With newpartnerships and software enhancements, expense reporting tool suppliers are moving beyond talk of linking online booking and expense reporting to a broader tackling of the supply chain.
Concur Technologies, KDS, Gelco Expense Management, CyberShift expense reporting division Necho and others in the expense reporting realm are focusing on improving travel program compliance, data availability and bringing controls around total spend outside of the usual airline, hotel and car rental categories. Much of the movement continues to focus on the elusive end-to-end expense management goal—which, by its strictest definition, would cover every step from pre-trip authorization, to cost determination, availability and inventory searches, ticket fulfillment, the actual trip and such elements within it as card use, expense reporting, financial review and reimbursement, and ending with all data reaching a single database—although some suppliers now are opting to eschew the "end-to-end" designation completely.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Ariba Travel and Expense plans to announce this week that it will be integrating the technology of Paris-based firm KDS, which launched an integrated self-booking and expense tool last year
(BTN, Oct. 4, 2006). Ariba expects to have the KDS functionality fully a part of its system by the fourth quarter of this year.
The companies said this is in response to a trend of corporations seeking tools that integrate sourcing and procurement. Up until this point, those tools have excluded travel, according to Annicka Lofstrand, business development director for KDS.
"We're trying to create a unified, streamlined user experience, bringing travel procurement into the same realm as any other procedure or process with other spend categories," said Charles Brossman, solution line manager for Ariba. "The same user would file an expense report and purchase products through the authorized method, which tends to drive adoption on procurement."
Through the integrated tools, users will be able to remain in the Ariba desktop while booking travel, so it consolidates the management of booking travel transactions as anything else purchasing related, Brossman said. With Ariba managing both sets of data, it make such aspects as analysis or pushing data to a client's enterprise resource planning system simpler, he said. "It's an extension of a spend management philosophy," he said. "The benefit of using this type of philosophy and solution is that it feeds other exercises, such as sourcing."
Redmond, Wash.-based Concur, which last year rejuvenated end-to-end talks when it purchased online booking tool Cliqbook
(BTN, Feb. 6, 2006) and subsequently consolidated the tool with its expense reporting software, also this week will demonstrate the latest version of its tool, which works off a single-user interface, said Tom DePasquale, Concur's vice president and general manager of travel management services. Concur's Smart Expense function, to be launched this week, using its network of more than 100,000 vendors—including global distribution systems, chauffeured cars, parking services, restaurants and rail systems—will not only use the booking data to prepopulate the expense report but also uses those same interfaces to gather receipts and automate reporting. This will allow booking data, corporate card data and electronic receipts to be reconciled all at once, often eliminating the need to edit or audit expense reports, Concur said.
"If we're able to get a folio, there's really nothing you can tell me that I don't know," DePasquale said. "Did you buy Internet access, and it was supposed to be free? Did you have breakfast in the hotel? Did you use the right Hertz contract number? Even with our advanced users, they don't make people key in things like that."
Concur last week also announced a partnership program with several travel management companies, including Adelman Travel Group, Advantage Travel Management, Balboa Travel Management, Casto, Directravel, FCm Bannockburn Travel Solutions, Piedmont Travel Global Solutions, Travel Incorporated and Young's/American Express Travel. The partnerships give those TMCs' clients access to Concur's booking and expense tools.
Rearden Commerce announced this month that it has launched what it is deeming its Open Expense Network, allowing users to integrate Rearden's online services with a client's choice of an expense tool. Through the network, business managers can offer a "personal assistant," not only for travel booking but also for use in reviewing other plans, such as dining or parking. The resulting data can prepopulate online expense reports.
"The concept applies to dining, package shipping and all of the other expense categories, and obviously, it provides the ability to enforce policy at the point of purchase," said Dan Ford, Rearden's director of product marketing. "We've focused very heavily on user conveniences, and in doing so, we will drive increases in adoption."
Rearden has partnered with expense reporting suppliers Necho, Gelco, ExpenseWire and ExpenseWatch.com in creating the network. While Rearden has completed the development of its side of the network, it's now waiting for the expense partners to complete their end, some of which could be done by this week. Once that happens, the integration will have benefits beyond prepopulation, the expense suppliers said.
"It centers around the approach of taking the Rearden booking data, taking the Necho expense data and running the process on the system," according to Craig Fearon, Necho's senior product director. "The database will allow them to see variance reports, such as booked versus actual expense or who's not using the booking tool, and be able to better manage the entire process."
The network demonstrates the divergent approaches on the supplier side to expense reporting integration. Both Necho and Gelco report that their customer research shows customers are less interested in a single consolidated tool and would rather have their choice of vendors for each step, with the ability to link them where desired. Fearon said Necho has taken that approach not only with Rearden but also with other partnerships for auditing, receipt imaging and allowing expense reports to be filled out via a user's BlackBerry.
Troy Thibodeau, Gelco's vice president of marketing, championed a similar approach. Gelco already has partnered with TRX's ResX online booking tool to combine booking and expense functions
(BTN, April 23), and it also has espoused partnerships with card suppliers and value-added tax recovery services. The different partnerships, many of which have been under development in the past 12 months, are the key in providing global expense capabilities, Thibodeau said.
"We are taking an open approach, integrating through various partners when it does make sense," he said. "With our clients, who operate all over the world, we recognize that partnering with one company or one booking solution would not meet the needs of the majority of them."
DePasquale said Concur's travel and entertainment content is large enough to be used on a global basis, and the data from that content is enhanced by deeply integrated systems.
"Buying is half the equation," DePasquale said. "We argue that there is one vendor that can provide that service on a global basis, and everyone else is a distant speck in the rearview mirror."
Still, Necho's Fearon said he doesn't even like to use the term "end-to-end," as the company's client base has indicated that it's more interested in the back-end data than direct booking and expense integrations. Understanding the variances in those two transactions is where the true value lies, he said.
"End-to-end denotes a very linear process and denotes a transaction," Necho's Fearon said. "We're talking about 360 degrees, booking transaction and expense transactions giving all the meaningful data to travel management, accounts payable and, in some cases, procurement that allows them to make better informed decisions, fine-tune applications and see what it is that end users are looking for."