SAP Concur blog discusses CFOs' role in talent management, focusing on three key areas: weighing business costs and benefits beyond the balance sheet, considering DE&I as a contributor to financial performance, and helping employees secure physical and mental health and safety. It cites SAP data and survey findings.
SAP Concur's fifth annual Global Business Travel Survey, covering 3,850 business travelers in 25 markets, reveals generational differences from baby boomers to Gen Z in willingness to travel, satisfaction, economic impact, changing expectations, career advancement, safety and discrimination, and sustainability.
SAP Concur and the National Association of Counties (NACo) hosted a webinar on finance transformation for county government organizations. The article notes that counties face tight budgets, changing regulations, and rising demands for transparency and accountability. Finance transformation can improve efficiency and accuracy, address workforce changes, and strengthen compliance and accountability. Steps include evaluating the current state, defining objectives, developing a road map, and engaging stakeholders.
SAP Concur published a blog outlining resources and collaboration opportunities in its public sector community for professionals in regulated industries. The community offers dedicated industry groups for federal, state, and local government, higher education, government contracting, and healthcare, helping members discuss challenges, share best practices, and refine their organizations' travel, expense, and invoice policies.
SAP Concur released findings from its 2023 Global Business Travel Survey, now in its fifth year. The survey shows 92% of business travelers believe their career future depends on business travel, yet 62% have not had equal opportunities due to demographics, sexual orientation, physical appearance, or health conditions. Demand for flexibility is rising: 48% want flexibility to ensure safety, 47% for work-life balance, and 34% to add personal travel.
SAP Concur unveiled new Concur Travel experiences at the GBTA Convention, including an end-to-end booking experience for Sabre GDS from U.S. point of sale, with plans to extend to Amadeus and Travelport+ in 2024. The new experience offers consumer-grade UX, richer content including NDC, sustainability options, omni-search, and integration with Concur Expense. Concur Travel bookings are up 8% from Q2 2022.
SAP Concur published a blog on AI applications in travel and expense (T&E) management. It cites IDC data that 45% of businesses see opportunities for AI to improve payments, expense management, and analytics. SAP Concur's Verify uses AI to automatically audit expense reports, and ExpenseIt reduced returned reports from 14% to 1.2%. In 2022, $1.6 billion in spending exceptions went unexamined, while Verify automatically audited 97% of 2.8 million reports between January 2022 and June 2023.
SAP Concur published a blog detailing the top 10 features of Concur Invoice and the ROI customers achieved. After automating AP workflows, customers reported a 29% reduction in time spent capturing invoices, a 26% reduction in budget overspending, and 11% cost savings through supplier-negotiated rates. These efficiencies resulted in an estimated 134 hours saved per week, $43K saved annually, and positive ROI in only 7 months.
SAP Concur published a blog detailing Concur Expense features and the ROI customers achieved. After implementing expense management automation, customers reported a 47% reduction in missing receipts, 32% reduction in approval time, 28% reduction in mileage excess claims, 26% reduction in budget overspending, and 26% increase in tax reclaim savings. Efficiencies resulted in an estimated 148 hours saved per week, $54K saved annually, and positive ROI in 7 months.
SAP Concur published a blog on event management challenges and trends in regulated industries. Common challenges include venue selection and logistics, budget management, and ROI and measurable outcomes. Trends include hybrid and virtual events, personalization and customization, and sustainability and green initiatives. Event management platforms can help with centralized coordination, budget tracking, and reporting.
SAP Concur published a blog on strategies for financial efficiency in higher education. Approximately 700 schools already benefit from its solutions. The article notes that higher education faces stability challenges and staffing shortages, with 43% of back-office teams managing three or more new responsibilities due to staff shortages. SAP Concur helps institutions optimize AP, travel operations, and policy compliance through communities like CHELF and CHEAB and ERP solutions.
SAP Concur released its fifth annual Global Business Travel Survey of 700 travel managers across seven markets. The survey shows 47% of travel managers say their role is more stressful than 12 months ago, and 41% cite inflation driving up travel costs. 98% say lagging data and analytics hinder their job, and 98% expect their company to change travel policies in the next year.
At the GBTA Convention, SAP Concur announced a major evolution of Concur Travel, introducing a new end-to-end booking experience for air, hotel, and car rental on Sabre GDS from U.S. point of sale, with Amadeus and Travelport+ planned for 2024. The new experience emphasizes a consumer-grade UX, NDC content integration, sustainability options, and seamless integration with Concur Expense.
SAP Concur announced the integration of JTB-CWT with Concur TripLink, enabling companies with domestic business travel in Japan to book air, hotel, and rail through JTB-CWT's B+PLUS online booking tool, with automatic syncing to SAP Concur. The integration offers flexible booking options, real-time data integration, enhanced visibility and compliance, and improved duty of care.
SAP Concur published an article exploring strategies for efficient event management to optimize investments in meetings and events. It suggests measures such as data-driven decision-making, consolidating purchasing power, simplified budget tracking and ROI measurement, automating planning processes, and prioritizing participant safety to help organizations reduce costs and improve financial outcomes.
