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Concur Technologies, Inc. - Expense Management Software -
Category Directory
6222 185th Avenue NE
Redmond, Washington 98052
(425) 702-8808
www.concur.com
Sales
$57 million
Business Description
Concur Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of Corporate Expense
Management solutions. Our solutions are designed to automate and streamline
business processes, reduce operating costs, improve internal controls, and
empower businesses to apply greater intelligence to their spending patterns.
Our solutions include the Concur Expense™ services and software for
automating travel and entertainment expense management, Concur Payment™
services and software for automating employee requests for vendor payments,
and value-added services and software to complement our core solutions,
including Concur Imaging Service™, Concur Travel Integration™, Concur
Business Intelligence™, Concur Total Access™, and Concur Transaction
Assessment Module™.
Our solutions are designed to accommodate a wide range of customer business
needs, technical requirements, and budget objectives for businesses
worldwide. We provide our solutions as a subscription service to customers
on an outsourced basis over the Internet or through a dedicated
telecommunications connection. Our service offerings range from
highly-configurable to standardized solutions. We also license our software
to customers that want highly-configurable solutions, which are typically
installed at the customers’ premises, managed by the customers, and accessed
over a corporate intranet.
Since 1996, companies in over 60 countries have contracted to use our
market-leading solutions. Our customers include six of the top 10 Global 100
companies, including Ford Motor Company and General Motors, and 32 of the
top 100 Fortune 1000 companies, including AT&T, Citigroup, Delphi
Corporation, DuPont, Pfizer, and SBC Communications. Our strategic
relationships include more than 50 leading companies, such as ADP, Microsoft
Business Solutions, U.S. Bank, Accenture, EDS, VISA, MasterCard, and
Worldspan.
Our
Corporate Expense Management Solutions
Our Corporate Expense Management solutions are designed to automate and
streamline business processes, reduce operating costs, improve internal
controls, and empower businesses to apply greater intelligence to their
spending patterns. Our subscription service and software solutions include:
• Concur Expense solutions for travel and entertainment expense management.
• Concur Payment solutions for the management of employee requests for
vendor payments.
• Value-added solutions that integrate with Concur Expense and Concur
Payment, such as Concur Imaging Service for imaging of receipts and
invoices, Concur Travel Integration for end-to-end integration of the travel
planning process, Concur Business Intelligence for enhanced business
intelligence reporting, Concur Total Access for expense data entry by voice,
laptop, or handheld device when not connected to the Internet, and Concur
Transaction Assessment Module for the detection of fraudulent expense
transactions.
Our solutions benefit many groups within an enterprise, including corporate
management, information technology professionals, and employees. For
corporate management, our solutions can reduce the amount of time required
to administer, manage, and process expense reports and payment requests,
thereby increasing productivity and reducing operating costs. Our solutions
also enable management to access information for purposes of internal
controls compliance, trend analysis, vendor negotiation, and financial
planning. For information technology professionals, our solutions provide
simple, Web-based functionality for the administration, management, and
monitoring of our products. This facilitates the management of employee
information, database maintenance, and data interoperability. For employees,
our solutions provide intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces for the creation of
expense reports and payment requests, which reduce the amount of time
required to create these documents.
We offer our solutions to customers through our subscription services and
license delivery models.
• Subscription Services. We provide our solutions as a subscription service
to customers on an outsourced basis over the Internet or a dedicated
telecommunications connection. We offer a variety of service offerings that
range from highly-configurable to mostly standardized solutions that are
tailored to meet the needs of different customer segments. We generally
offer our subscription services on either a “transaction basis,” where a
customer is authorized to use our solutions based on the number of
transaction reports submitted by operation of the service, or an
“authorized-user basis,” where a customer is authorized to use our solutions
based on the number of users that are authorized to submit transaction
reports by operation of the service. Some customers of our subscription
services purchase (or have previously purchased) an up-front license for our
software, and pay recurring subscription fees for our hosting and
application management services.
• License. We license our software to customers that want
highly-configurable solutions that are typically installed at the customer’s
premises on customer-furnished equipment, managed by the customer, and
accessed over a corporate intranet. We generally offer licenses for our
software on either a transaction basis or an authorized-user basis.
