As
expense reporting providers expand deployment of their products, new
enhancements include foreign-language support, mobile versions and improved user
experiences. A roundup of the latest developments follow.
Databasics
Databasics
last year introduced foreign-language versions, mobile tools and invoicing
solutions. "We were always able to support a good number of global pieces,
such as currencies, taxes and localization, but what we didn't have was
language functionality," said sales director Chris Harley. "Last year
we completed international language support and deployed in French Canadian,
French, Portuguese, Spanish and German," with the ability to support
additional languages, including Asian ones. "The real advantage in the way
we built it," he said, "is that we're able to show a single policy
and toggle through it in multiple languages."
Harley
said multilingual systems support North America-based companies operating in
other regions, which remains the focus of sales efforts. "As we look to
the next 18 to 24 months, we're looking at partners on global deployments"
rather than opening new offices, he added.
Another
major focus for Databasics was mobile functionality centered on a web-based
platform. The company now claims "full mobile capability with any sort of
smartphone or tablet, everything from data entry and approvals to support for
images of receipts," Harley explained. "Adoption isn't as high as
what we hear other people saying. Everyone wants the ability, but we still see
most people accessing" web-based expense tools with laptops. He said the
mobile version "gives a simplified view, but no loss of functionality. If
you want to see all legs of an air trip, you can."
At
the request of corporate customers, which now number more than 550
organizations, Databasics also created and deployed an accounts payable
invoicing solution.
Meanwhile,
the company continues to explore the booking space and talk with booking providers.
It previously forged relationships with booking vendors, but "they never
went far," Harley said. Databasics has a deal to take data from Cornerstone
Information Systems' iBank data tool and found that "most often, that provides
the solution," to a client's data-matching problems. "Most often,
clients request [booking integration] because they've seen a demo of Concur.
Nine out of 10 times they're trying to reconcile ghost card transactions."
Harley
said Databasics' ability to track time spent on booking travel
reservations in recent months has been of most interest to corporate prospects
and potential travel management company partners. "TMCs obviously love it,"
he said, "and TMC relationships are something we've really been stressing
in the first couple months of 2012."
InterplX Technologies
To
support a growing number of international deployments, Minnesota-based InterplX
Technologies added Spanish, French and German versions and plans to introduce
Portuguese and Japanese, said president and CEO Chuck Buckner.
InterplX
also enhanced its vehicle mileage entry process to allow users to enter and
store common addresses with mileage populated from an integrated mapping
service. "This ensures accuracy of mileage reporting and is a real
time-saver for users," Buckner said. "Mileage is on a very high
percentage of expense reports." InterplX processed more than $1 billion in
expenses for clients last year. It also successfully completed a Statement on
Standards and Attestation Engagements No. 16, a type of security audit on its
internal controls and processes.
For
life science customers, InterplX built new features to support compliance with
the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. For example, Buckner said the company can
integrate with customer relationship management/sales force automation systems,
capture and distribute expenses across any number of attendees at an event and
upload the data to a customer's compliance reporting system or third-party.
InterplX
said it partnered with accounts payable and document management firm Data
Dimensions, which uses the InterplX ExpenseNet on-demand reporting tools as
part of a "total accounts payable solution," Buckner added.
Spendvision
Other
than the promotion of COO Shane Bruhns to CEO, Spendvision executives said they
expected no operational changes following Hogg Robinson Group's additional £8.464
million (US$13.5 million) cash investment in the company. Majority owner for
the past seven years, HRG on March 30 acquired the remaining 42 percent of shares
from current and former Spendvision directors as well as one of the founding
shareholders. As part of the transaction, HRG issued new shares worth £4.976 million
(US$7.9 million). "Spendvision remains a separate operating entity and we
continue to have full autonomy over our direction, strategy, execution and
management," said product development head Andrew Whiting. "Jointly,
we will be further integrating our technology to deliver a more comprehensive
and seamless set of propositions to the corporate space.
In
addition to HRG, Spendvision distributes expense technology directly to
corporations and through both telecom and banking partners, including Visa and
Barclaycard. The platform currently services about 100,000 organizations, Whiting
said. "We handle over 100 million transactions a year and have helped
customers manage over US$50 billion."
