SAP Concur's blog notes that despite global inflation and recession concerns, many CFOs expect investment in digital tools that deliver efficiency and insights to continue. The article cites views from SAP CFOs across regions, covering sustainability, recruitment and retention, and confronting inflation-related challenges. CFOs can view digital transformation as a way to boost enterprise resiliency and navigate major disruptions like recession.
SAP Concur's blog cites Accenture data stating 68% of CFOs are driving three or more enterprise-wide transformation initiatives in parallel. The article discusses how CFOs can break down silos by running initiatives in parallel, improve employee experience, and offers three ways to future-proof organizations: scenario-planning capability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. It also recommends starting with areas like expense management that engage employees early.
SAP Concur's podcast features Ben Claxton and Jeff Saydah of Fox World Travel discussing how to build a world-class travel program. They note the "set it and forget it" travel policy mentality is outdated; policies should be agile, regularly reviewed, and aligned with company goals and culture. The discussion covers using data to inform policy, measuring program success, and having policies reflect company culture.
SAP Concur's podcast features Oren Geshuri of Deloitte discussing how companies are incorporating duty of care into their culture. Duty of care describes an organization's legal obligation to protect employees from harm, and its scope has expanded to include mental wellness and identity issues such as religion, gender, sexual orientation, and color. The article mentions tools like GeoSure for neighborhood safety ratings and Mobility International for accessibility information, and recommends balancing cost control with employee safety and comfort in travel policies.
SAP Concur's podcast features Aneel Delawalla and Paul Carr of Accenture discussing how CFOs can make better, faster, and more strategic decisions in an age of complexity. The article cites data that 68% of CFOs are driving three or more enterprise-wide transformation initiatives in parallel, and more than 90% feel asked to do more than their predecessors. The discussion covers scenario planning, cross-functional collaboration, continuous improvement, and expense management as a transformation starting point.
SAP Concur's blog notes that changing employee demographics are driving a paradigm shift in business travel, with companies expanding focus to Gen Z. Gen Z is on track to make up roughly 30% of the U.S. workforce by 2030. The article recommends embracing and reexamining technology, moving from a command-and-control model to empowering employees, and offers three ways to future-proof travel programs: think bigger picture, align with your travel community, and go forward with an innovative mindset.
SAP Concur's blog offers budget management advice, including keeping expense data handy, educating and training employees, verifying spending aligns with budget, maximizing the value of a single platform, and ensuring spending aligns with goals. Citing a poll of 500 finance leaders, it notes 75% say their business often exceeds expense, travel, and invoice budgets, and even more agree these systems need to be better connected for a single view of spend.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that employee wellness has taken center stage, and duty of care—an organization's legal obligation to protect employees from harm—has become a strategic tool. The article poses six questions to help incorporate duty of care into travel programs: how employees book, where they purchase, when they book, what ground transport they use, how safe the destination is, and how to improve. It emphasizes that increasing booking tool adoption, encouraging corporate card use, booking earlier, increasing rideshare use, reviewing destination risk, and establishing a cross-functional task force can enhance employee safety, satisfaction, and business continuity.
A SAP Concur blog post cites a 2022 Analysys Mason study finding that nearly half of finance leaders worldwide say fraud and risk management are their biggest challenges, and 44% cannot make informed decisions due to lack of timely financial information. The article highlights that manual expense management is costly, while automated solutions can mitigate fraud and noncompliance risks and improve productivity and profitability. The study estimates a T&E solution saves 13 hours weekly per finance or accounting team member. One customer reports spending 65% less time processing expense reports. 72% of businesses believe digital transformation is key to growth.
A SAP Concur blog post suggests companies can save on ground transportation costs and improve employee safety by increasing rideshare use. It advises reviewing rideshare expense and insurance policies, checking rideshare configuration in Concur Expense, and analyzing year-over-year rideshare spend percentages. Best practice percentages range from 38% to 87% depending on industry. A formula is provided to estimate potential savings: (taxi median rate – rideshare median rate) × (25% of total taxi transactions). Encouraging rideshare gives employees autonomy, location-sharing ability, and reduces carbon emissions.
