Your Ideas Matter

Third Party Travel Policy Creation

Mark Reiske noticed consultant and vendor travel expenses were skyrocketing in some of the projects he oversaw.  When looking at the invoices and travel activity, vendors were not utilizing the most economical choices when traveling on KU’s projects. This meant at times there were $300 a night hotel stays in Lawrence, higher tiered rental cars, and even multiple rental cars for a vendor despite consultants arriving and departing at the same time from their engagement in Lawrence.  Mark suggested creating a policy to help guide our vendors to make conservative choices to help us contain travel expenses we were reimbursing them for.

A team of Procurement, Travel, Auditing, and Policy offices have created a vendor travel policy to share with and hold vendors accountable for limiting their reimbursable travel expenses in the same way our employees do. If this policy had been implemented prior to the projects Mark saw, we could have saved at least $10,000.

To find more information about the new Third-Party Travel Policy and our Procurement compliance information, visit our compliance page for more details. 

If you have questions about the new policy and what it means to you, refer to our Travel Policy Frequently Asked Questions

Fellow Change Agents:

• Mark Reiske
• Ben Lizak
• Heather Blanck
• Gina Cregg
• Abby Ropes
• Karen Schaller
• Ephrom Marks
• Lori Gutsch
• Craig Alexander

Impact of idea:

At least $10,000 reduction in annual consultant/vendor reimbursable travel expenses

Switch KU/KUMC International Tax support to Sprintax

The Controllers office tried to minimize the increase in costs for our International tax support software Glacier. When they could not achieve much savings in our annual costs by working directly with the vendor, they explored other options with the State of Kansas and other KBOR schools.  Sprintax was a solid option for KU and other state agency partners.  KU is now utilizing a new software vendor, Sprintax, that supports multiple KBOR schools, provides a better user experience, unlimited records, and chatbots.  This will help our teams better serve our campus community and achieve about a 90% reduction in expense.

Fellow Change Agents:

• Penny Kellum
• Richard Davis
• Melissa Bissey
• Mandy Tucker
• Kay Walden
• Mike Lewis
• Jo Hardesty
• Adam Mansfield

Impact of idea:

$14,000 in annual spend savings for KU

$5,500 in annual spend savings for KUMC

Replace Inefficient Freezers with Sustainable Ones

Ramia Whitecotton became aware of potential savings we could achieve by replacing some of our old, inefficient freezers on campus. When reviewing the latest freezer options, there will be some dramatic utility savings we could achieve with new freezers in research spaces. Because there is substantial investment needed to completely shift to new freezers this strategy will be incorporated through Procurement support when replacements are needed.  

Fellow Change Agents:

Cassy Kuhn, Mike Russell

Impact of idea:

Improved utility savings and a more green campus

Reduce Trash Collection during Off peak times

Lawrence Chapman saw a City of Lawrence trash truck pickup an empty dumpster and wondered why we had them pick up trash so often during Summer and Winter breaks. This prompted some research with Facilities and the City of Lawrence to reduce the frequency of pickups during off peak times of the year.

Fellow Change Agents:

Cameron Lauer, Cassi Kuhn, Sarah Waters, Krissie Druen, and Shawn Harding

Impact of idea:

$24,000 in annual savings

Migrate Existing Security Cameras to Aruba Network with Internal Resources

Thomas Droge II suggested that internal resources of IT and PSO counterparts do the migration of existing security cameras to the Aruba network. Rather than outsourcing this work to a contractor, they were self-sufficient to handle the task.

Fellow Change Agents:

Fellow Change Agents: Ben Brassart, Mark Nace, Ray Buffalomeat, Callie Long, Sara Jean Coughlan, and Charles Ammel

Impact of idea:

$40,000 in Fiscal year 2024 savings