Latest / Connectivity Without Chaos - The Podcast / Higher education doesn’t necessarily have a spending problem. It often has a visibility problem.

Transcript

Higher education doesn’t necessarily have a spending problem. It often has a visibility problem. · Connectivity Without Chaos - The Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: So imagine a university biology professor deep in the Amazon rainforest using
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: a personal credit card to buy emergency lab supplies.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And at the exact same time,
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: a postdoc researcher is booking a last minute international flight on
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: a university pee card.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: And an athletic team just excited.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: And why relying on basic ERP software,
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: your standard enterprise resource planning tools,
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: is really no longer enough to control costs.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right, because to understand why those basic tools fail,
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: we first have to look at the unique complexity of the higher ed traveler.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: But wait, I mean, isn't a business trip just a business trip?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Why can't standard systems handle this?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the sheer volume of variations on
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: a campus makes standard corporate travel models look completely linear.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Linear how?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like what is so different?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are dealing with faculty attending conferences,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: researchers bound by highly regulated federal grant restrictions,
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: and student study abroad programs.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they are all pulling from different funding sources simultaneously.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: I get that universities are inherently complex,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: but modern ERPs have like thousands of customizable fields.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they do.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if a university already owns a massive financial system,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: why can't they just build custom rules into the software they already have?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because, well, a basic ERP is built to be a static ledger.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is designed to catch massive, overarching financial trends at the end of the quarter.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Or the end of the fiscal year.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is not built to act as a dynamic rule engine,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: intercepting the granular, real-time droplets of daily out-of-pocket spending.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's basically like trying to referee a game where every single player is using
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: a completely different rulebook.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or filtering water with a chain-link fence.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: The big stuff gets caught eventually,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: but the microscopic daily transactions just flow right through.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: And by the time that monthly reconciliation happens,
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the money has already left the building.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: The noncompliant spending has already occurred.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: OK, let's unpack this because a few out of policy hotel rooms might ding a departmental budget.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: But the sources we are looking at focus heavily on grant compliance.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: They do, yeah.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: So what is the mechanical difference when grant money is involved?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: What happens when these manual systems inevitably fail?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, medical,
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: federal,
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: and research grants require you to trace every single dollar directly back
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: to its source.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: With audit-ready documentation.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: If a researcher accidentally uses federal grant money for a restricted expense
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: because the ERP didn't stop them, it isn't just a financial penalty.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, really?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: What is it then?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So you essentially need a system that functions as a proactive gatekeeper rather
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: than, you know, a retroactive accountant.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what is fascinating here is that proactive approach hinges almost entirely
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: on user experience.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: User experience.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like UX as a security strategy.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: As one industry advisor noted, if a system is hard to use, people will just work around it.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: They will just put it on a personal card.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or delay submitting receipts, which leads to invisible spending and massive risk.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: But if you are tracking researchers down to the penny for these grants in real time
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: to prevent that invisible spending,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: you basically have a live map of where everyone is at all times.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that turn an accounting tool into a campus safety system?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It absolutely does.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that is where the concept of duty of care comes in.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Institutions have a legal and ethical mandate to know where their students
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: and faculty are during global or domestic emergencies.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: So how does modern tech actually prevent these workarounds?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: How do we stop the invisible spending without just adding administrative dread?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, by using AI-driven tools.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Predictive compliance doesn't just scan a receipt after the fact.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: It stops it beforehand.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: It cross-references a researcher's specific federal grant guidelines at
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: the exact moment they attempt to purchase.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it declines a non-compliant expense before the money even leaves the account.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I imagine it automates the receipt capture, too.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It automates the categorization so the user doesn't have to manually code expenses.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: It essentially removes the friction.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: So unifying travel and expense systems isn't just about saving a few bucks.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: It is about protecting vital funding streams and keeping travelers safe.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: It is the necessary shift to real-time visibility.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Which leaves us with a final question to ponder.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: As AI completely automates the friction out of expense reporting,
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: providing that real-time transparency,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: how might this actually repair the historical friction and trust issues
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: between university administration and academic faculty?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Something for you to mull over.