On January 18, 2023, Concur Cloud for Public Sector became listed on the FedRAMP Marketplace as 'in process' for a FedRAMP Moderate agency authorization. The sponsoring federal agency is committed to partnering with SAP Concur for initial FedRAMP Authorization, with plans for a 3PAO assessment and intent to issue an Authority to Operate within 12 months. The 3PAO assessment has been completed and is in final review. The platform is the only commercially available multi-tenant, fully integrated travel and expense platform purpose-built to U.S. government FedRAMP security standards, limiting access to U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.
SAP maintained its position in the Leaders Category in the 2022–2023 IDC MarketScape for worldwide SaaS and cloud-enabled Travel and Expense Applications. The assessment focuses on expense management offerings and their integration with travel management services and networks. IDC research director Kevin Permenter noted that more businesses added features to control travel spend or provide duty of care-related functionality, a powerful differentiator for vendors with ties to emerging areas like auditing, sustainability, virtual cards, and duty of care. SAP Concur's strengths include global reach (80 million end users, 150+ countries, 29 languages), midmarket experience, integrated solutions…
A SAP Concur blog post notes that travel programs have been turbulent in recent years, with leadership demanding visibility into travel program ROI while travelers demand safer, smoother experiences. It poses key questions: Do travel program goals align with organizational goals? Are processes flexible enough to adapt to market changes? Is there a backup for TMC labor shortages? Where does traveler experience rank? The article references an eBook, 'Guiding Travel through Uncharted Territory: 6 Tactics for Personal and Program Growth,' for answers and tactics.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that budgets are tight and costs are out of control, with the C-suite demanding travel managers demonstrate travel program ROI. It references the 'Measure Up' eBook, which offers five ways to demonstrate ROI: focusing on foundational priorities (adoption, approvals, compliance), improving visibility (outside bookings, unused tickets, cancellation charges, cash spending), VAT and GST reclaim, updating metrics (traveler experience, sustainability, meetings bookings), and showing the right data to the C-suite. The 2022 Global Business Travel Report states 100% of travel managers expect their jobs to be more challenging in the next 12 months.
A SAP Concur blog post answers common questions about expense reimbursements, including: what is an expense reimbursement, what expenses are reimbursable, whether receipts are needed, how to pay reimbursements, reimbursement timelines, whether reimbursements count as income and are taxable, and alternatives. It emphasizes that reimbursement amounts should exactly match expenses, receipts are non-negotiable for IRS audits, and reimbursements are not considered income for employees. Alternatives include advances, per diems, corporate cards, and purchasing cards.
A SAP Concur blog post answers common questions about expense reports, including: what is a travel expense report, what is an income and expense report, what should an expense report include, whether receipts are needed for every expense, who approves expense reports, what to do if an invalid or personal expense is found, and how to create an expense policy. It emphasizes that expense reports are the best way to manage and track employee business expenses, and receipts are non-negotiable for IRS audits. SAP Concur offers a free customizable expense policy template.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that automating accounts payable reduces paper and manual entry, fewer lost invoices and late fees, more early pay discounts, increased efficiency, and a more accurate cash flow view. It cites data: invoice processing time decreased by 82% to 3.1 days per invoice, cost per invoice decreased by 80% to $2.78, and invoice exceptions decreased by 59% to 9%. Another study shows companies with automated AP process 64% more vendor invoices monthly, over 66% of teams reported cost decreases, with average savings of 20%. The article suggests building the case with efficiency and savings data plus a 'what's in it for you' strategy.
A SAP Concur blog post emphasizes that in uncertain times, businesses gain certainty by controlling spending and strengthening compliance. It recommends automated solutions to integrate travel and expense processes, centralize data, adhere to budgets, optimize invoice processes, and improve compliance culture. The article also mentions auditing and intelligent automation to identify non-compliant spending.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses how spending patterns have changed, requiring businesses to adjust processes and KPIs. It recommends using corporate cards over cash, automating receipt management, GPS mileage tracking, and AI auditing. It cites data: SAP Concur solutions average 36% time savings in expense report handling, and manual mileage tracking can overstate miles by 15%.
A SAP Concur blog post summarizes highlights from Fusion Exchange DC 2022, an event for regulated industries including federal, state and local governments, higher education, government contracting, utilities, and healthcare. Attendees discussed travel, expense, and accounts payable challenges and shared best practices. Topics included return to travel, expense reconciliation, sustainability, change management, travel safety, data & reporting, auditing, cost control & compliance.
