Feature: Expense Management
➔ Meridian Global Services is not the only company to go down the hosted web service
route and with many smaller organisations just looking for a basic tool to record expenses, specialists are allowing them to access and pay for what they use and switch off other unnecessary functionality. KDS says its online systems give access to the
full breadth of functionality apart from a couple of areas such as the ability to configure multiple policies because most smaller organisations operate in a small number of countries. Executive vice president for sales and marketing, Dean Forbes, believes the increased availability of systems for smaller organisations has further increased awareness and take-up of the technology. Gray Dawes, a KDS user via its gdbookonline system, has just taken advantage of the trend and integrated the expense management function into its self-booking tool so that smaller companies can benefit from a more seamless experience at a lower cost. Forbes points out, however, that the number
of systems available presents companies with a dilemma whether to choose a simple online service that will automate their expenses but potentially not be able to meet requirements in the future should a company change or expand. “It’s an interesting dynamic. They can be up
and running within half an hour on a basic platform but that will never scale so do they go with something for now or choose a partner they can grow with,” asks Forbes. He adds that this is why KDS has chosen not to reduce functionality or pricing on its system any further. “We want to grow with them or if they are bought then we can potentially expand too. What we have done, as best we can, is remove the barrier to entry,” he says. Clothing and fashion company Happy
Chic adopted KDS technology to reduce its accounting processes, avoid duplication of effort and keep staff within policy. The company also wanted to incorporate its lodging and company credit cards into its online booking tool. According to executive assistant Brigitte Levecq, the company has reaped the benefits in terms of time and resource savings across a number of departments as well as a much easier expense procedure for employees. The reporting element of the system has also helped the company consolidate its programme. Happy Chic is now looking to the technology to improve the travel data integration into its accounting system. SpendVision is another expense management specialist which has followed a similar path to KDS and Meridian Global Services in not stripping down its technology but enabling companies to switch on the modules they need. “They don’t have complex, sophisticated requirements and the advantage of our platform is that their needs dictate what they use. We see it as an emerging uptake and coming out of recession the focus on controlling costs has started to become more prominent,” says Kirby.
The barriers to entry are likely to come down further when Concur unveils its Breeze product in the UK later this year. Many eyes are focussed on how Breeze’s European launch will change the expense management landscape. The technology has been specifically designed
for smaller organisations and allows for anything from one to hundreds of users. Concur’s senior vice president and general manager Europe, Barry Padgett, says the company’s main product Concur Expense has always serviced SMEs but that Breeze will lower the cost still further. The system, which was unveiled in the US in March 2010, is available in the Google Apps Marketplace, making it easy to access and use by companies already using the search engine’s range of business management tools. Video testimonials on the Concur website provide some insight into how it’s working for smaller businesses with companies such as Titos Vodka showing its ease of use and time-saving benefits.
“There is emerging uptake and coming out of recession the focus on controlling costs has started to become more prominent”
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