Portable Software Takes Its T&E To The Internet

<B> Portable Software Takes Its T&E To The Internet</B>

By Lynn Woods

<I>Redmond, Wash.</I> - With the launch this week of its new expense reporting and processing product, XMS/3, Portable Software is offering a client/server solution to travel and entertainment expense reporting and management in fully compatible Windows and intranet versions.

That means managers can review both e-mailed reports completed in a Windows environment by travelers on laptops, and those completed by employees on a network and sent over an intranet or a company server. It also allows systems administrators to easily distribute T&E policy changes and software upgrades from a centralized location to all employees instantaneously.

"When an employee creates an expense report and hits the send button, the product automatically figures out the appropriate application--Windows or the Web. It's seamless," said Portable vice president of products Rajeev Singh.

And thanks to Portable's recent alliance with American Express, which by summer will link XMS to Amex's AXI corporate travel booking system, corporations using both products will be able to prepopulate expense reports with both charge card and booking data. The foreign language and currency versions developed by each vendor will enable them to initiate this process at locations around the globe.

In XMS/3, Portable has created a flexible system that can accommodate the diverse technologies represented in the corporate workplace. The intranet version, which began beta testing about three months ago, is written in both HTML and Java and is compatable with Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Unix and Macintosh systems. It requires a Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 browser.

"We're focusing on global Fortune 2000 companies, which have different avenues of looking at deployment," said Singh.

While the exact price will vary by client and by volume, the cost of the software licensing, maintenance and deployment runs in the six-figure range for about 1,000 users.

The market seems to have found the price not unreasonable. In the next 90 to 120 days, XMS is being deployed "to a staggering 50,000 seats" at customers like Sprint, Exxon and J.C. Penney that have been waiting for a Web solution, Singh said.

Indeed, Portable's track record with major corporations was a prime selling point for its newest customer, Dallas-based Texas Instruments, which last week signed on for the XMS/3 system. Travel systems manager Richard Wooten said TI will deploy a pilot in June, and plans by the end of 1999 to link XMS/3 with its corporate SAP accounting system. The company already has an Internet Travel Network corporate booking system.

Singh said he believes the Web version will jump-start sales of what he claims is already the market leader in automated expense-reporting systems. "Large companies do not have the capacity to roll out a desktop product like XMS/2, so the Web product is a better opportunity. A smart company will deploy technology customers can use today. And 12 to 24 months from now, when companies want a Java application around the country, we'll be ready."

For extra security, the intranet version of XMS/3 runs using a Secure Sockets Layer, which encrypts communications between the intranet browser and server. And since the application runs inside the intranet, companies already have the protection of a firewall.

Other new features of XMS/3 include:

*The capability to create and edit policy. For example, if company policy requires approval from an international travel manager for all international trips costing more than $5,000, an exception can be built into the system for a particular division. "XMS/2 could do routing from point A to B and was controlled at the business travel level," said Singh. "But XMS/3 puts control into the hands of the organization."

The system also can capture and flag policy exceptions to alert the traveler, the approving manager or the accounting staff.

*Foreign languages and currencies. Portable is in the process of developing Dutch and French versions of XMS/3.

*More robust query reports, enabling managers and accountants to get a better handle on the data. The system contains 30 standard reports, including 10 new ones on user activity, expense averages, per diem exceptions, charge-card reconciliations and charge card balances.

*The ability to schedule the intervals at which credit card data is sent to XMS users for prepopulating expense reports. That process can vary by division, or even from individual to individual.

*Barcode processing of receipts. In addition to the barcode reader for scanning and recording expense reports and receipts, Portable Software has introduced an imaging system that can process huge numbers of receipts for larger corporate clients.

Still in the works are a pretrip approval module and a link to American Express' smart cards. Ultimately, Singh said, users simply will slide a smart card carrying a record of all expenses into a slot in their personal computers to download the data, eliminating the possibility of errors.

In the longer term, Portable "is laying the foundation right now to take the company public toward the end of this year or early in 1999," and expects to achieve $20-25 million in revenue and real profitability this year. We'll be a unique high-tech IPO because we've got the substance to go with the glitz," Singh said.