reporting.

Travelers have a choice of payment options that include the use of FOAPAL (for airline flights only), a University travel card or a personal credit card. Personal rewards such as frequent flyer miles can be stored in your profile and applied to your reservation.

Now available free to all University employees is TripIt Pro, a personal travel assistant that organizes travel, tracks loyalty points and can even send out flight alerts. The next time you log into travelND’s Concur system, look for TripIt on the home page and register. TripIt Pro is also available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry and can be used for personal trips. For more information, visit travel.nd.edu/tripitpro.

While providing clear benefits to those traveling on University business, the system also benefits the University through savings in utilizing contract pricing, in paper and imaging costs, and in ease of auditing, records retention and tracking policy compliance, says Paul Van Dieren, assistant controller for payment and procurement services.

Reference: NDWorks, Vol. 10, No. 6, December 6, 2012