A SAP Concur podcast with Oren Geshuri of Deloitte discusses duty of care, emphasizing the legal obligation to protect employees. Topics include legal differences across countries, mental health, safety for LGBTQ+ and disabled travelers, risks for women travelers, policy inclusivity, and how information sharing and flexible policies improve employee experience and retention.
A TripIt blog post introduces seven money-saving features, including Fare Tracker to monitor fare changes, AirHelp partnership for flight disruption compensation, Point Tracker to manage points and miles, International Travel Tools for exchange rates and tipping guidelines, Nearby Places to find nearby locations, and Navigator to compare transportation options. A survey shows 57% of Americans say inflation has impacted their travel plans.
This SAP Concur blog post highlights the inefficiencies of manual invoice processing, including lack of visibility, wasted time, and increased error risk. It advocates for automated solutions to improve efficiency, reduce errors, and provide real-time financial data. Research cited shows that automated invoice management can reduce late payments by 24%, save 11% in costs, and cut budget overspending by 26%.
This SAP Concur blog post discusses how businesses can prepare for unexpected changes by automating finance processes, setting priorities, managing cash flow, establishing remote work policies, and debriefing processes. It emphasizes that automation reduces errors and improves visibility, making businesses more resilient to disruptions.
This SAP Concur blog post highlights how manual processes and spreadsheets lead to poor spend visibility, inefficiency, and errors. Automated expense and invoice solutions can capture spending early, reduce errors and fraud risk, and support better decision-making with improved data.
This SAP Concur blog post explores how automated travel and expense solutions save costs by reducing manual processes, improving accuracy, and enhancing spend visibility. It also mentions savings through negotiation, tax reclaim, and avoiding roaming charges.
This SAP Concur blog post provides best practices for identifying high-risk expense types and reducing non-compliant spending. It lists 14 high-risk expense types and recommends clear policies, technology enforcement, and ongoing training to mitigate risks.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses how to improve the efficiency of corporate expense report auditing. Citing an IDC report, it states that automating the audit process can make expense report intake and handling 36% more efficient, reduce report completion time by 43%, and result in 65% more policy-compliant expense reports. The article recommends best practices such as reducing internal auditor effort, increasing data entry accuracy, using data to identify improvement opportunities, employing pre-authorized requests, reducing exceptions, improving first-pass ratio, increasing card adoption, and providing ongoing training.
A SAP Concur blog post offers 24 tips to optimize airfare spending and lower travel costs. It notes that airfares continue to rise due to soaring jet fuel prices, high travel demand, and pilot shortages, with ancillary fees also increasing. Recommendations include tracking ancillary fees, booking at least 8 days in advance, considering one-way or refundable tickets, rewarding policy-compliant booking behavior, using data to identify behavior and target areas with the most financial impact, and using mobile apps and self-service check-in. The article also cites U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that airline fare inflation has climbed back into positive territory, rising far above…
A SAP Concur blog post predicts a marked shift in how workplace tools connect and integrate from 2023 into 2024. Citing an early 2022 SAP Concur pulse survey, it notes that 57% of U.S. finance managers use multiple applications, and 17% use multiple applications with no integration. Additionally, 86% of business travelers reported their company had been delayed in reimbursing expenses at least once in 2021, and 89% said delays impact their personal finances. The article argues that more integrated travel and expense solutions will provide better spending visibility, more efficient finance processes, and ultimately faster reimbursements.
A SAP Concur blog post shares predictions for business leaders' travel priorities in 2023. Citing an early 2022 SAP Concur pulse survey, it notes that 88% of U.S. finance managers said their company experienced a revenue loss in 2021 as a direct result of employees' inability to travel at pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, the GBTA CWT Global Business Travel Forecast 2023 report found that the cost per event attendee is expected to be around 32% higher in 2023 than in 2019. The article advises companies to weigh the costs and benefits of their travel programs and balance saving money with positioning for growth when the economy stabilizes.
A SAP Concur podcast episode discusses how the next generation of business travelers, particularly Gen Z and Gen Alpha, is shaping the future of business travel. SAP Concur thought leader Ralph Colunga notes that the travel and expense industry is experiencing a major paradigm shift, requiring a modernization of T&E management mindset and end-to-end processes. The article mentions that Gen Z is on track to comprise roughly 30% of the workforce by 2030, bringing different expectations. Organizations need to evolve from a recovery state to one of resilience and adaptability, adjusting policies, simplifying processes, and eliminating friction points for employees.
