Use This Cheat Sheet When Choosing an Expense and Travel Solution

The benefits of moving your expense and travel management to the cloud are well-documented: You get simple-to-use tools that give you greater efficiency, better visibility, and better control of your costs. It’s hardly surprising that for many businesses, their first experience of cloud solutions is with their T&E process.

Ready to select your expense and travel software? Download the vendor assessment

Yet despite all the benefits, a move to the cloud can still seem like a big step into an unfamiliar world. This is especially the case if you feel IT isn’t really your "thing." How will you know what questions to ask? What should you be looking out for? How will you know when you’ve found the right provider?

If it’s fear of the unknown that’s holding you back, here’s a guide to the questions you need to ask to find the right T&E solution provider for your business.

Does the product meet your specific needs?

Let’s start with the most important requirement: does the product itself give you what you need? Here are some things to think about:

• Is the product available anywhere, anytime on desktop, tablet, and mobile so you can maximize the benefits of a cloud solution?
• How frequently is the solution updated and upgraded?
• Can the solution be integrated with your other IT systems?
• How quickly will you see ROI? What is the provider’s track record on ROI for its customers?
• Is the product standalone or does it have an ecosystem of other solutions and apps that will help your business even more?
• Is the product scalable so it will continue to be a good solution even as your business grows or evolves?

Does the provider have the experience and knowledge you need?

There are three areas you might like to consider here:

• Experience: Does the provider have experience working with companies of your size or that sell your type of product or service?
• Knowledge: Does the provider have a good handle on financial regulations and guidelines?
• Understanding: Does the provider understand how those regulations affect your business?

What levels of support do you need?

The best T&E cloud solutions are designed to be intuitive and easy to use. But it’s still likely you’ll need support at some time or another, especially in the early days. Here are some things to consider:

• What levels of support are available from the provider and how easy are they to access?
• What training or training materials do they provide so you can get up and running quickly?

Look at the long-term

The right T&E solution is one that works for you in the long-term.

• What are the provider’s long-term strategic plans?
• What investment is the provider making in developing its solutions and delivering innovative advances?
• Does the provider have a track record in being a long-term partner for its customers?

Starting your search

IDC MarketScape recently reviewed travel and expense management applications worldwide and published its findings in its Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Travel and Expense Management Applications 2018 Vendor Assessment. The report’s authors positioned SAP Concur as a leader in the sector, commenting: “SAP Concur provides the most sophisticated travel booking application among the travel and expense vendors evaluated in this study.”

If you're interested in how SAP Concur solutions could help your business, take us for a test drive.