Back in January we talked with Bruce Grenfell, Senior Director of Security and Compliance at Concur, about SaaS compliance and security. Six months later, Bruce is back making a guest blog post about why security and service management is more than just a good idea.

Every day we hear issues in the news concerning information theft. Just a few weeks ago, an iPad user’s personal information was exposed to the public due to a security malfunction. Kind of scary considering that there seems to be an online market for just about everything these days.

With this and similar issues in mind, it’s never been more important to ensure that the service providers you work with take security as seriously as you do. Your technology service providers must be committed to the idea that world-class security is an integral part of the service – a commitment that ensures customer information is safe, protected and private. And most importantly, that those services are readily available and perform properly.

How often do you travel by train? In FY 2009, Amtrak welcomed aboard over 27.1 million passengers, an average of more than 74,000 passengers per day, riding more than 300 Amtrak trains per day. Whether you use Amtrak or not, one thing’s for sure: millions of people rely on Amtrak to get them where they need to go everyday.

As a business traveler, you know changes in travel plans are imminent. Without a doubt, you’ve faced delayed flights or terminal gate changes. But how do you stay on top of those changes?

Today, Concur announced an extension of our partnership with OAG (or the Official Airline Guide). And the partnership is all about helping you stay informed while you’re on the road. With OAG, travelers booking through Concur’s services will have immediate access and full availability of flight status information such as departure and arrival times, delays, cancellations, terminal/gate updates and baggage claim information.

Now, when any of that information is changed, Concur will automatically generate a notification for you to keep you informed. In fact, we’ll send updates right to your mobile device – after all, you likely already use your mobile phone to stay informed while on the road. Now, you can take that one step farther and virtually eliminate moments of frustration when your flight changes.

Managing employee T&E spend has received a huge amount of coverage across the media since the MPs expenses scandal. On a positive note, the enhanced media buzz around the topic has helped to emphasise how important it is, in times of economic uncertainty, for businesses to ensure they are doing their very best to keep a handle on expenses. In October 2008, the BBC decided to ban champagne from employee expense submissions. An article published in the Guardian this week, highlights how the BBC has made dramatic costs savings since this change in expense policy. According to the article, the BBC drinks bill fell from £107,511 in 2008 to £55,984 in 2009 – close to a 50 percent fall.

The BBC example shows how one simple change can have a significant impact on the overall expense budget of an organisation. During the recession we have seen a number of cuts made with fewer business class flights and less expensive restaurant bills, but businesses need to evaluate all areas where cost savings can be made. Enforcing a policy, such as mandatory use of public transport rather than a taxi for journeys fewer than five miles, could mean drastic cost savings for SMEs and large enterprises alike.

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.

Earlier this year, the value added tax (VAT) returned to its normal level of 17.5 percent, following its decrease to 15 percent. I previously discussed how extremely important it was for businesses to ensure that they were recovering every penny that was owed to them. Unfortunately, businesses are yet again faced with the same set of circumstances. Chancellor George Osborne announced a couple weeks ago in his emergency budget that VAT is set to increase to 20 percent on 4 January 2011.

With this increase, consumers throughout the UK will have to pay more for their everyday goods. To make matters even worse; businesses are likely to see a significant increase in their expense and travel costs. The undesirable increase of 2.5 percent will make a considerable difference to travel costs for companies. However, there is no need to panic because Concur is ready to help its clients meet the altering economic demands.

Without a doubt, the most important voices we hear from on a daily basis are those of our clients. It’s incredibly rewarding to sit-down and talk with customers about how they’re using Concur, the value they see in our solutions and how Concur makes their life easier.

We recently sat down with Tricia Neal from Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. Hands down; Tricia is a Concur Super Fan! She elicits everything it means to be a Concur Super Fan – she’s enthusiastic, vocal and devoted to ensuring that she’s delivering value to her organization on a daily basis.

For the fourth year in a row, Concur is named one of the best places to work by Seattle Business Magazine!

Concur was named #3 among medium sized companies on ‘Seattle Business Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For” list! This is a huge testament to Concur, as the company moved up from #5 last year, #8 the year prior and #14 in 2007.

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.

Think back to the last time you received an invoice from a supplier. You likely submitted it to your Accounts Payable (A/P) department for processing and payment and then thought: My job is done here. I submitted the invoice. That is until your supplier contacted you weeks later, wondering when they’re going to be paid.

Now what? You don’t know when the supplier will be paid – after all, you’re not in A/P. So, you likely spend your valuable time working with A/P to determine when the invoice will be paid, because you want to keep your supplier happy. Then, you work with your supplier and keep them posted about their expected reimbursement date. Seems like a lot of work, doesn’t it?

What if there was a way for the supplier to go online and with just a couple of clicks and get complete visibility into where their invoice is within your company’s reimbursement process? Better still, what if they could do all that without you even being involved? No more getting stuck in the middle, trying to keep the peace between A/P and your supplier. Well, the good news is that Concur now offers a better way to bridge the gap between the supplier and A/P department.