A SAP Concur blog post provides a guide to assess accounts payable (AP) automation levels. Citing survey data, it notes that the average company processes 252 vendor invoices per month, spends 13 hours per week processing them, and takes 11 days to get sign-off approval for payment from receipt. The article categorizes AP automation into four levels: little to no automation, some automation, fully automated, and AI-enhanced automation, and provides characteristics and upgrade suggestions for each. It also mentions that after implementing an automated invoice management solution, 36% of businesses cited finance/accounting employee time savings as a top benefit, 46% cited increased employee s…
At the Fusion Exchange DC conference held on November 15-16, 2022, in Washington DC, SAP Concur emphasized themes of balance and security. Dr. Christian Wolfe, Head of Client Development, Americas, for SAP Concur, discussed the challenge of balancing cost reduction, risk and compliance management, adapting to changing regulations, and delivering the best employee experience. He announced plans to modernize the entire SAP Concur travel platform and revealed in-the-works features for carbon offset calculation and certificate handling. Additionally, SAP Concur is migrating its cloud services to AWS, and Concur Cloud for Public Sector is in process for FedRAMP agency authorization.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses how utilities and energy companies can improve employee experience. It cites Gartner's prediction that employee turnover will be 50% to 75% higher than companies have previously experienced; Gallup data showing it costs up to two times an employee's annual salary to replace them; 78% of employees strongly believe their employer is responsible for helping them increase job satisfaction and well-being; and 34% of employees expect a seamless technology experience but feel they don't have one. The article recommends improving satisfaction with enterprise applications, automating expense reporting and approval processes, and automating mileage capture to enhance…
SAP Concur announced that BlueSky will join Concur TripLink's network of corporate booking portal integrations to bring an end-to-end T&E experience to the China market. A new integration between TravelSky and Concur TripLink will allow companies with business travel in China to book air and hotel travel via BlueSky and have those bookings automatically sync with their SAP Concur solution. BlueSky owns all domestic air content in China, with over 400,000 domestic hotels and 100,000 foreign hotels in inventory. The integration provides an end-to-end view from shopping and booking to spend approval and expense reporting, and enhances visibility into travel program spending.
IDP Education, a global international education services provider, deployed SAP Concur Expense and Travel solutions to address inconsistent purchase-to-pay processes across multiple platforms. It became the launch customer to integrate SAP Ariba purchasing with Concur Invoice for payment processing. The nine-month project was completed in three phases, with the final phase managed remotely due to COVID-19. Within a year, user feedback was positive: purchase orders created in Ariba map to Concur Invoice, Invoice Capture uses AI to eliminate manual entry, and mobile access plus audit trails improve accuracy and timeliness of payments.
Christopher Juneau returns to SAP Concur as Head of Market Strategy, his second stint after first working at Concur in 2001. He notes SAP is ranked #1 in T&E technology with 49% market share and Concur Travel is the largest OBT. He cites survey data: 94% of business travelers plan to reduce environmental impact in the next 12 months, and 92% want sustainability info in booking tools. SAP Concur is making a significant platform modernization investment, with Concur Travel evolution through 2023 to deliver consumer-grade UX, sustainable travel options, improved policy compliance, and intelligent integrations.
Many county governments still use manual or paper-based expense reimbursement processes, leading to inefficiencies and lack of transparency. Manual systems are slow, error-prone, and more susceptible to fraud. Automating expense processes can speed up cycle times, eliminate human error, reduce fraud, and provide clear visibility into expenses. The article outlines benefits in spend management, control and compliance, and employee experience, and recommends SAP Concur solutions to help counties modernize their expense systems.
The article notes that policy violations for excessive personal expenses rose 21.8% from 2020 to 2021. It recommends four steps to improve expense policy compliance: review and refine expense categories (the 'Other' and 'Miscellaneous' categories ballooned to over 60% of spending from 2019 to 2021); write a more effective reimbursement policy; automate expense reports and reimbursements (SAP Concur customers reported 43% less time to submit, 65% more compliant claims, 50% less time to reimburse); and analyze expense data to inform business growth.