SAP Concur Ties Up With HDFC Bank And Mastercard To Prevent Fraudulent Claims
Filing expense reports has been the most unpleasant task in business life. For business, reining in employee-driven spend has been a priority always. The prospect of better employee experience that takes away the drudgery involved in filing expense reports gets huge welcome. In technology and HR, this is called as Spend Management.
Concur Solutions, an SAP company, has been the leader in this field. Says Mankiran Chowhan, Managing Director, Indian subcontinent, SAP Concur, “We have hugely evolved in keeping with the times. As spending gets easier, control can get complicated. We are now in the era of Intelligent Spend Management with intelligent tools and processes eliminating the complexities of spend management.”
Mankiran adds that as the preference for self-service increases, business travelers are booking travel directly – but organizations need to not only control costs but also increase overall travel and expense visibility. Validating the impact, Mankiran says that intelligent spend management software is now used by not only large global organizations but even organizations in the SMB sector. She cites a recent Forrester Research study that revealed that two-thirds of organizations (68 per cent) say travel and expense management software is considered the most important tool for enabling good employee experience. Global organizations aside, SAP Concur counts Indian organizations such as Somany Ceramics amongst its customers and the list has been growing.
SAP Concur recently announced a strategic partnership with HDFC Bank and Mastercard that will enable Indian corporates of all sizes to re-imagine the way they pay for, reconcile and manage company spending. To help facilitate this, HDFC Bank will be offering a corporate credit card for business travellers, providing a one-stop solution for payment and expense management during business trips. The corporate credit card will enable seamless integration of all business-related spend into SAP Concur offerings, enhancing employee experience, increasing visibility, saving money, and improving corporate efficiency. The card is supported by Mastercard.
A recent SAP Concur survey conducted amongst 500 Indian business travelers revealed that:
1. Thirty-one percent were stressed about filing expense reports after a business trip in the middle of a busy workday.
2. Owing to the existing gap in business travel expense management solutions, the survey also revealed that 32 per cent of employees lost over INR 7000 of their personal money on a travel related business expense that wasn’t reimbursed.
Inaccurate claims, intendedly fraudulent or inadvertent, also leads to employee spends that impact the finances of the company.
Announcing the partnership, Mankiran said, “Success in business today means finding ways to be more productive while reducing costs. However, as spending gets easier, driving control and improving employee experience gets more complicated. By automating and integrating travel, expense, and invoice management, we are helping our customers build an intelligent spend management platform. This enables them to uncover valuable spend data, simplify processes, and make smart decisions. Using our joint solution, organisations can make strategic decisions based on insights unique to their business and gain a consolidated view of their budget, drive control on how employees spend money, automate payments to speed up processing, and ensure compliance and data accuracy.”
Apart from various card-related complimentary offers, the key benefits of the partnership include:
1. Upfront visibility and control of spends: All business spends incurred by an employee are populated in Concur Expense to ensure faster claim submission, processing, and reimbursement in compliance with the organisation’s policies.
2. Cashless payment and digital claim process: Minimizes the need to carry cash and delivers efficiency and accuracy in employee reimbursements.
3. Integrates partner apps: Provides the advantage of a connected ecosystem by leveraging partnerships with Uber for Business, Booking.com, Airbnb, Hilton and other partners.
At the launch, Parag Rao, Country Head, Payments Business and Marketing, HDFC Bank said, “With this card, corporates will be able to offer the best business traveller experience through cashless payments that integrate with management solutions for Concur Expense. Corporates can gain greater insights and control, while ensuring regulatory and tax compliance through this solution. Together with SAP Concur solutions, we aim to reinvent the way Indian corporates experience business travel.” He added that as India’s largest credit card issuer, it is the bank’s endeavor to have a card specifically designed for every Indian and that the partnership with SAP Concur and Mastercard presents a compelling proposition for corporates and business travellers.
