Fusion EMEA 2019 - A game changing event, connecting our customers and learning about the power of the mind.

Getting the show on the road

On the 18-19 June 2019 the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London was transformed into a hive of activity as SAP Concur welcomed customers and prospects from across the EMEA Region to the first Fusion event dedicated to them.

This new EMEA conference brought together an audience from 29 countries, representing 500 organisations to network and learn about all the exciting things that are happening at SAP Concur. The two-day event saw us achieve a record-breaking audience number, with over 900 delegates walking through the door, the largest ever SAP Concur event held in Europe.   

Lots to see and do

With 2 keynotes, 27 breakout sessions, 12 micro forums and 1 Partner Expo area, the event was jammed packed with opportunities to engage in a topic or have a conversation with our experts.

The first day kicked off with an entertaining Keynote session from David Mead, the motivational speaker, who can read people’s minds through the power of deduction. David shared his learning on how people behave and make decisions and taught us how little cues can alter our responses.

More ways to engage with our partners

In the expo area 39 partners ranging from Travel Management Company’s (TMCs), Travel Suppliers, VAT Reclaim Companies and System Integration Solutions, hit the floor to showcase how they complement and enhance the SAP Concur ecosystem. The room was abuzz with questions on how to claim back VAT from other counties, to how can a Travel Management Company help my business?

Over the two days, several micro forum talks took place within the expo area. These mini sessions provided an overview of our partner solutions in a more relaxed setting, each session was well attended and allowed for lots of interaction between the audience and speaker.   

And there was still more

Day two started out on an equal high, with our Executive Team taking to the stage. President, SAP Intelligent Spend Group, Mike Eberhard started the proceedings with an opening address on the how some of the best run organisations in the world are using our platform to rise to the challenges they face.  Customers including AstraZeneca, who used the time saved in administrative tasks and processes to give their employees a better work life balance, MenCap who are using the money saved to help more people who really need it and RED, a medium sized recruitment agent, who now have a complete overview of their actual T&E spend, allowing them to save money. 

Mike also talked about how SAP Concur are embracing AI and Machine Learning to realise the dream of making the expense report a thing of the past. 

Next our Chief Revenue Officer, Christal Bemont, spoke about how we work alongside you to bring your business to its fullest potential. Introducing Intelligent Spend Management (ISM); this suite of services brings multiple categories of spend together; travel and expense, direct and indirect and extended workforce and services, utilising SAP Concur, SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass, to allow you to make more informed business decisions.

Christal continued to explain how having an Intelligent Spend Strategy and couple it with an Intelligent Enterprise, moves your insight beyond information and puts it into action; by removing tasks from you, driving resources and your time to the things that will help you grow your top-line and improve your bottom-line. “This makes the data available empowering”.

Delegates were then treated to an interactive session, held by Craig Liasi, Head of Product Marketing and Rachel van der Merwe, Director of Product Marketing. Between them they showcased what will be available from SAP Concur in the future and how easy it will be to book a whole business trip and claim your expenses, all with your employer knowing exactly where you are and manging the spend before it has taken place.

The keynote sessions were wrapped up by SAP Concur’s General Manager EMEA, Pierre-Emmanuel (PE) Tetaz. PE provided an overview of why partners are a critical part of who we are and how we deliver solutions to you. “Working with partners enables SAP Concur to extend our reach and improve the delivery of our solutions and ultimately fuel our innovation engine".

PE was then joined on stage by Stewart Bartholomew from TWI who shared his dilemma of trying to manage spend in a complex business model. It was discovered that 15% of their staff were not using the preferred channel for booking travel. To overcome this gap in their spending analysis TWI were able to use TripLink to have fully visibility of the bookings and spending being made.

It was no mean feat bringing an EMEA wide event to the UK, but from the feedback received, it would appear that we succeeded.

You can watch the most popular session from Fusion EMEA 2019 by joining our webinar series