A sneak peek into ‘how self-learning systems are made?’, ‘how futuristic applications are built and tested?’, ‘how a complex business requirement inspires a path-breaking innovation?’, ‘how well businesses can turn data into insight?’ and many more.
Challenge
With the rise of globalization, business travel has exploded, sending corporate travel costs soaring. Organizations worldwide are struggling to control these mounting expenses. For global companies operating in matrix structures across countries and business units, the challenges are even greater.
Our client, a rapidly scaling global consulting firm, faced critical obstacles governing their travel spend:
- Minimal visibility into expenses across the complex organizational matrix, limiting spend analysis
- Decentralized, fragmented policy creation without central governance
- Difficulty enforcing compliance, with frequent violations going undetected
- Inability to monitor corporate card usage, enabling misuse and fraud
- Lack of controls during approvals caused delays from improper submissions
- Manual reporting couldn’t keep pace with 20%+ annual expense growth
These problems arose as the firm doubled in size over 5 years to 1,000+ employees worldwide. Their outdated processes could no longer provide the needed oversight amid exponential transaction growth. It became imperative to implement robust systems to master expense management.
Solution Proposed
Sunshine deployed a 4-phase approach to guide the client through transformation:
- Discover – Detailed workshops and surveys uncovered pain points and requirements across stakeholders. As-is processes were documented and data samples were analyzed.
- Strategize – Findings were synthesized to chart the optimal to-be state. The target reporting architecture, policy controls, and workflows were defined.
- Implement – Concur configuration, custom reporting, integrations, and automations were rolled out in iterative sprints. Testing ensured readiness before go-live.
- Sustain – Knowledge transfer empowered client self-sufficiency. Post go-live support resolved issues, improved solutions, and ensured enduring value.
This structured methodology ensured alignment on goals through co-creation before driving execution.
To address these challenges, Sunshine designed a comprehensive reporting solution fully exploiting SAP Concur’s advanced capabilities
- Custom reports provided complete visibility into spend by business unit, project, and other dimensions for advanced analysis of cost drivers.
- Being an authorized partner of SAP Concur, Sunshine leveraged its expertise in the platform to reduce waiting period of reporting queries by up to 50%. Their team of highly skilled Cognos professionals ensured seamless integration and optimized reporting capabilities.
- During the implementation phase of Concur, Sunshine conducted comprehensive overview sessions on Concur reporting. This equipped the client with foundational knowledge, enabling them to maximize the utilization of the extensive library of 200+ standard reports.
- Reconciliation reports matched card transactions to expenses, flagging discrepancies for follow-up.
- Tighter approvals workflow reduced submission errors and delays through upfront validation checks.
- Automated report distribution and alerts reduced manual oversight needs.
This robust solution tackled the root causes of the client’s challenges by combining tailored analytics, proactive policy controls, and central oversight. Sunshine deep Concur expertise allowed maximizing the platform’s capabilities to meet the client’s unique needs.
Delivery Approach:
Sunshine leveraged proven best practices honed over years of SAP Concur consulting to ensure smooth implementation:
- Immersive requirements workshops uncovered needs and pain points
- Comprehensive platform education accelerated user adoption across the global team
- Tight collaboration during report design incorporated active user feedback
- Iterative enhancements fine-tuned reports until optimal utility achieved
- Rigorous validation testing ensured accuracy prior to production release
- Proactive notifications for critical reports enabled hands-off oversight
- Detailed knowledge transfer empowered client self-sufficiency post go-live
- Ongoing support provides expertise for enhancements and changing needs
This structured approach kept stakeholders engaged while driving toward the solution vision.