<B> Expense Exchange</B>
By Mary Ann McNulty, Technology Editor
<a name="1"><B>Automating Purchasing</B>
Expanding its expense reporting application, Value Integrated Network LLC last month released software to automate the procure-ment process. Designed to work with all leading procurement card products, VIN.net Procurement System captures ordering and billing information by item and/or department, and automates reconciliation and approval, general ledger posting and payment. As with its expense software, corporations can license the software themselves or outsource the processing to VIN.net. The procurement version was designed for Akzo Nobel Chemical of Chicago, a T&E customer since 1996. "With VIN.net providing reconciliation and disbursement, we will eliminate the use of multiple procurement cards and reduce our payments by approximately 100,000 transactions annually," said Akzo's manager of supplier services. "The VIN.net solution will quickly pay for itself."
<a name="2"><B>Unisys Partners With Necho</B>
Unisys Corp. of Reston, Va., will replace its homegrown expense reporting software with Necho Systems Corp.'s NavigatER, which it will private label as UniTrex in its suite of end-to-end automated solutions. Necho, of Mississauga, Ontario, will continue to market its Java-based solution. Necho also announced a new product, NavigatER FinancER, to help companies automate the back end of their accounting process if they are unable to automate the front end. The software allows companies to capture data from charge cards, spreadsheets or even manual entry to generate reports on travel spending. The software automates verification, accounting, entry to the general ledger, and audit and reimbursement activities. Necho is charging half of its NavigatER license fee for just FinancER. Last month, Necho also released the latest version of its NavigatER, incorporating Java as the programming language for key modules.
<a name="3"><B>Extensity Supports Windows</B>
Extensity, Emeryville, Calif., announced support for Windows 3.1 users of its Java-based system as it joined the Citrix Business Alliance program, a coalition of industry vendors working to develop complementary products and markets for thin-client/server software. Using a Citrix product and upcoming MetaFrame software, Windows 3.1 users will be able to run a Java-based application. Company officials note the move reflects the realities of corporate automation today: Surveys show that while the Windows 3.1 base is declining, it still represents 60 percent of corporate users.
<a name="4"><B>Portable Lands Big Clients</B>
Portable Software in the past two months has landed several large accounts, including American Airlines, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments. At press time, Portable had signed 125 corporations to use its system enterprise-wide. Most surprising has been its success in the middle market of companies with 1,000 or fewer business travelers. The company has developed a set of best practices in expense reporting that it is sharing with potential customers.
<a name="5"><B>Ballou Releases New Version</B>
Ballou Internet Services Inc. of Boston has released a new version of NetSelect that can prepopulate expense reports with charged data and do currency conversions, and includes a company policy auditor and a new module that allows ad-hoc reporting from anywhere over the Internet.