Tech Co. Becomes First User Of Expense Product

<I>Wellesley, Mass. </I>- EG&G, a global technology company, is piloting Captura Software's Employee Payables expense reporting software, becoming the two-year-old software firm's first major customer.

In addition, at least one mega agency is expected to sign a deal next month to distribute the software.

After starting with a division in Cranston, R.I., EG&G intends to roll it out at headquarters early next year and gradually make it available to all 5,000 travelers in the United States. Eventually, EG&G employees in other countries might use the software as well. In the pilot, a dozen employees are using the software, and the division's 150 travelers will have it by January.

Unlike most companies that are installing T&E software as part of a cost-driven reengineering of accounting, EG&G is approaching the acquisition as a "value-add to the organization," according to director of travel management Thomas McCabe.

"We know it will make us more productive," he said. "We're taking a totally manual process, pre-populating reports with data downloads from the corporate card and electronic funds transfer back to the bank. Our travelers think it's a home run; they love it. Finance loves not having to check the math, and that's where the most mistakes occur."

The value to travel management, McCabe said, will be in using the data from Employee Payables to negotiate with travel suppliers and to analyze productivity. "Previously, capturing information in this kind of detail wasn't economically possible. It demanded far too many resources," McCabe said.

The team that selected Captura included representatives from information systems, accounting, travel, government contracting and commercial, along with process team leaders selected for the project. After narrowing the field, the team looked seriously at six vendors and heard formal presentations from four.

One of the problems the team found with some products was their inability to handle government per diems, which EG&G's government contracting division requires. "We turned to Captura, which was not nearly as user friendly as it is right now," McCabe said. "But they were extremely flexible and quick learners."

Captura was founded in late 1994 by software development veterans who saw a need for expense reporting solutions coinciding with corporate computing trends that make them feasible, said president and CEO Dana Bruttig. The vendor has worked with five other customers who have been beta testing Employee Payables since June. One of those customers is Coda Enterprises, a Mountain View, Calif., payroll and human resources consulting firm that has documented significant productivity improvements since using the software. Consultants are processing expenses more quickly, allowing Coda to bill clients for the expenses more quickly. Processing time has been slashed in half, according to Susan Lokker, a director<B> </B>at<B> </B>Coda.

Employee Payables consists of two components, Expense Station and Expense Central. Expense Station is used to enter expenses in a checkbook-type register, group them into an expense report and submit them via e-mail. Expense Central is the "hub" where reports are received and processed. At its core is a corporate rule engine that allows corporations to enter their policies and automate approvals. Expenses that meet policy can be automatically approved, while exceptions are routed to appropriate managers. Expense Central also is where credit card transaction data is downloaded and forwarded to employees to pre-populate expense reports, and where accounting codes are entered to transfer expense report data into a general ledger system. Central includes a number of standard and unlimited ad hoc reports.

Captura's product is priced from $250 to $50 per user, depending on volume.