Business Process Improvement (including Agreements, Human Resources, Procurement, etc.)
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1) Why is this still in the Idea Spotlight after 2 years?
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(Created 08/12/2016 02:26:11 PM)
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Y2C posted this Idea/Request in 2014. Why is it still in the Idea Spotlight in August 2016? And also on the Y2C home page are "Call to Action" due May 2016, and 2015 Budget information. The Scientific Travel icon is really old, too, and that has been resolved. I bet everything on the Y2C home page is old and outdated.
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2) Duplicates itineraries on printed authorization
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(Created 12/22/2015 12:13:47 PM)
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If you click on "View/Change Reservations", and just view them, or try to change them, after closing that part, the itinerary and hotel information gets printed 2 or more times on the printed travel authorization, if you DO or DON"T make any changes. Even if you just view them, it still prints them repeatedly on the printed authorization. What a mess. If you try to change them, or actually change and save them, it makes an even bigger confusing mess.
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3) CONCRU screen window active work area
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(Created 09/26/2014 11:23:04 AM)
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Make the work area of Concur screens larger, increase it. Reducethe size of the banners, information only fields, etc. Examples: Accounting Code 'tab'; Expenses tab. The unuseable area (for the Users) at the top of the window takes up the whole top half of the screen and the user is left with a small area where there are items to select, modify, add, delete, and has to constantly scroll up and down, or select "Next 10 items", Previous 10 items", etc.
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4) --
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(Created 09/08/2014 06:09:57 PM)
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CONCUR makes me want to cry. It is horrible:(
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5) Question
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(Created 09/04/2014 04:25:42 PM)
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Since Concur has been around for a while, why are there still so many problems/glitches? I could maybe understand if it was a new system, but it isn't. Will anything actually be resolved now or are we responding for nothing?
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6) --
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(Created 08/28/2014 06:29:11 PM)
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The thing that bothers me most about CONCUR is the approval process. I am just a travel arranger, so I do not have access to see who approved the documents I stamp. It would be helpful to see this information or for ARS to put out a list of the different types of approvals a document has to go through. Then I would know who to contact if the ticketing date is close and an authorization has not been approved yet.
Also, even when I am actively entering information or searching for reservations the program times out with a message that it has timed out due to inactivity. I have to log back in and I LOSE everything I was doing and have to Start over. Hopefully someone is listening to all of us having issues with CONCUR and problems will be resolved.
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7) It worked!
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(Created 08/28/2014 12:21:05 PM)
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Yesterday was the first time that most of Concur booking went smoothly for me. I had the traveler sitting next to me. The flights that the traveler requested came up first in green. When it asked for the hotel information, we were able to search for the hotel and Concur filled in all the information except the rate. The only snag we had was that the conference was required and was not listed.
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8) Flights Refundable vs. Non-refundable Restricted
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(Created 08/26/2014 10:43:12 AM)
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Why does Concur show Non-refundable restricted airfare on the first search? It should only show those if I specifically "ask" it to. The default should be Refundable only. If I forget to select the button for show refundable only, it shows both types. I accidently reserved Non-refundable/restricted which required ticketing/purchase almost immediately. When the authorization was not approved by the "ticket by date", then the whole airline reservation auto-cancelled, which makes the entire authorization NOT useable (the authorization is auto-cancelled), and I had to start all over again.
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9) Awful
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(Created 08/26/2014 10:37:47 AM)
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It times out, kicks me out, when I am actually doing what Concur wants me to do - make reservations. It takes times to find the right flights or hotel. There's no time to review the options. And, after I finally complete a travel authorization and travel reservations (airline, hotel), and submit it, I get told by the ATA/FATA that I didn't do something right - Well that's because the instructions and training has been so very very inadequate, sketchy, or totally absent.
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10) Concur - Hotels
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(Created 08/25/2014 07:34:15 PM)
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I tried to book a flight in Concur today. Same frustrating problems - it doesn't show all the flights really available at the same prices that the travel agency has and it keeps trying to get me to book a hotel even after repeating using the drop down that the hotel would be booked outside of Concur. I tried what a co-worker recommended about signing off and back on but that didn't help so I ended up putting all the hotel information in. Why must we do this???!!! Also, as I have experienced before Concur loses what I have previously said (expense information, trip type...) so that I end up having to go in again and again. What used to take 15 minutes to do in govtrip is taking an hour of frustration in Concur not because of learning curve but because of a poorly designed an implemented system. Maybe there could be weekly user forums like there are for the new portal. Or is Concur and the ability for the agency to arrange travel not as important?
