Announcing the 2021 SAP Concur Innovation Award Winners

Every year at SAP Concur Fusion we take the time to recognize customers who exemplify innovation and use SAP Concur solutions to help them focus on being best run. And, over the past year as our customers faced disruption and were forced to adapt to enhance employee safety, it has been gratifying to see our customers embracing this spirit of innovation. Through these unusual times, we have seen our solutions used to support the transition to remote work and to ensure travelers are safe and accounted for.

To recognize this commitment to rethinking what’s possible together, I’m happy to announce our six 2021 Innovation Award winners who share our passion and commitment to innovation. 

2021 SAP Concur Innovation Award winners

“Siemens creates technology to transform the everyday. Their ambition is to become the leading technology company for the industries that they serve – not just today, but in the future. Therefore, Siemens has already started to use different distribution channels and see the NDC standard as a great feature to get customized offers for their demand,” explained Thorsten Eicke, Vice President Global Mobility Services, Siemens Supply Chain Management.

“Reshaping our travel and expense processes, Siemens required digital solutions to enable employees to focus on the work that drives business performance rather than spending time on complicated administrative tasks,” explained Sean Walkinshaw Vice President Strategy & Portfolio, GBS HR Services, for Siemens. “In our private lives, we've evolved to online immediate results-oriented services from any device. Our employees expect that same solution in their professional lives."

Learn more in the Siemens customer story video.

Vodafone is a global technology communications company that thrives on innovation and keeping society connected. The organization operates mobile and fixed networks in 21 countries and partners with mobile networks in 48 more. Vodafone leaders had a vision of moving from a fragmented travel and expense (T&E) management process to a global, transformational, best-in-class digital operation, with mobility and automation at its core. SAP Concur solutions are helping Vodafone achieve that mission by enabling it with one, comprehensive suite of cloud-based software solutions that improves spend visibility, is easy to use, and delivers value to every layer of the business.

“We’ve been moving forward to become a digital technology communications company so we can provide absolutely the best experience for our customers. We knew SAP Concur solutions could help us become that digital-first company,” explains Gary Allen, Global Program Manager for SAP Implementation Programs, Vodafone Group plc.

Learn more in the Vodafone customer story video.

Founded in 1992, CAF America is a leading expert in international philanthropy, with a network of more than 1.8 million charities in 110 countries worldwide. Concur Expense provided the visibility that CAF America needed, while equipping its staff with automated, user-friendly tools that enable them to focus their time on leading cross-border giving to validated charities, not on paperwork.

“As a nonprofit organization, we have to ensure that we run as efficiently as possible, keep a close eye on expenditures, and make sure those expenditures are well documented for audit purposes,” said Ted Hart, President and CEO of CAF America. “The SAP Concur platform enables us to accomplish all of those goals.”

Learn more in the CAF America customer story video.

Bishop-Wisecarver is a family-owned company that’s been committed to earning the trust of its customers with the highest-quality products for the past 70 years. Bishop-Wisecarver leaders wanted to find one comprehensive, integrated platform to automate employee reimbursements, invoice approvals and payments—and provide an exceptional user experience in the process. With Concur Invoice the AP department alone saves 80 hours per month and additional controls and visibility enabled by Concur Expense allowed the company to reduce credit card spend by nearly 25%. 

“Prior to using SAP Concur solutions, our month-end process could be up to 15 days—or more, depending on what was going on that specific month,” said Joe Lusby, Assistant Controller for Bishop-Wisecarver. “Once we had the SAP Concur platform in place and started using it efficiently, we reduced our close time to three days. And quite honestly, if we were in a pinch, we could probably close in a day. We wouldn’t be able to do that without SAP.”

Learn more in the Bishop-Wisecarver customer story video.

Serco Ltd is one of the world’s largest providers of essential public services to governments and by applying best practices and innovation, fueled by more than 50,000 employees in 20 countries around the globe, Serco makes a positive difference in the communities it serves. Within the first 12 months of using SAP Concur solutions, Serco was able to realize significant reductions on travel spend and, amidst the global pandemic and as countries went into lockdown, using Concur Travel allowed Serco to run reports to identify where they had travelers, cancel the bookings that were in the system, and quickly reschedule them to get those employees back home.

“SAP has enabled us to respond to the welfare and safety of our employees. When the pandemic hit, our first mission was to bring home our employees quickly and safely—and the SAP Concur platform really facilitated that,” said Joanne Cartwright, Manager Services Director for Serco Ltd.

Learn more in the Serco customer story video.

Keppel Corporation: The Singapore-based multinational found the SAP Concur platform to be an excellent T&E solution because of its ease of deployment and use. The integration of SAP Concur solutions with Keppel’s existing systems helped automate a lot of work for finance teams and ensured employees received timely payments.

“SAP Concur has provided a common platform to process T&E across our business units, ensuring greater financial governance and internal controls,” said Jason Chin, General Manager, Group Information Technology.

In a challenging year, it is gratifying to see SAP Concur solutions help our customers adapt and transform their business and we are proud to have these great organizations–Siemens, Keppel Corporation, CAF America, Vodafone, Bishop-Wisecarver, and Serco–as our 2021 innovation Award winners.