Policy Before Platform: The UMass Blueprint for Modernizing T&E

Modernizing travel and expense management is never just a tech upgrade, especially at a large, complex institution like the University of Massachusetts (UMass). In this episode, UMass Associate Vice President for Strategy & Innovation Dave Nero and Supply Chain Partner principal consultant Shannon Nortier pull back the curtain on one of the most successful T&E transformations in higher education.

You’ll hear how UMass turned a long-standing pain point into a system-wide modernization initiative powered by clarity, collaboration, and a “policy before platform” strategy. Dave explains why T&E rose to the top of the innovation agenda, how two years of meticulous preparation laid the foundation for real change, and why investing in an internal transformation muscle is now table stakes for any organization.

Shannon shares the partner perspective: what made UMass uniquely prepared, how their alignment accelerated implementation, and why the right partner relationship can make or break a project this complex.

Listen to learn:

• Why UMass started with strategy, governance, and policy (not technology)
• How they united five campuses with different cultures into one Concur instance
• What it really takes to reduce risk, increase compliance, and modernize employee experience
• How to build a transformation engine capable of tackling projects beyond T&E
• The hard-won lessons you can apply immediately to your own modernization efforts

Whether you’re in higher education, the public sector, or any complex organization juggling competing priorities, this conversation offers a roadmap for getting transformation right, and doing it in a way that lasts.