ExpenseItems - 2003-10-06

Visa, MasterCard Report 2003 Growth

Visa International last month reported that during the first half of 2003 commercial card volume grew 24 percent, to $159 billion, compared with the same period last year. The commercial side exceeded the growth rate of consumer spending for Visa. Spending among small businesses accounted for much of the growth, spiking 26.4 percent to more than $79.3 billion. "Small businesses are the cornerstone of every economy, and we are delighted to see that the remarkable growth in the small business segment is now generating volumes that match corporate and government Visa usage," said Lory Yeakle, senior vice president for commercial solutions at Visa International. Medium and large business and government spenders nearly matched their small-market counterparts, with volume of $79 billion—a growth rate of more than 21 percent.

Meanwhile, MasterCard International last month reported growth within its payment programs in the first six months of the year. While the network did not break out commercial volumes, spending within its entire portfolio grew 6.3 percent to more than $595 billion, "despite a slowdown in travel and spending in the wake of the SARS epidemic in Asia, the war in Iraq and ongoing economic lethargy around the world," said MasterCard president and CEO Robert Selander.



Concur, ACL Services Enhance Fraud Module

Concur Technologies last month announced a strategic alliance with Vancouver-based audit and data analysis provider ACL Services to supplement its Compliance Solutions module, which was released this summer. The Transaction Assessment Module offers enhanced business intelligence functionality to identify cases of T&E fraud. Concur vice president of sales and marketing Elena Donio said the Redmond, Wash.-based company "launched it as part of the overall Concur compliance umbrella," and it will be available through the same portal as the original compliance solution for an additional fee. The offerings are not yet available for users of Concur's midmarket ASP offering, since the level of detail the solution provides targets the more "specialized" needs of those in the large market. "The module is comprised of a set of tests that recognize patterns in the data, including excessive and duplicate claims and threshold amounts, and provides administrators with the ability to review cumulative expense report information to identify suspicious transactions," Concur said in a statement.



IBM Adds Functionality

IBM is expanding its global reach with its latest Expense Reporting Solutions release. Addressing the complications that arise from the disparate tax laws throughout the world, IBM spent two years developing the Global Tax and Per Diem module that "adapts to sudden tax legislation and/or per diem changes." The latest release also allows clients to adjust audit rules to help detect and prevent fraud in an attempt to quell concerns about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its impact on corporate governance. Meanwhile, IBM also has added remote filing functionality via a receipt imaging service, through which clients can submit and digitally store T&E receipts through a fax machine.



Expense Underdog Gains Traction

Payservice.com, a small, Charlotte, N.C.-based expense vendor targeting the midmarket with a hosted expense reporting solution, is beginning to gain traction nearly four years after its inception. The vendor recently announced the publicly traded Tiffany & Co. and New Albany, Ind.-based H&H Systems and Design as customers of its ExpenseVisor solution. A spokesperson said the company that was "started in a basement" has been focusing on developing an affordable expense reporting system that offers a straightforward solution without the bells and whistles. "They have the core functionality that people expect in a T&E product," a spokesperson said. "It's for companies that want to automate the process without breaking the bank. The differentiation is the price. It's pretty much the lowest in the market."