The U.S. Department of State issued a travel advisory for Eritrea at Level 2, recommending increased caution due to travel restrictions, limited consular assistance, landmines, and wrongful detentions. The advisory notes the U.S. government's limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Eritrea and warns of the risk of wrongful detention. Recommended measures include exercising caution in remote areas, carrying copies of passport and visa, enrolling in STEP, following social media, reviewing the Country Security Report, preparing a contingency plan, and checking CDC travel health information.
The U.S. Department of State has issued a Level 2 "Exercise Increased Caution" advisory for Eritrea, citing travel restrictions, limited consular assistance, landmines, and wrongful detentions. The U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Eritrea, and U.S. government employees must obtain special authorization to travel outside Asmara. U.S. citizens, including dual nationals, have been arrested and detained without charge or on false charges, and the Department has determined that a risk of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals by the Eritrean government exists. Eritrean law enforcement officials routinely block U.S. government officials' access t…
The U.S. Department of State issued a travel advisory for Zambia at Level 1, recommending normal precautions. The advisory was reissued with obsolete COVID-19 page links removed. Recommendations include enrolling in STEP, following the Department of State and U.S. Embassy in Zambia on social media, reviewing the Country Security Report, preparing a contingency plan, and checking CDC travel health information.
SAP Concur published a white paper exploring changes in managed travel programs in a multi-channel environment. The article notes that new supplier distribution strategies bring more content channels, while organizations face challenges including cost, duty of care, and travelers' demands for choice and flexibility. Based on independent research with FESTIVE ROAD, the white paper helps travel managers assess their current state and develop strategies.
SAP Concur published an article discussing the benefits of accounts payable (AP) automation. It notes that 70% of organizations are not automated across financial processes, and manual invoice processing can take up to 9.5 hours per invoice. AP automation uses technologies like e-invoicing and OCR to improve spend visibility, optimize supplier contracts, reduce risk, and improve cash flow forecasting. The article also discusses where to start and the importance of change management.
SAP Concur podcast features Chris Elmore, Chief Evangelist of AvidXchange, discussing the transformative power of AP automation. The conversation notes that although AP automation can increase efficiency, visibility, and control, fewer than 20% of businesses have fully automated AP processes, and 70% of invoice processing is still paper-based. The discussion covers the evolution of the AP profession, automation opportunities, and how to drive change by focusing on mission, purpose, and outcome.
SAP Concur podcast features Jenny Chen, Senior Accountant at Dermalogica, sharing the company's digital transformation and change management experience. Dermalogica grew from a 5-person company to over 150 employees and implemented SAP Concur's travel, expense, and purchase request and invoice platforms to streamline processes and improve efficiency. Chen emphasized understanding employee pain points, gradually introducing changes, continuous training, and a long-term perspective.
SAP Concur podcast summarizes Dermalogica's digital transformation case. Dermalogica grew from a 5-person company to over 150 employees and implemented SAP Concur's travel, expense, and purchase request and invoice platforms, reducing invoice processing time from 30-35 hours per week to one hour, achieving faster payment turnarounds and real-time spend visibility. The company also won the 2022 SMB Digital Innovation award.
The SAP Concur Conversations podcast features Grace Swain, Senior Consultant at TCG Consulting, discussing accounts payable (AP) automation. Only 10% of businesses have fully automated their AP processes, with most still heavily manual. The conversation covers key barriers (upfront cost, process volume, change management), a phased implementation path (supplier portals, OCR, ERP integration), and the value of automation in reducing risk, lowering costs, and improving spend visibility.
The SAP Concur Conversations podcast features Nina Birger, VP of Climate Solutions at CHOOOSE, discussing how organizations can incorporate sustainability into business strategy. The conversation covers the ESG framework, the role and limits of carbon offsets, methodologies for measuring travel carbon emissions (including the Greenview Hotel Footprinting tool), the risks of greenwashing and greenhushing, and the value of sustainability in talent recruitment and retention.
SAP Concur introduces Verify, its AI-powered self-serve audit solution. In the past year, Verify performed over 38 million audit checks on expense reports submitted through Concur Expense, with an average of one third flagged monthly for organizational review. Verify added 10 new checks covering duplicate receipts, old dates, personal use of company cards, and more, and is now generally available for enterprise customers in the U.S. and Canada.
SAP Concur outlines its commitment to modernizing government travel and expense management. SAP Concur solutions have served government organizations for over 20 years, providing centralized travel and expense services for the E-Government Travel Service (ETS) Program since 2003. The article discusses challenges in government IT modernization, key elements for investment success, and core principles of effective partnerships.
SAP Concur presents Concur Expense, its automated expense management solution, citing Analysys Mason 2022 research data: users reported a 47% reduction in missing receipts, 32% reduction in approval time, approximately $54K annual savings, and positive ROI in only 7 months. Concur Expense was also recognized by TrustRadius as a 2023 Top-Rated software in both Expense Management and Travel Management categories.
The SAP Concur blog presents four ways to optimize business trips: using TripIt to automate itinerary management, combining business with leisure (bleisure), leveraging TripIt Pro for real-time notifications, and preventing business travel burnout. The article cites TripIt survey data: 35% of Americans plan a business or bleisure trip this summer, and 34% attribute increased travel to business travel growth.