Spendvision
each year releases five functionality updates. The latest platform enhancements
included new tools to manage lodge or centrally billed accounts, pay
outstanding amounts through electronic funds transfers or cards and customize
configurations. The latter allows Spendvision and its distribution partners to
"better target small businesses, reducing the cost of entry by providing
solutions such as self-customizable financial extracts and data outputs,"
Whiting said. Spendvision also delivered an online bill presentment and payment
solution module.
Other
recent enhancements related to an "improved user experience," Whiting
said, "to be even more intuitive, with an even better mobile
experience" regarding receipt imaging for those on the road.
SumTotal Systems Inc.
SumTotal
Systems last month announced the release of its end-to-end integrated solution
for human capital management including the expense, time and attendance and
contingent workforce components it acquired last year from CyberShift and
payroll provisions acquired at the same time from Accero. Formed through
acquisitions of at least seven software firms, SumTotal is owned by private
equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Human resources consultant Bersin &
Associates estimated SumTotal—including its CyberShift and Accero acquisitions—last
year generated more than $200 million in revenues, fielded more then 1,000
employees and served 3,400 customers, 700 of which were from CyberShift.
SumTotal said it now serves 3,500 customers with its cloud or on-premise
technology.
SumTotal
global marketing vice president Christopher Faust said the company continues to
serve existing CyberShift customers with the "same application, same
people and expanded infrastructure under the umbrella of a much larger global
organization. SumTotal has hundreds of expense customers" and sells the
functionality "as a standalone module or as part of the integrated human
capital management solution."
Certify
Certify
announced a partnership and integration with Sabre's TripCase for itinerary
management. The expense company in January also announced an integrated travel
booking-to-expense solution, powered by nuTravel's booking engine. It also
introduced a service called Spend Smart that allows users to view and post
ratings and reviews on hotels, restaurants, airlines and other travel and
expense suppliers. Companies can prompt employees to rate and review suppliers
as they file expense reports.
Chrome River Technologies
Chrome
River Technologies last month released a new mobile version that allows its
legal and professional service clients to capture, create and approve expenses
from iPhones and iPads. The mobile version also integrates with the company's
invoicing solution to allow users on their devices to approve invoices. Chrome
River provides expense and invoice automation to more than 100 law firms and
other professional service organizations.
Expensify
As
its client base grew to more than 90,000 organizations and 650,000 individuals,
San Francisco-based Expensify created four user plans to support different
sized organizations, from sole proprietorships and small businesses to midsize accounts,
defined by the company as those with fewer than 1,000 employees. To accelerate
adoption within that larger segment, Expensify for the first time created an
inside sales force.
The
company's "corporate" plan includes administrative controls, expense
policies that can be customized and reimbursement via direct deposit. A "team"
plan allows users to create and share expense policies and sync all expenses
with a QuickBooks ledger, while the "professional" plan—designed for
power users and contractors—includes a sync to cloud-based accounting software
Freshbooks, 10 free receipt scans a month and the option to purchase more. The
company also offers a free "personal" plan that includes credit card
import, sync to note archiving app Evernote, basic expense report submission, PayPal
reimbursement, unlimited email and mobile receipt uploads and 10 free scans a
month.
Concur
As
part of a strategy to migrate some of its early small business customers from partner
ADP, Concur paid ADP about $66 million to establish a direct relationship with
an undisclosed number of customers.
The
deal is a "chance to engage those customers directly, migrate them to the
current version of the expense platform, and upon successful migration, to
introduce to those customers the other products we've launched since 2007—travel,
pay, invoice, analytics, etc.," Concur corporate development executive
vice president John Torrey said in February during the Pacific Crest Emerging
Technology Summit. "Ultimately, the value of the relationship around the
assignment will be determined by the success of the migration, which we expect
to drive much better retentive value among that customer base. The second thing
is the incremental value, the opportunity to drive incremental revenue."
While
Torrey wasn't "at liberty contractually to disclose any of the economic
terms" of the ADP deal or customer base, he said it was "really
important for me to put this into perspective."
"For
many years in the early part of the past decade, 20 percent of our business was
through indirect channels and no single partner represented the majority of
that," Torrey continued. In 2008, Concur signed a partnership with
American Express Commercial Cards and "described at the end of 2009 that
American Express had contributed about 10 percent of our business that year, and
in doing so became our largest partner. All we've done since then is
significantly grow our direct distribution capability and continue to grow our
American Express partnership rapidly, such that in fiscal Q4 2011 we said we
generated 50 percent of the business that we did with Amex in the first full
year of the relationship."