In a business climate that demands companies do more with fewer resources, solutions that actually reduce costs have never been more important.

Concur recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study on Concur’s travel and expense management solution. Exploring the potential ROI realized by organizations implementing our solutions, four of our clients were interviewed as a basis for determining the potential financial impact. The Total Economic Impact of Concur Travel And Expense Management revealed that not only are Concur clients achieving amazing ROI numbers, but they are realizing these savings very quickly.

Concur’s mission is to drive costs out of businesses through innovation. Here’s a new client case study that demonstrates how one company uses Concur to help them drive costs out of their business.

Zarlink Semiconductors, a Canadian-based global technology leader, selects the best market-leading solutions to satisfy its own technology needs. Four years ago, Zarlink replaced its ineffective online expense management and reporting tool with Concur® Travel & Expense, and never looked back.

Concur’s mission is to drive costs out of businesses through innovation. Here’s a new client case study that demonstrates how one company uses Concur to help them drive costs out of their business.

Pilot Flying J, the largest U.S. operator of interstate travel centers and leading seller of over-the-road diesel fuel, was recently in desperate need of an automated solution to effectively process approximately 800 expense reports and 15,000 invoices per month. Wanting to gain visibility into these processes while reducing their total workload, they turned to Concur® Travel & Expense and Concur® Invoice to implement for this effort.

After months of designing, planning and testing work, today we are excited to unveil a number of new enhancements to our travel booking tool, Concur Cliqbook Travel, and our flagship product, Concur Travel & Expense. We’ve made some big changes to the look, feel and performance of Concur Cliqbook Travel, and hope that travelers will enjoy using it as much as we do. The new user interface is easy to navigate, customize and in our opinion is downright good looking.

I’m one of the original architects and principal software engineers behind Concur’s market-leading travel technology. Back in the late 90’s, while at Outtask, I helped develop the original travel booking tool that eventually became Concur Cliqbook Travel. In 2005, we rewrote the user interface, and in 2006, after Concur acquired Outtask, I was thrilled to stay on and help integrate it into Concur Travel & Expense.

I’ve been involved in several iterations of this travel booking tool and am thrilled with the updates we’ve made to it; we hope you will be too. In approaching the redesign and update process, I, along with a team of engineers, designers and a small army of software testers, set out to create what we feel is the best corporate travel booking tool available today.

Concur’s mission is to drive costs out of businesses through innovation. Here’s a new client case study that demonstrates how one company uses Concur to help them increase compliance, keep employees productive while on the road with mobile and support the organizations global needs.

A leading company in global electronic design innovation was using an automated expense solution, but the company needed greater flexibility to manage its complex, global travel program. A satisfied Concur® Cliqbook Travel client for many years—managers “love” the automated workflow process—Concur® Travel & Expense was a logical choice.

“We have gained enormous flexibility,” says their global travel manager. “We needed a fully customizable solution. Concur works for us because it’s not a cookie cutter approach.”

Important enhancements for the company include VAT reclamation and better management of global travel policies. They have rolled out Concur Travel & Expense in several international markets to support a global corporate standard. In North America, total visibility into travelers’ choices and an automated pre-trip approval process enable travel managers to maintain the tightest possible controls.

Xconomy Seattle recently sat down with Concur co-founder and COO Rajeev Singh for a candid interview about Concur’s history, growth and shifts in the industry overall, including the transition to SaaS and the increasing presence of mobile.

In this two-part interview, Thea Chard of Xconomy observes, “And while travel and expense reporting software may not sound like the hottest product on the shelves these days, according to co-founder, president and chief operating officer Rajeev Singh, the company has found a way to maintain rapid growth by shifting away from business services and into the fast-evolving mobile scene.”

This article provides fascinating insight into a culture of constant innovation that is the hallmark of Concur’s continued growth. It also provides a bit of detail on interesting chapters from Concur’s past – from what it takes to build a company from the ground up to lessons from surviving the dotcom crash – and even includes thoughts on where Concur might be in five years. To read more, check out part 1 and part 2 of the article.

Concur’s mission is to drive costs out of businesses through innovation. Here’s a new client case study that demonstrates how one company uses Concur to help them streamline processes, reduce costs and increase visibility into data.

A highly sophisticated biomedical technology company and global leader in its field was finding it difficult to manage expenses using its existing internal systems. To address this challenge the company overhauled its ERP system and adopted Concur® Travel & Expense to help manage their employee spend. Within six months of implementing Concur, the company cut both the cost and the time of processing reports roughly in half. Automating the expense reporting process has virtually eliminated errors, a persistent problem with the manual system, due to the complex nature of their business.

This week has seen the start of yet another airline labour strike, this time with the cabin crews from British Airways walking out for three rounds of five day-long strikes. Fresh on the heels of the volcanic ash cloud disruption, another issue has scuppered business travel plans. Business travellers across the globe are once again at the mercy of events beyond their control – only this time they’re man-made – and are faced with two decisions: wait to see if their flight will go ahead or be cancelled, or to book a different flight with a different carrier.

For those opting to change their flights, it could be a long and laborious process: either waiting in a queue at the airport or searching for available flights and times, along with entering personal and payment data in over and over again. Fortunately, many travellers have access to automated travel booking processes, which means they can view their current itinerary and easily make adjustments as needed, whether that’s booking a taxi or rental car, or changing hotel reservations.

Without a doubt, you heard about the 20 March ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano that caused chaos to business travellers across the globe. As you saw on the news or perhaps experienced yourself, numerous flights were cancelled, European airspace was closed for days on end and business travellers had to seek alternative ways of finding their way home. Just when it appeared everything was getting back to normal, another eruption meant business travellers were faced with the same issue all over again.

Whilst travel seems to be gaining some stability again, the fallout from the crisis will cause financial disruption for businesses for months to come. When employees who were stranded file expense claims, the real cost for businesses will become painfully apparent. Figures from ACTE show that 29 percent of travel buyers did not have a specific program and policy in place to deal with this type of crisis.

Concur’s mission is to drive costs out of businesses through innovation. Here’s a new client case study that demonstrates how one company uses Concur to help them drive costs out of their business.

A leading beverage company with 500 employees had an intricate and complex accounting system and cost center structure, resulting in accounting managers needing an automated T&E solution with great flexibility and customization with 100 percent accuracy and total integration with their general ledger.

“We’re amazed at what this platform is capable of. We’ve been able to integrate so many components,” says their Director of Accounting. “This is a powerhouse of a tool, and it truly is an end-to-end solution. The reporting is incredibly easy to use and the intelligence is unbelievable.”