Our subscription services models offer distinct advantages over traditional
software licensing. Because our services are provided on a subscription
basis, customers pay for the services as they receive the benefits of using
them. This reduces the financial risk associated with traditional on-premise
enterprise software licensing, which often requires significant up-front and
continuing costs associated with licensing, installing, and maintaining the
software application in-house. In addition, because our services are
provided on an outsourced basis, we, as the service provider, are
responsible for procuring and managing the hardware infrastructure necessary
to perform the service and for delivering reliable, secure, and scalable
performance, which reduces the impact on the customer’s internal information
technology organization.
Concur Expense Solutions
Our flagship Concur Expense solutions are designed to automate, simplify,
reduce the costs of, and improve internal controls associated with, the
travel and entertainment expense management process. Concur Expense
automates each step of the expense management process, from expense report
preparation and approval to business policy compliance, reimbursement, and
data analysis. It provides information for managing expenses while improving
internal controls and business policy compliance, reimbursement speed, and
expense report accuracy. By streamlining the expense management process, our
customers can achieve a substantial reduction in manual processing,
increased internal controls and business policy compliance, and enhanced
access to expense data to facilitate better decision making. We also provide
Captura Expense subscription services and software to a number of our
customers, as a result of our acquisition of Captura Software, Inc. in 2002.
These Captura Expense solutions offer similar features and functionality to
the Concur Expense solutions.
Report Preparation. Our intuitive, easy-to-use interface for the creation of
expense reports by end users reduces the amount of time required to create
these reports, while reducing errors and improving policy compliance. To
speed expense entry and improve accuracy, corporate charge or credit card
information can be used to automatically populate the expense report with
key information, including transaction date, type, vendor, location, method
of payment, amount, and currency conversion. Employees then supply any
additional expense-related information using the user interface. To
eliminate the task of sorting receipts, Concur Expense allows users to enter
data in any order. Commonly-incurred expense information is retained and can
be used to help complete the next expense report. Other features include
simple “checkbook-style” input screens, integrated “help” screens, the
ability to create “attendees” lists, mileage reimbursement tracking, and
automatic flagging of non-compliant and incomplete entries.
Report Routing and Approval. Concur Expense allows the each customer to
determine how expense reports should be processed based on customizable
workflow rules. Once a report is submitted, the workflow policies defined by
the company are applied, and, if manager approval is required, the
designated approver receives an e-mail message containing a link to the
application, where all reports awaiting approval are listed. Our solutions
can be configured to route the report for approval based on cost center,
dollar limit, or other criteria. Items that do not comply with corporate
policy can be flagged for review, allowing approvers to reduce review time.
Approvers can reject individual line items, while allowing the rest of the
report to continue in the approval process. Once approved, the report is
forwarded to the next phase in the process or to the customer’s accounting
department, and the user is notified of the action.
Report Processing. Concur Expense streamlines back-office processing of
expense reports. Because all expense reports are prepared electronically,
the processing department no longer needs to check the arithmetic of each
report manually. Businesses can reduce the time spent auditing reports by
choosing to audit only those reports flagged as non-compliant with corporate
expense policy. Concur Expense reduces the number of status inquiries
between employees and processing departments by updating the status of
reports in the database, and alerting employees via e-mail to the status of
their reports. It also allows significant time savings by posting expense
report information to the customer’s enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) or
accounting package used by our customers, eliminating the need for manual
re-entry of the data. In addition, Concur Expense helps companies claim
reimbursement of tax credits by tracking value added tax, goods and services
tax, and other international taxes.
Data Capture and Reporting for Analysis. Concur Expense offers business
intelligence capabilities by capturing and reporting data for analysis,
which gives companies greater visibility into their financial processes and
allows them to make more informed business decisions, reduce the potential
for fraud, and improve their compliance with governmental requirements, such
as the internal controls reporting and certification requirements of the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Concur Expense can be configured for business policy
rules, which guides employees to make business-compliant decisions, flags
transactions for appropriate approval, and allows for auditing when
exceptions occur. Companies can use captured data to analyze trends,
influence budget decisions, improve forecasting, and monitor for fraudulent
activity.
Concur Payment Solutions
Concur Payment is designed to automate, simplify, and reduce the costs
associated with the process of entering, approving, and managing
non-purchase order vendor payments. It enables companies to streamline
payment requests, facilitating flexible approval processes and automatic
accounts payable system integration. The combination of increased
productivity and availability of valuable data for improved cost management
generates cost savings for our customers.