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11) Add to Concur frustrations
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(Created 08/21/2014 07:18:13 AM)
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Wow, with all these scathing comments mine just feels like piling on. But here it goes anyway. My labs travel arranger has practically been in tears over the muddled transition to Concur. The excessive time she has spent over the past two weeks dealing with travel related matters means that other tasks are backlogged (115s, SF 52s etc). So this is impacting the entire MU and now everyone is frustrated. Why did the Agency choose to transition to Concur during the peak of summer meeting and work related travel, not to mention personal vacation time when no one is around to help deal with the crises and right after MU offices were dealing with the crushing workloads of annual reports and ARMPS? The sad part is, as others noted, that some ARS business managers and/or contractors will now get more money thrown at them to try to fix/cover up this debacle rather than being held accountable for creating it in the first place.
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12) it cost my CRIS $102 extra
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(Created 08/20/2014 01:05:16 PM)
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I concur with all other commenters about the problems with Concur. First of all, the estimated costs of our travels on Concur are not showing up on the Status of Funds, so we don't know where we stand in our budgets in this critical time of the FY. Secondly, I had a price of $76 round trip for an Amtrak train to DC and back, and I wanted to make the purchase online, but my PSA said that Concur travel agents had to do it. Well, they did not make the purchase weeks in advance even when the trip was all approved. The day before my trip, Concur disapproved my trip without explanation, and the PSA had to cancel it and resubmit my travel on the day of my trip. I purchased the ticket with my travel card as I originally wanted, but the price was $178 rather than $76.
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13) --
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(Created 08/20/2014 11:22:44 AM)
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Since I never fully expected Concur to roll out smoothly the first time (think: GovTrip, IAS, FMMI, etc) this is precisely what I expected: bugs and nonsense. But, hey! at least the people making 100K+ a year got a bonus for it, right!?!
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14) Using Concur
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Julia Ridpath
(Created 08/19/2014 05:16:38 PM)
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One of the problems with Concur is that I get notices like the following; Your CGE Travel System Auth AUTH00003714 was just stamped SIGNED.
Unfortunately I have no idea which trip "CGE Travel System Auth AUTH00003714" refers to. This may not be a problem if you just take one trip a year. It gets very confusing if you have multiple trips. The traveler has no way of knowing what number is being assigned to which trip. It would really help if we got a notice that said "The number XXXXXX as been assigned to your trip to XXXXX on dates XXXXXX.
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15) Capacity and Speed
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(Created 08/19/2014 11:10:03 AM)
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Something needs to be done to fix the inability for everyone to be in the Concur travel program all at the same time and still have Concur process/work at a fast processing speed. Is it the Concur software itself that can't handle lots of users, or the computer main server equipment? The same problems occurred with WebTA when everyone in ARS across the entire globe all needed to use WebTA within a couple days around "T&A; day".
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16) Times Out and Corupts
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(Created 08/19/2014 10:55:02 AM)
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Concur system corupts authorizations that were already approved and also authorizations in preparation; it gets dates mixed up between multiple records, it inserts wrong routing. Concur program "Times Out" much too quickly, even while the software itself is searching, saving, or loading a page; and even while I am trying to select airline reservations.
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17) Still can''''t use Concur
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(Created 08/15/2014 02:44:02 PM)
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As of Aug 15 we are still unable to use Concur because the MU travel profiles did not roll over correctly from GovTrip. So we have filled out the new profile request forms, sent them to our service center travel specialist (overloaded I am sure) are are awaiting accounts. We have a backlog of travel authorizations and vouchers. So from my standpoint this has not been a particularly smooth transition.
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18) --
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(Created 08/14/2014 01:38:59 PM)
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I'd like to give input on the new Concur travel system and share tips, but haven't been able to successfully use it for anything other than simple domestic travel by GOV, because complete, conprehensive, detailed instructions covering every step, field, and button, in order, have not been provided for all types of travel And vouchers, and because the software, internet connection, servers, and/or sytems are too slow, and because it times out so fast.
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19) I concur, it''''s not working well.
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(Created 08/14/2014 11:43:56 AM)
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No training documents. Instructions received Aug 11. Unable to save Document Info and Trip Info; which resulted in cancelling, reserving, and entering same authorization multiple times. Somehow a duplicate lodging expense for one day showed up and I couldn’t delete it. Can’t save remarks under Exceptions one time but then I could another time. Remarks do not save under Summary. Took one day to try and get the TDY locations for a foreign trip entered how it should be but for some reason the travel information that I entered with the correct dates and locations did not transfer over to the Trip Info. Information would not save for me or the ATA; however, the ATA went in the next morning and was able to get the locations to save. Slow system even when only two time zones are at work. Was implementation of Concur done gradually or the entire Agency going live at the same time? Who decides to use these “better” systems? It makes me wonder if the end user was ever consulted.
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20) Guidance
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(Created 08/14/2014 11:07:02 AM)
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I have run into the very same problems others have commented about. What about a complete guide to CONCUR instead of piece meal guidance? Other agencies have complete user manuals. Wouldn't it be simpler to just provide the user manual to everyone and avoid all the frustration and confusion for the folks using the system? Also, the idea of people eventually doing their own travel arrangements; in who's reality is that EVER going to happen?
