DAS Transforms Financial Processes with SAP Concur
“What are you waiting for? It will transform your finance processes.”
This is what Laurence Harper, Finance Systems Analyst at DAS, told us when we asked him for the advice he would give to other businesses considering implementing SAP Concur.
DAS, which is the UK’s leading legal expenses insurer, recently implemented Concur Expense, Concur Invoice and Intelligence as well as services to help with auditing against company policies and user support.
The company’s 40-strong finance team, which supports 750 staff in offices across the UK, were spending a significant amount of time manually processing invoices and expenses through a variety of different systems. They chose SAP Concur because it would give them an integrated platform that would enable them to speed up processes, remove paper processes and gain increased control over costs.
SAP Concur is now used by more than 500 users at DAS working in multiple browsers across desktops, laptops and mobiles. Here’s a whistle-stop tour of the benefits the company has achieved since implementation.
A streamlined finance system that has saved time and cut costs
DAS has moved from being a company that had a manual, paper-based invoice and expense system to having a fast-tracked solution in the cloud. Users submit expenses ‘on the go’ through the SAP Concur mobile app and they are automatically checked and reviewed against T&E policies by a team of SAP Concur experts, which means the accounts team no longer has to do this manually. The whole process has become so efficient that expenses are paid the day after approval. Invoices are now centralised through Concur Invoice, making this system much more streamlined too.
Overall, costs are down and finance processes have dramatically sped up. In fact, Laurence estimates the accounts team has freed up over 20 hours a week because they save so much time checking and processing paperwork.
Greater visibility and accountability
The hours the team has saved are being put to good use too because they now have time to think more strategically and be more proactive in improving efficiencies. The automation has also given them a clear audit trail and a higher degree of accountability than ever before.
But this is just the start. SAP Concur integrates all the company’s expense and invoice financial data in a single place and means DAS can now access detailed spend insights in a matter of seconds. The accessibility means it’s a facility the company’s financial planning and analysis team uses daily to extrapolate costs and produce forecasts. It is also used throughout the business to build detailed reports and get insights into spend.
A future-proof system
When DAS was researching the market to understand the options open to them, one of the criteria was a flexible platform that would be refreshed regularly so there would never be any need to worry about working on an outdated or obsolete system. SAP Concur has provided DAS all this and more. Laurence says: “SAP Concur hasn’t just delivered a product – it’s a whole solution that’s being constantly improved and supported. We couldn’t do without it now.”
“A transformative shift”
DAS has seen what Laurence calls “a transformative shift” since implementing SAP Concur. The company has been so impressed by what’s been achieved, it’s now exploring the feasibility and commercial benefits of adding Concur Travel to the platform. It’s also why Laurence’s advice to other company’s thinking of implementing Concur is so clear: “Do it sooner rather than later.”
To see all the insights from DAS’s implementation of SAP Concur read the full case study here: DAS Upgrades its Finance to Become More Strategic with SAP Concur.