Streamlined Processing for Reduced Operational Costs. Concur Payment can
provide a rapid return on investment by automating the vendor payment
request process from payment request preparation, account coding, and
approval to payment tracking and integration with a company’s accounts
payable system. It eliminates paper forms and manual processing, which, in
turn, provides reductions in processing costs and the use of valuable
resources.
Automation for Increased Employee Productivity and Improved Vendor
Relations. For many companies, processing vendor payments is a
paper-intensive, error-prone task. Concur Payment automates the entire
process from submissions to approval. Employees and a customer’s accounts
payable department are spared the administrative burden associated with
employee-initiated requests and can capture the details of the payment
request in advance, making information more readily available and allowing
issues and questions to be resolved quickly and efficiently. By eliminating
processing steps, Concur Payment also facilitates more timely payment to
vendors, which enhances vendor management and relationships. Current
information about each vendor payment is readily available to the employee
making the request, as well as the accounts payable department, which
facilitates ongoing tracking of the requests and prompt answers to vendor
inquiries on payment status.
Intuitive Interface for an Improved User Experience. An intuitive,
easy-to-use interface for the payment request process reduces the amount of
time required to create payment requests. Users are prompted for all
necessary information, such as vendor data, account codes, special handling
instructions, and payment details. The payment request is then
electronically routed for approval and, once approved, it is automatically
sent to the financial system for payment. Users have access to instant
online status updates.
Improved Cost Control with Better Business Intelligence. With access to
comprehensive payment details, companies have the ability to analyze trends,
influence budget decisions, and improve forecasting. The availability of
detailed payment data provides the accounts payable department with the
ability to better manage vendors, which can result in cost savings. Our
solutions provide the insight and technology to help companies leverage the
data they collect, allowing them to make informed, cost-saving decisions
within the company.
Value-Added Solutions
We provide value-added services and software that are fully-integrated with
our Concur Expense and Concur Payment solutions. Our primary value-added
solutions are described below.
Concur Imaging Service. The Concur Imaging Service provides companies with
the ability to capture, store, archive and retrieve employee receipts and
vendor invoices electronically. This enables our customers using our Concur
Expense solutions to reduce the costs of handling paper receipts and
invoices. Users can simply fax receipts and invoices to a designated Concur
Imaging Service telephone number, and the user, approval managers, and
accounting staff can then view electronic copies of the receipts and
invoices online through Concur Expense. There is no postage, no need to
store paper receipts and invoices in a central location, and no need to
physically handle the enormous amounts of paper associated with expense
reporting and invoice processing. Receipts or invoices and the associated
supporting documentation are available online throughout the approval,
payment, and audit processes.
Concur Travel Integration. Concur Travel Integration provides customers an
“end-to-end” travel procurement and expense management solution by
integrating Concur Expense with the travel planning process. Users can
access their corporate travel-booking tool to plan a trip. The itinerary is
downloaded to Concur Expense and can be used to create a pre-trip
authorization request, or to attach a printable version of the itinerary to
the expense report. No re-keying is necessary. The user can review this
information, add any additional expenses, and submit the expense report for
approval. The captured itinerary data is then integrated for enhanced
business intelligence reporting.
Concur Business Intelligence. Through our strategic relationship with Cognos
Inc., a leading global provider of business intelligence solutions, we offer
Concur Business Intelligence to give customers enhanced reporting
capabilities with respect to the data gathered by Concur Expense, providing
customers an accessible means of analyzing expense data and enabling them to
save money by managing spending more effectively and to transform captured
data into valuable information that can be used for effective
decision-making.
Concur Total Access. Concur Total Access enables users to enter expense
report data when disconnected from the Internet. Concur Total Access
includes Concur Offline Access™, which is a fully-functioning client
software application that can be installed on a user’s laptop computer,
allows the user to create and manage expense reports on the laptop when
disconnected from the Internet. Upon reconnection, Concur Offline Access
synchronizes with the customer’s Concur Expense solution, uploading new
expense transactions that were created offline. Concur Total Access also
includes Concur Access for Palm®, which allows users to enter expense
transactions using handheld computers, such as a personal digital assistant,
or PDA, device running the Palm OS® operating system. These transactions are
loaded into Concur Expense when the user synchronizes the PDA device, and
the transactions can then be incorporated into an expense report and routed
for approval and payment. Concur Total Access also includes the Concur Voice
Access Service™, which uses voice recognition technology to allow users to
“call in” their expenses transactions while they are traveling.
