There is also the wider question of facilitating remote hybrid working. Academic teaching and research have already moved to the cloud. You are no doubt also looking at how to move your backend proceses there too.
The good news is that when it comes to spend management solutions, cloud-based solutions facilitate far more than remote working. They also help solve the key challenges you face.
The SAP Concur platform, for example, is a complete, integrated, end-to-end discretionary spend management solution that connects seamlessly with the other IT solutions in your institution.