Vendors Roll Out Enhancements To Web-Enable Clients

<B>Vendors Roll Out Enhancements To Web-Enable Clients</B>

By Lynn Woods

Vendors of expense reporting products are flocking to thin client, Web-enabled systems that vastly simplify deployment, enhance data reporting functions and further cut down on the time and expense of filing reports. A few are enabling business travelers to key in expenses through wireless phones or other mobile devices containing Web browsers.

U.S. Bank, GE Capital, Paymentech, PeopleSoft and Captura all are offering new and improved Internet-based reporting products, reflecting an accelerated move away from paper.

Having completed implementation with a dozen agencies within the federal government, U.S. Bank is rolling out its Web-deployable Care system to the corporate marketplace this month. Care, which enables corporate travel managers to manage both their T&E and purchasing card expenses within one system, lets administrators set up new accounts, authorize controls and manage information in real time on the Web.

"Travelers can be on the road and if they need an exception for an expense, in a matter of minutes Care enables them to fulfill a business transaction," said Brad Fleener, group product manager at U.S. Bank.

Like all Web-enabled payment systems, Care instantly can be deployed to thousands of PCs via Web browsers, eliminating the costly installation of software. It is designed to offer maximum flexibility to corporations in terms of how they manage expenses, ranging from administration from one central location to total employee empowerment, since cardholders can go online to check their transactions, said Chad Wilkins, head of U.S. Bank's customer relationship management department.

In addition to standard reports, U.S. Bank is developing customizable reporting and ad hoc querying. There is no off-link functionality--users only can use the product online. Care is available in three modules--account setup, maintenance and status; reporting; and transaction management. Fleener said U.S. bank is beginning to roll out the latter to government agencies and corporate clients with purchasing card programs.

With transaction management, cardholders can reallocate expenses to a different cost center than the one specified by default--useful in instances where goods or services are purchased for a special project. Fleener said Care enhances data capture by taking the feed from an electronic purchasing system and reconciling the information with the transaction. U.S. Bank also has deployed a Web-based training site.

"Customers can go from the beginning to the end for the entire program," Fleener said. "If we introduce a new feature function, the customer can just look at the Web site. They don't have to go through training." He said its deployment by the government, which began in 1998, proves this is "an industrial strength system, in terms of reliability, scalability and performance."

GE Capital Financial Inc., based in Salt Lake City, in January rolled out an Internet-based inquiry feature for which it already has signed 50 of its T&E, purchasing and fleet card customers, said GE Capital spokesman Michael O'Malley. The inquiry capability allows cardholders to check their accounts the day after they return from a trip, a huge time savings over the 30-day period required for review under the old paper-based system. Besides viewing current and past transactions, they also can view their account profile and change postal or e-mail addresses. Previously, only program administrators had access to accounts, but this makes them available to the entire cardholder base.

A maintenance feature currently being beta tested should be available within a few weeks. It will enable program administrators to make various changes to accounts online, including credit limits, opening or closing an account and a shift in the reporting hierarchy--if, for example, an employee changes jobs within a department and wants his or her travel spend to reflect the change.

Later this year, GE Capital plans to launch GE Business Marketplace, a Web-enabled hosted platform that will consolidate the reporting functionality of Synergy 2000--GE Capital's desktop reporting system for T&E and fleet card expenses--and Paris, its procurement card expense product.

GE Business Marketplace will consist of two modules: GE NetReport, which will provide a consolidated database to track all card transaction activity, and GE NetProcure, which will allow authorized users to buy from their organization's preferred suppliers via an Internet site hosted by GE Capital.

Paymentech's just-released Version 2.2 of its PaymentNet product enables managers and cardholders to access and administer card accounts online. Cardholders also have access to the entire suite of Web-based expense reporting and electronic statement and payment products, and program administrators are able to generate new reports and user-defined queries with more speed and efficiency by, for example, reviewing all credit card numbers linked to one employee at once.

PeopleSoft, based in Pleasanton, Calif., is introducing an HTML thin client for its Travel and Expense product in the third quarter. "We've taken our Java-based suite of applications and provided them with 100 percent Internet architecture," said Diana Smith, product strategy manager for Travel and Expense. By moving to a Web server, PeopleSoft has eliminated the need for clients to download files and store information on their own applications. Users can log in using any browser. Smith said PeopleSoft's 300-plus clients for its Expense module also would have the option of an offline feature, installed separately, that would enable travelers to complete reports when they're on the road with their laptops.

By formulating agreements with vendors offering self-booking products, PeopleSoft will enable users of its product to have their expenses automatically routed and tracked pre- to post-trip. PeopleSoft has a partnership with Sabre BTS and it is negotiating agreements with other travel vendors to be finalized by the end of the second quarter. Smith said these include providers of content, such as weather updates and tracking of frequent flyer miles. She cited a recent study of travel expense management by Visa that showed electronic expense report systems, when part of an integrated solution, reduced the average cost of processing a manual expense report by 63 percent to 75 percent, or from a high of $78 per report to $19. Using an online expense reporting product reduced the average cost to $53 a report.

Other enhancements include prepopulation of expense reports with credit card data, travel booking information, inclusion of cash advances, airline ticket reconciliation using booked travel information from PeopleSoft Travel, an electronic wallet that lets users store easy drag-and-drop items for expense reporting, and third-tier billing approval.

By early summer, PeopleSoft plans to deploy its product over wireless devices using browsers. Smith said the company was seeking a solution that would enable Travel and Expense to be deployed on multiple wireless protocols.

Captura, located in Bothell, Wash., rolled out the 4.1 version of its Web-enabled expense reporting product, Captura Expense, last March. Based on feedback from Captura's large corporate customers, the upgrade incorporates a more user-friendly interface, with changes to the graphics that appear on screen, according to Captura CEO and president Dan Vetras.

Another new feature is Quick Report, a user interface designed for less frequent travelers. Quick Report precludes the need for extensive training of employees who are less familiar with the expense reporting process.

Other enhancements include: Preparer's Assistant, designed for administrators or assistants who are filling out a report on behalf of the spender; Business Purpose, which lets users configure the report to indicate automatically the business purpose of the expense, as defined by the IRS or its equivalent overseas; SMTP Mail Notification, which alerts users to new credit card transaction downloads and managers of reports pending approval by e-mail; and Spanish and Italian user interfaces, in addition to the existing English and French versions.

The new version of Captura Expense is also the first designed as a hosted solution to corporations that are eager to avoid the high cost of deployment of new IT systems. "Ford told us, 'if you gave us the software, it would cost us over $1 million to manage this,' " said Vetras. Instead, Ford outsources Captura Expense to Exodus Communications, an infrastructure provider, although the actual management of the account is done by Captura.

Clients also can outsource their expense reporting process through Qwest Cyper Solutions, an application service provider that resells Captura Expense (thus handling all the software and hardware applications) to other corporations. A third option is self-hosting, in which the application resides on an internal server and is managed by the customer through the intranet or secure Internet connection.