Concur Transaction Assessment Module. The Concur Transaction Assessment
Module provides fraud detection capability to customers of our Concur
Expense solutions, adding an additional layer of oversight and intelligence
to the expense reporting process. Through our strategic relationship with
ACL Services, a global provider of audit and data analysis technology, we
have introduced the Concur Transaction Assessment Module to help customers
reduce the potential for expense-related fraud and comply with the internal
controls reporting and certification requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
The solution is comprised of a set of tests that recognize patterns in the
data, including excessive and duplicate claims and threshold amounts,
providing administrators with the ability to review cumulative expense
information to identify potential fraudulent activity and deter unauthorized
use.
Professional Services
Our professional services organization offers consulting, customer support,
and training services in connection with our Corporate Expense Management
solutions.
Consulting. We offer consulting services in connection with implementation
of our solutions to assist customers in maximizing their return on
investment in our solutions. Our consulting staff meets with customers prior
to implementation to review the customers’ existing business processes and
information technology infrastructure, and to provide advice on ways to
improve these processes, leveraging industry best practices and our
experience in the Corporate Expense Management market. Our consultants also
install, configure, and test our applications and integrate them with our
customers’ existing systems, as well as help customers develop a strategy
for enterprise-wide deployment of our applications. After deployment, our
consultants work with customers to identify additional opportunities to
further improve their return on investment.
Customer Support. We provide customer support as well as new releases and
updates of our services and software through our CustomerOne Services
support program. Under this program, we provide telephone and Internet
support, including online case entry and review, access to technical
information documents, and technical tips. We also provide new releases and
updates of our services and software for customers who subscribe to our
CustomerOne Services program. Our CustomerOne Services program is typically
included as part of our subscription service offerings. For our license
offerings, most customers subscribe for the first year of the CustomerOne
Services program at the time they license an application; thereafter,
support is typically renewable on an annual basis.
Training Services. We offer a variety of training programs for our services
and software. These programs are tailored to particular user groups, such as
administrators, help desk personnel, or trainers. Training can be either
Web-based or offered onsite for the customer. Additionally, training
simulations can be designed to meet the specific needs of each customer. All
training programs are designed to assist our customers with managing the
transition to our products and services and minimizing help desk calls.
The
Corporate Expense Management Market
We believe a significant market opportunity exists for products and services
that automate and streamline processes involved in the management of
corporate expenses. We call the marketplace for these products and services
the “Corporate Expense Management” market. We believe two major trends are
currently driving customer demand in this market:
• the need for businesses to reduce operating costs and improve operational
efficiency; and
• the need for businesses to comply with new governmental requirements.
In today’s business climate, companies are seeking innovative ways to reduce
costs and improve operational efficiency. Next to payroll, corporate travel
and entertainment expense is the second-largest controllable expense within
an organization, according to META Group, an information technology research
and consulting firm. However, for most companies, the management of
corporate expenses involves manual, paper-based processes that require
action by many individuals. Such manual, paper-based processes are
time-consuming, inefficient, and costly because they involve the manual
re-keying of data, manual tracking of forms and approvals, and limited data
capture and reporting. By automating the expense management process,
companies can realize significant cost savings. According to a 2002 study
conducted by Aberdeen Group, an information technology market analysis firm,
companies that automate the expense management process can drive down the
average cost to prepare and process an expense report from $48 per expense
report to less than $18 per report, an average savings of $30 per report.
One of our customers, DuPont, recently reported savings in excess of $46
million over the past four years from increased operational efficiencies,
tax reclassification, and negotiated vendor rates by using our solutions.
Companies are also seeking ways to improve the reliability of their
financial data and visibility into their financial processes to ensure the
integrity of their financial statements, particularly since the enactment of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related regulations. Under these new
governmental requirements, public companies are required to establish and
maintain appropriate internal controls and procedures for financial
management and reporting. By automating the expense management process and
enhancing the reporting of captured data, companies can significantly
improve the reliability of their financial data and visibility into their
financial processes to reduce the potential for fraud and improve their
compliance with these new governmental requirements.
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