MANAGEMENT
EXPENSE
Tetaz says the use of receipt imaging and the ability to look at corporate card statements on your device are growing strongly in all regions. Another company betting on mobile
is Web Expenses. Sanjay Parekh says the company’s expenses system started life as an office-based system before moving on to the web and more recently into the mobile space. “There are very clear statistics on smartphone ownership that suggest the majority of people in Britain will have one within the next 12 months or so,” he says.
BRING YOUR OWN The rise of something called BYOD (bring your own device) in the workplace is also having an effect on where expense management is going – the idea that instead of issuing everyone in a workplace with a company-standard handset, everyone brings in their personal device and uses that. Although this approach sounds fraught with problems, it has actually been shown to improve efficiency and productivity, although the IT department has a more difficult job on its hands in terms of set-up and maintenance. It is partly this trend that is damaging the fortunes of the handset previously favoured by corporates: the Blackberry. “BYOD is really helping us,” says Parekh. “Blackberry devices are often locked down, with very tight security around which apps employees can use. With iPhone and Android, there are much more liberal policies.” Being sensitive to users of different types of mobile device is paramount for Web Expenses. “We are imminently releasing an iPad/Android tablet version of our apps,” says Parekh. “We have taken the decision to have tablet-specific versions to make greater use of the screen real estate. It frustrates the hell out of tablet users if they have to use a mobile phone version.” The mobile strategy for Spendvision, fully owned by travel
In association with
management company (TMC) HRG since March 2012, is responsive design: “We identify what the device is and then decide what we can offer customers and how we represent that on that device,” says Spendvision’s Ray Merk, in charge of the company’s customer-facing operations across the Americas. “It means certain pieces of functionality are not shown on some devices because it doesn’t make sense.”
He says Spendvision is enhancing its image uploading capabilities, too, helping travellers upload copies of their receipts more easily. So how does Concur’s recent acquisition of mobile messaging system provider Contgo fit in? The first is that it gives users the ability to locate employees on a very broad level. The second, Contgo’s forte, is in the ability to send targeted and
“Blackberry devices are often locked down, but with iPhone and Android, there are much more liberal policies”
instant messages – SMS, emails or in-app messages. Messaging is also important for
Web Expenses. “ We are looking to do more messaging through our app,” says Parekh. “Things like telling users when their expenses have been paid or that the company deadline for expenses is this week – get your expenses in or you won’t get paid. We see a lot of potential for messaging and being able to consistently reach your workforce.” Another recent Concur investment
is a company called Evature, which hints at where expense management is going. Evature specialises in natural language search – the ability to type in a question in plain English and have the system understand that and be able to deliver relevant
answers. For example, you could type in: ‘Book a hotel in Las Vegas next week for three nights’, and the system would return available properties in the city. This functionality is promised soon. Tetaz says: “The next big thing we are working on is voice-to-search, the ability to talk to your device in natural language and get your results. This will happen for the end of 2013.” Web Expenses, meanwhile, is using one of the standard features of most smartphones these days – an inbuilt global positioning system (GPS) – to help users with their expense claims. “A lot of our users use our mobile app to track mileage. It gives you an accurate log of where you have been and you claim the mileage off the back of that.” This ties in with the increased focus, particularly among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), on the use of the so-called ‘grey fleet’, where employees use their own cars for business rather than a company-owned vehicle.
STREAMLINED CLAIMS Another fast-growing development that has streamlined expense claims, particularly in the area of hotel payments, is the use of virtual cards. Airplus says it was first to the market in the UK with a solution before the current trend and says it is the fastest growing area of its business, growing by healthy double-digit percentages year-on-year. Jon Reynolds is head of product management at pre-paid card specialist Corporate Pay. He says the trend towards virtual payment has been evident for the last 12-18 months. “The reason behind this is the desire for companies to increase their control of the payment. If you are using a virtual solution, it is a far smoother, cleaner way of making payments.” He adds: “Businesses are looking to
reduce the cost of making payments or managing their expenditure.” By this, he means not just the administrative cost of processing the payments, but also controlling
2013 Buying Business Travel • 33
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