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21) Awful!
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(Created 08/14/2014 08:27:13 AM)
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Critical links were not activated until weeks after going live. Nobody told us; we were just left frustrated with no clue that all of the programming had not been completed. Many other problems simply create confusion. A simple example is that somebody in programming is confused on the difference between roles and actions. When I go into an authorization or voucher to do an approval, I see a notice that the item has been "Approved" by me AND my backup approvers. I think someone meant to type "Approver" instead of "Approved" but simple things like this are confusing in a new system. Also, if I am an approver, the system should not allow me to sign as a reviewer and should not send me an email that I have an action until the action is really mine. The "Action" drop down list should also be more clear and complete. There should be an "Approve" action in the list so there is no confusion between approving and item and signing an item. Not user-friendly.
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22) --
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(Created 08/13/2014 08:23:13 PM)
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Way to much oversight (approval step) and to many emails. For international trips it brings up foreign flag carriers going out of the US. Is this now allowed?
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23) Voucher Signatures
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(Created 08/13/2014 04:54:57 PM)
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So if a traveler has to PHYSCIALLY sign their travel voucher, why don't the Approver also Physically sign the voucher so we can avoid the electronic process of having the RL/LD or Area Director go online just to approve the voucher. Lets make it simple!
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24) Concur inefficiencies
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(Created 08/13/2014 04:33:15 PM)
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Coming from a routing official perspective, I remain unconvinced that this is an improvement in my efficiency. I realize I'm on a steep section of the learning curve (and the training was too small to see!), but what was previously taking only marginally longer than it took to sign my name is now taking several minutes. We get notifications that we can't or shouldn't act on, the routing is really unclear and at times wrong, and the whole process is painfully slow.
I dread the prospect of employees doing their own travel. beyond it being a recipe for trouble, it seems counter productive. Instead of well-trained and currently proficient staff doing this work, we want scientists doing it? Why do we want them doing anything but conducting and reporting research?
It would be educational to see the agency-wide business model that demonstrates where the efficiencies are happening, because I'm having trouble seeing them on my end.
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25) Concur is TERRIBLE!
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(Created 08/13/2014 02:39:31 PM)
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This system is way too slow, too many tabs/steps, not user friendly and very time consuming. Why is there a need for so many reviewers, this causes extra work for those reviewers not to mention that the travel arranger has to wait until stamped by the reviewer to make sure the approving official signs off on it. The travel arranger does not get any kind of notification letting them know the authorization/voucher has been stamped by the reviewer or approving official. You would have thought that as long as it took to put this in place it would have been a smooth transition....NOT!
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26) Reviewing & Approving Routing Changed Without Notice to Locations
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(Created 08/13/2014 02:13:12 PM)
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I'm shocked that this "little" detail was overlooked by the BSC's...When we were originally asked to provide Reviewing Officials and Approving Officials we were not aware of the rule for RL's or above only to approve and that the backups would receive every single email notification. We need a way in the system to select these emails to be sent to the back-ups when needed! Also for AO's in Cluster situations that have multiple Locations, we can only have access to one Location at a time! WOW! And we call this progress?
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27) crash and burn
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(Created 08/13/2014 02:02:05 PM)
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The implementation to this system occurred too quickly, not permitting the FATA's to do the work needed to make it a smooth transition. Locations don't know how things are routing and to whom and meanwhile it's hurting the agency. Having a reviewer, and an approver set up just adds another burdensome step to already busy admin staff and RL's. Signing pieces of paper were a streamlined approach that should be reconsidered. hopefully USBank is aware that employees may not being paying their travel card bills since many ARS employees are still waiting for their vouchers to be processed.
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28) Concur too slow
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(Created 08/12/2014 03:16:56 PM)
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It took 3 weeks for written instructions on how to create a travel authorization to be sent to the travel arrangers. Do the instructions include how to do a voucher? If not, how long until we get those written instructions? The Concur travel software or the server is way too slow; or it doesn't allow for everyone to be logged in at the same time and can't handle processing. It does Not have anything to indicate the system is processing, for us to wait while it's 'thinking' or searching or saving. It needs an hour glass or spinning globe. There is too much on each screen/tab. The color of the text is too small and text color is hard to see. At least the call in reservation people, BCD the new TMC, are very helpful and fast.
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29) Concur Stinks
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(Created 08/12/2014 02:27:37 PM)
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Concur is lousy. When you're in the authorization, screens get stuck or go completely blank. You try to go back to a particular tab, and it won't show anything but white. Therefore, you don't know if the change you made took or not. I had to delete one thing three times, because it kept freezing up and going blank. Also, I ended up with duplicates of the lodging for one particular date, and I have no idea how since I didn't even add that, just entered the start and end dates when I reserved the hotel. There are also too many tabs. I do a lot of travel and I never had this much trouble with GovTrip.
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