SAP Concur attended the HFMA annual conference to discuss four key challenges facing healthcare organizations: funding sources and cost transparency, rising airfares and room rates, Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute compliance, and staffing shortages. The article cites the HFMA 2023 Outlook Survey Report and Deloitte survey data, noting only 42% of healthcare workers are satisfied with work practices and 38% with work-related technology.
The SAP Concur blog summarizes key takeaways from a podcast conversation between Nina Birger, VP of Climate Solutions at CHOOOSE, and Jeanne Dion, VP of the Value Experience Team at SAP Concur. The article covers the ESG framework, the importance of establishing a carbon baseline, travel carbon measurement methods, the risks of greenwashing and greenhushing, and the value of sustainability in employee recruitment and engagement.
The SAP Concur Conversations podcast features Chris Elmore, Chief Evangelist at AvidXchange, discussing barriers to innovation in AP automation. Elmore notes that the risk-averse culture in accounting trains younger workers to uphold the status quo rather than drive change. He emphasizes that the real value of automation is freeing up time for accountants to focus on high-value work, citing the historical example of loom industry automation creating new markets.
The SAP Concur Conversations podcast features Hansini Sharma, who leads the Travel Practice at Acquis Consulting Group, discussing how travel managers can redesign travel programs to meet traveler expectations. Sharma emphasizes the importance of understanding traveler personas and distinguishing trip goals (cost-effectiveness, productivity, or convenience), noting that flexibility and bleisure integration have become key factors in employee retention.
SAP Concur's 2023 Global Business Travel Survey found that 94% of LGBTQ+ business travelers have personally experienced discrimination while traveling for work, and 90% have hidden their sexual orientation on a business trip, citing safety (55%) and privacy (55%) as top reasons. 82% of LGBTQ+ travelers changed accommodations in the past 12 months because they felt unsafe, compared with 53% of all business travelers. 92% of LGBTQ+ travelers feel they have not had equal opportunity to travel for business. The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research between April 7-28, 2023, among 3,850 business travelers in 25 markets.
The U.S. Department of State reissued its Level 2 travel advisory for Zimbabwe after a periodic review, with updates to crime and civil unrest information. The advisory urges increased caution due to crime and official harassment of U.S. citizens. Common crimes include pickpocketing, theft, and smashing of car windows; violent crime such as assault, carjacking, and home invasion also occurs. Criminals often target foreigners and residents suspected of carrying large sums of cash. Demonstrations may increase around political events, and large gatherings are often restricted by the government and can quickly escalate to violence. Foreigners, journalists, and NGOs may be subject to heightened…
The U.S. Department of State issued a Level 2 travel advisory for Zimbabwe, urging increased caution due to crime and official harassment of U.S. citizens. Common crimes include pickpocketing, theft, and smashing of car windows; violent crime such as assault, carjacking, and home invasion also occurs. Criminals often target foreigners and residents suspected of carrying large sums of cash. Demonstrations may increase around political events such as elections, and large gatherings are often restricted by the government and can quickly escalate to violence. Foreigners, journalists, and NGOs may be subject to heightened scrutiny.
A SAP Concur blog notes that under hybrid work, employee purchases such as desks, monitors, and internet service are legitimate business expenses but may also be taxable employee benefits. 30% of business leaders told IDC that managing hybrid work is an organizational challenge, and 61% of business and IT decision-makers think VAT will significantly affect their tax management within two years. Remote and hybrid work and VAT span multiple locations and tax authorities, with rules changing regularly, creating compliance risks and lost funds. SAP Concur's Concur Tax Assurance and Concur Benefits Assurance services help identify eligible transactions and taxable benefits.
A SAP Concur blog presents customer cases explaining why companies choose its travel and expense solutions. 83% of SAP Concur users give the solutions 4 or 5 stars on G2, and 93% say on GetApp they would recommend them to a friend or colleague. More than 48,000 customers worldwide use its solutions to automate travel and expense processes. Customers include PACCAR, Standard Chartered Bank, ASICS Europe, VMware, Merck, and PwC, with key needs including spend visibility, compliance, efficiency, and sustainability.
The Spend Insights Report by SAP Concur and Oversight shows T&E spending rose 73% year over year in 2022, with travel-specific spending up 178% from Q1 to Q4, including airline spending up 400% and lodging up 207%. Employee out-of-pocket cash spending jumped 81% and was the top category, accounting for 44% of all violations. Spending violations rose 7.9% year over year, costing companies $91.3 million, a 9.83% increase. The report recommends stronger training, electronic receipt management, and audit tools.
In the SAP Concur Conversations podcast, Hansini Sharma, who leads the Travel Practice at Acquis Consulting Group, discusses the importance of traveler personas and traveler experience in business travel. She identifies three traveler personas: the new entrant, the space cadet, and the 'pirate.' She recommends travel managers improve compliance by offering more options and some wiggle room, and use online booking tools and non-invasive data collection to understand traveler preferences. She also notes the travel experience has become an important factor in talent retention.