Palm Takes On SAP Expensing

<B>Palm Takes On SAP Expensing</B>


<B>Name:</B> Vickie Smith

<B>Company:</B> Palm Inc.

<B>Headquarters:</B> Santa Clara, Calif.

<B>U.S. booked air volume: </B>$10 million to $12 million

<B>Number of frequent travelers:</B> 350

<B>Innovation:</B> Customizing SAP's expense module to meet T&E management needs


Seeking to implement an automated expense reporting process that would be part of a broader automation effort at Palm Inc., manager of global travel and meeting services Vickie Smith took part in a 30-person team decision to use the SAP travel and entertainment module.

Like everything else at the company that was spun off from 3Com last June, including its travel management program (BTN, Nov. 6, 2000), the expense reporting system experienced a very quick development. Starting March 6, the system will be rolled out to 1,000 employees in the United States and the United Kingdom. Once the system is fully deployed there, the company will continue to roll it out globally. At the same time employees are using the system for expense reimbursement, they also will be using SAP for all other online forms, including purchase orders, timecards for payroll and human resources purposes. The company is training employees on all four modules this week and next week.

Despite the fact that Palm's financial organization was using SAP, the decision to use SAP for travel expense processing was not automatic. Between July and September, Smith had half a dozen T&E reporting vendors make presentations to the team, which made its decision in the latter part of October. Of course, with finance already using SAP, the IT department saw the SAP module as easier to support.

Smith was concerned, however, that the module was not as robust as some of the software packages that are dedicated to travel expense reporting. "For me, since I manage travel and meetings, I immediately thought codes and I brought in five to eight programs that I had thought of as being more user friendly," Smith said. "SAP showed that they had developed a front end that would work for us."

Furthermore, the group found that it could be customized from there. The team decided to link the travel page on the corporate intranet to the Web-based SAP 4.6 front-end graphical user interface. It also put together a dedicated team throughout the company to do development in areas where the SAP system had to be customized. "It did not have some of the functionality that I wanted, in the way that the information was put in on the front end," Smith said. For example, it asked for codes that travelers would not have. Palm's tax and payroll departments got involved to ensure that the system met their requirements. "While we were modifying it, we also added to it from our wish list," Smith said, "such as making sure we are able to save an expense report as a draft."

The Palm team had SAP link with its Outlook e-mail system. They also set up the system so that it would issue reminder notices to employees to file their expense receipts 15, 20 and 30 days after completing each trip. And they made the system send out notices to employees when the reimbursement is made.

Since, in addition to the U.S. rollout, the company now is deploying the system in the United Kingdom before eventually implementing it globally, the Palm team also had to customize tax, VAT and other requirements.

The travel team set up a lab and went through three phases of testing the SAP T&E reporting system. The first phase was for T&E processors--travel staff and accounts payable people. The second involved administrative staff and the third phase was for sales people and other frequent travelers.

"In the first two weeks, we will be running a rapid response center," said Smith, who already is planning enhancements for the next version of the system. "I would like to take our American Express card feed and prepopulate the expense report and do auto payment."

Before the new system is phased in, employees are phasing out use of the Lotus Notes product.

In contrast to that system, Smith said, the new SAP expense reporting system "is easier because it is Web-based and can pull in information tied to HR and payroll. It is easier for the employee, because it automatically populates the employee number and automatically routes expense reports to managers for approvals. It speeds workflow time and provides more robust reporting capability.