SunGard Higher Education’s Banner Travel and Expense Management Solution Helps Deliver Cost Savings, Convenience and Improved Service

  

 

MALVERN, Pa, April 27, 2010 — Institutions can reduce the cost of processing expense reimbursements and improve the speed and accuracy of authorizing and paying business travel with help from SunGard Higher Education’s new Banner Travel and Expense Management solution.

“Institutions spend approximately $30 for every manual expense report processed,” said Dave Becker, vice president, product management and strategy, finance and human resource solutions, SunGard Higher Education.  “By automating expense report processing, some institutions can reduce those costs by up to 50 percent within their first year of implementation, and provide their internal constituents with better service.”

Banner Travel and Expense Management is a comprehensive solution for managing travel and expense activity. Fully integrated with the Banner Digital Campus administrative system, Banner Travel and Expense Management helps institutions establish appropriate policies, encumber travel funds, authorize expenditures, process reimbursements, electronically store supporting attachments, and manage approvals—all from a single, process-directed Web interface. Because it leverages key accounting and payment capabilities within Banner Finance, Banner Travel and Expense Management helps ensure consistency with an institution’s accounting system and helps improve compliance with fiscal policies.  Institutions can calculate their projected savings by using the return on investment (ROI) calculator at http://education.sungardhe.com/expense .

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), a private, nonprofit art and design university with locations in the United States, France and Hong Kong, has been using the solution since January.  The University processes about 25,000 expense reports annually.  Prior to implementing the solution, the paper reimbursement process went through at least seven people and took several days to process.  Today, SCAD can pay all approved expense reports received up to one hour before their twice-weekly check run.  The University is using the solution in conjunction with Banner Finance, Banner Workflow, and the Banner Document Management Suite.

“The combination of Banner solutions has created a much friendlier and more convenient process for staff members who submit expense reports and it alleviates some of the workload of the finance staff,” said Mary Grant, director of procurement and payment services, SCAD.  “And the electronic process supports our goal of reducing our consumption of paper.  We think the solution set is fabulous.  We just love it.”

Because the Banner Travel and Expense Management solution is part of the Banner Digital Campus, basic information about faculty, staff, and students affiliated with the institution is readily available to link the traveler to the institutional record.  The Banner Finance chart of accounts and ledger structure enable travel authorizations to be encumbered automatically while its accounts payable capabilities support travel reimbursement by check or direct deposit.  All data and transactions are secure within the Banner Finance solution and are available only to authorized users.

About SunGard Higher Education

SunGard Higher Education serves colleges, universities and foundations in 40 countries worldwide.  Through its Open Digital Campus strategy, SunGard collaborates with the higher education community and provides software and services to help institutions find better ways to teach, learn, manage and connect.  To learn more, please visit www.sungardhe.com .

About SunGard

SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies.  SunGard has more than 20,000 employees and serves 25,000 customers in 70 countries.  SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector.  SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.  With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGard is ranked 380 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest privately held business software and IT services company.

Trademark information: SunGard, the SunGard logo and Banner are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.