Uses Cognos for reporting which is a too complex.
October 24, 2012
Uses Cognos for reporting which is a too complex.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Software Version
Premier Edition
Modules Used
- Travel
- Expense
Overall Satisfaction
Pros
- Good functionality in key areas.
- It does a nice job of expense report creation and approval.
- Corporate card integration and processing is very good.
- Mobile capability has been well received. We have been successful with it.
- It has good audit functionality.
- If you create a travel itinerary, it flows directly to expense reports.
- From an administration perspective, most changes can be done by us. There’s a workflow engine. We have not made any customizations in the workflow we selected.
- Integration was fairly easy
Cons
- Before the upgrade there were plenty of limitations e.g. multicurrency, # of unique expense types limited, no mobile – but now on the premier edition there are not really any functional limitations.
- Previously the reporting tool was embedded in Concur. In the new version, they are using a Cognos data warehouse which is separately accessed. It takes another level of sophistication to be able to use. I would rather have both as it’s now more difficult to get data out now.
- I would like to be able to add more expense types ourselves. Right now, I have to go to Concur for that.
- It has led to a standardization of how we procure airline, car rentals and hotels.
- Each user spends 50% less time to do expense report
- We have reduced the amount of administrative tasks in finance from consuming 2 to 1 person.
- Mobile has made a big difference
Product Usage
500 - 50% of our company uses it - anyone who travels, incurs expenses.
0.5 - Probably have 0.5 FTE – Account Payables type person (role split across 2 people) to make sure user master updated, do data extracts for SAP, answer questions.
- Expense Management.
- Travel Management - we have only used for domestic travel. We also have a 3rd party travel agency that gets called if a user cannot book in Concur.
Evaluation and Selection
Not sure.
Implementation
- Vendor implemented
- Implemented in-house
Training
- Self-taught
For the most part it is pretty self-service. No formal training is required.
There is a suite of online web based help documents (30-40 of them)
We have a FAQ ourselves.
There is a suite of online web based help documents (30-40 of them)
We have a FAQ ourselves.
Configuration
We haven’t changed the software as much as the workflow triggers that push data and we have created own fields.
Support
Yes - We purchased a package for users to access L1 support.
Usability
Reliability
Integration
- iVantage HR file/employee roster
- General Ledger (SAP)
iVantage HR file/employee roster - data gets ported to Success Factors (our performance management system), SAP, Salesforce.com and Concur. Planning on doing automation of employee changes in upload to Concur.
SAP - expenses go into the financial system. There is a weekly dump via 3rd party tool.
SAP - expenses go into the financial system. There is a weekly dump via 3rd party tool.
Vendor Relationship
We pay according to the # expense reports submitted/month; Pricing is band based. After we exceed our limit, we pay 2x for everything over. 50% of the time we are over a little.
There were no price changes in 5 years leading to upgrade.
There were no price changes in 5 years leading to upgrade.
Comments
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