AI Is Paving The Way For Successful Business Continuity – Find Out How With SAP Concur

Whether it’s managing changing legislations, dealing with the Great Resignation or disruptions to global supply chains, planning for successful business continuity in a post-pandemic world can be an opportunity for navigating pastures new, but many finance directors are uncertain of what this might look like.

To discuss how the world has changed and how businesses needed to pivot in order to safely traverse these changing landscapes, SAP Concur’s Matthew Clementson, Head of Enterprise UK&I, and Jamie Johal, Lead Strategic Consultant UK&I, sat down with Alara Basul, from Financial Director in our webinar, “SAP Concur & Financial Director – How to Recover: Building a Bulletproof Business Continuity Plan”.

A number of key topics were discussed, including introducing AI and getting a grip on your data management, how rising costs to maintain business premises are now matched with hybrid working conditions and some top tips for CFOs looking for effective continuity and creating futureproof plans for the organisation.

SAP Concur & Financial Director

How to recover: Building a bulletproof business continuity plan

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In this article, we’ll give an overview of some of the main points discussed and why they’re so important to today’s forward-thinking businesses.

Data Management and AI Are Essential

The power of data has been underestimated for a number of years and businesses have potentially been sitting on a plethora of information, but legacy technologies and paper-based processes result in disparate data, which makes it impossible to gain visibility. And with global supply chains being disrupted due to COVID-19 and Brexit, visibility over all spend is more important now than ever.  As Jamie explained, “The data became so paramount [over the pandemic]. It wasn’t just a case of ‘do we have access to the data’? It was ‘can we act on that information fast to benefit the business?’”.

An IDC paper, 2022 IDC Travel and Expense Software Maturity Model, has reported that 53% of businesses plan to increase spend on finance-related technologies. This means businesses are ready to streamline their processes and optimise the way they work by moving to AI automation. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that businesses are committed to automation fully, as Matthew said in the webinar, “What we’re saying is you need to look at it and you need to dip your toe in the water of some of these situations and test it and it can make big differences.”

Fraud Detection and Tax Reclaim Are Often Overlooked

Compliance and risk mitigation is key for successful business continuity and by having visibility over spend that’s out of policy you can quickly highlight areas that need improvement. On top of this, changing legislations, particularly MTD ITSA and UK SOX compliance requires financial digital transformation so businesses can navigate these changes effectively.

“There’s no way you can track this [compliance] or keep an eye on it at a personal level. It has to be AI driven,” Jamie explained. Automation helps track non-compliant spend in every corner of your business, whether it’s reporting mileage, auditing expenses or handling duplicate invoices.

VAT reclaim can often be overlooked by businesses because they simply don’t know what they can or can’t claim on, Jamie said, “We found that a lot of customers were overclaiming VAT on their expenses or failing to recover foreign VAT. That can be significant. We’ve seen cases in the millions of pounds that people have just left and as a shareholder in some of these companies, I would not be impressed.”

Great CFO Tips

Jamie and Matthew gave some top tips for CFOs wanting to ensure effective business continuity, here are just a few:

1. Create accurate and regular reports. Being able to see the data and understand it means that you can make informed business decisions based on real data and insights.
2. Have a closer look at your financing. Now that businesses have changed, look at your policy and ask if it still benefits your organisation. For example, do you need a car scheme if people are doing very little driving?
3. Stay on top of non-compliant spend. Fraud can slip through the gaps and, if it’s not fully managed, what might have once been a small problem has suddenly turned into millions of pounds lost.

Q&A

Is automation one size fits all in terms of scaling and opportunistic values?

Automation is not one size fits all. As Jamie said, “Everyone’s different. The beauty of SAAS and cloud solutions is they’re agile. So, no matter where you are on the journey or even if you’re thinking about starting the journey, it’s all about optimisation.”

Matthew clarified, “With SAP Concur specifically, we have layered solutions so you can enter the journey at whatever point. Whether it’s within an audit capacity, tax reclaim specifically or it’s more about data, automation and AI.”

What’s the most valuable lesson that you’ve learnt in the last two years?

Matthew and Jamie both echoed the same sentiment on the webinar, which is to value your employees and improve working conditions. As Matthew explained, “I’ve always found that if people are engaged in what they’re doing, they deliver their best. So, we’ve tried to improve working conditions, whether that’s working hours, or working from anywhere, whatever you need to do.”

There are many ways to plan for effective business continuity, with data management and finance automation at the forefront for navigating moments of change. Automation can help businesses traverse the economic uncertainty surrounding business value proposition, as well as help leaders devise a plan to improve the employee experience and ultimately avoid the great resignation. SAP Concur solutions have the tools you need to make better and more intuitive decisions for your business. To find out more about how SAP Concur solutions can help plan for business continuity, watch our webinar.