BPO Partnership Travel Expenses: A Shared Journey from Paper to Digital
Reference customer Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Anhalt University of Applied Sciences was founded in 1991 and offers around 8,000 national and international students more than 80 courses of study in 7 departments at its locations in Bernburg (Saale), Dessau-Roßlau and Köthen (Anhalt). The clear concept of Anhalt University of Applied Sciences consistently brings science and innovation together. In addition to the training of students, the focus is on application-oriented research and development. With its technology transfer, it makes a significant contribution to the scientific, technical and economic development of the region. https://www.hs-anhalt.de/
- Industry: Universities, public clients
- Employees: approx. 700
- Productive start 21.11.2018
“Putting the travel expense report in the hands of ICS adminservice was a very good decision. With its service, ICS adminservice has made a valuable contribution to increasing the service of the administration towards our professors and staff. Thanks to the competent use of the university software for calculation and booking by the employees of ICS adminservice, the settlements of business trips can now be realized as quickly as possible. It’s nice to have a partner at our side who thinks along with us, acts proactively and supports us significantly in our steps towards digitalization. Our travelers will receive their refund within a few days of submitting their documents. In the event that there are any ambiguities in the business trip accounting, these are clarified independently with the necessary technical know-how by the colleagues of the ICS adminservice with the travelers and the processes are completed. So far, there has only been positive feedback, which we are very pleased about.”
Andreas Severin, Head of the Department for Personnel Affairs, Permanent Representative of the Head of Administration, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Initial Situation
An employee of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences was entrusted with the processing of the approx. 2,600 travel expense reports per year. The travel expense report was still paper-based. The administration and a large number of inquiries from travelers led to overload. In addition, absences could not be adequately covered and employees sometimes had to wait longer for travel expenses to be paid. In a pilot project with Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, the business travel management system was introduced and established with the system provider Hochschul-Informations-System eG (HIS eG). With this solution, business trips can be applied for digitally via a workflow process and billed almost paperlessly, except for receipts that need to be proven and a supplement.
Project Goal & Project Progress
From the very beginning, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences had the goal of awarding the complete travel expense accounting to an external service provider. This was to relieve the administrative audit tasks involved in the settlement of travel expenses, to secure the process and to provide access to technical and professional know-how in the introduction and development of the HIS SVA (RKA) tool.
ICS adminservice positioned itself very early in the decision-making phase to accompany Anhalt University of Applied Sciences on its way to digital travel expense accounting.
After internal audits, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences decided in 2018 to outsource travel expense reporting to ICS adminservice GmbH by means of private awarding, as it was available as a service partner who could provide the necessary competencies and capacities.
As early as 2017, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences held a workshop with explanations of the ERP system and booking system for ICS adminservice employees. In a subsequent 6-month pilot project, the joint introduction of HIS SVA (RKA) took place. In intensive cooperation, the existing processes were analysed and designed for a takeover, taking into account special features, internal regulations and the university’s wishes. ICS adminservice already provided services in the area of travel expense accounting in this test phase.
Finally, the final go-live of the BPO service for travel expense accounting in accordance with the Federal Travel Expenses Act took place in November 2018. Since then, ICS adminservice has been accompanying the gradual changeover from analogue to paperless – digital – travel expense accounting. Travellers at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences are increasingly applying for their business trip and travel expense accounting online via the web portal of the ERP system used by HIS eG.
Solution and Benefits
With the Travel Expense Accounting service, ICS adminservice takes over the review and accounting of the travel documents and accounting receipts of all domestic and international trips of Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, including the booking of the costs in the booking system of HIS eG. The team accesses the ERP system of Anhalt University of Applied Sciences via a secure VPN connection. Fixed contact persons are available to travellers directly by telephone and e-mail for questions in the processing of business trip expenses.
Through the close cooperation with ICS adminservice, many university-specific requirements could be realized:
- Relief from administrative audit tasks in the settlement of travel expenses
- Ensuring personnel availability and long-term optimal regular operation
- Ensuring legally compliant billing and a high quality standard at all times
- Timely and faster reimbursement of travel expenses
- Improved support for travelers (accessibility / response time)
- Constant perfection and further development of the ERP system of HIS eG through regular feedback from ICS adminservice
- Acquisition of a partner for the implementation of digital transformation in expense reporting
- Cost transparency per trip (pay per use)
Are you thinking about outsourcing and digitization in expense accounting or accounting? Feel free to exchange ideas with our experts.
Image Credit: Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
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