IBM Adds Java, Outsourcing For Expense Management

IBM Adds Java, Outsourcing For Expense Management

By Mary Ann McNulty

IBM next month will begin pilot testing its 100 percent Java Electronic Expense Reporting Solution at Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of four long-term customers that helped develop the new browser-based tool. If everything goes according to plan, the new version will be installed at Lockheed-Martin, Eli Lilly, Georgia Pacific and the more than 35 other companies using IBM's existing product, called NEDS.

For IBM, the deployment marks the start of a strategic repositioning of its expense offering to customers that previously couldn't afford or couldn't support a Big Blue solution--and a customer base that now includes hundreds, rather than just 50, corporations. "Over the last few years, we've been in the large market, with the cost of our system at $250,000 plus," said Ray Curatolo, IBM EERP practice leader. But for the past year, IBM has been working with customers to redesign the product to meet the needs of smaller companies.

Along the way, it also developed some best practice solutions for expense reporting. Critical issues for corporations were that the software be usable for multiple purposes, globally deployable and browser-based. The need for multiple functionality is important because some early adopters of EERP intend to use it for purchasing, relocation, cash advances and other types of form processing, Curatolo said.

IBM also is offering to handle all technology and data center administration on an outsourced basis for companies that don't have the technology support to bring expense reporting in-house, Curatolo said. It has already signed an outsourcing contract with United Technologies (BTN, July 6) under which it will administer all aspects of the expense reporting technology.

Pricing for EERS is not yet set, but IBM's Global Solutions group already is planning to take the product global, selling it in the United Kingdom by year-end, deploying it in Australia for BMS and producing multiple language versions. "We're now comfortable talking to people doing 5,000 expense reports and above," Curatolo said.