SAP Concur: Transparency and Accountability in Energy and Utilities Spend Management

Key points

• The pandemic forced rapid digitization, and energy and utilities organizations should now assess whether those rushed fixes are effective or need fine-tuning.
• The T&E spend violation rate skyrocketed 292% from 2019 to 2020.
• Fraud remains a serious problem: 69% of fraud occurs in for-profit companies with median losses near $120,000; utilities see a median fraud loss of $200K.
• It recommends finance and IT collaboration and digital spend management tools for near real-time spend and cash flow visibility.
• An IDC report found 90% of decision-makers see room to improve spend control, with top priorities including enhancing data accuracy (39%), managing compliance complexity (36%), and stopping poor spending decisions before they occur (33%).
• Organizations deploying an integrated spend management platform report $777,000 annual savings on T&E reporting costs, 65% more compliant expense reports, and 52% fewer reporting errors.