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T&E expense forecasts for 2012. How does it look?

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So what is the prognosis for business travel in 2012? Here is the long story short:

1) Companies are expecting more business travel

2) Increased pricing from suppliers across the board

Sounds like more of good news with a little bit of bad news. Companies are looking to grow their businesses and therefore expect more travel. Increased supplier pricing is expected to put a small dent. Companies can expect to see their corporate travel budgets rise.

Here is the numerical breakdown of % price increase in a few key areas:

Flights

* North America Short Haul (Economy): 2 – 5%

* North America Long Haul (Economy): 0.5 – 3.5%

* North America Short Haul (Business): 5 – 7%

* North America Long Haul (Business): 3 – 5%

Hotels

* North America Mid-Range: 2.5 – 6.5%

* North America Upper-Range: 1.5 – 5.5%

Car Rentals

* North America Base Rates: (-1)% – 0%

* North America Rate Per Day: 2 – 3%

For detailed information, see the reference article .

Finance Speak – Cloud based or On-Premise?

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(Finance Speak is a new series where we will discuss typical questions & concerns expressed by our customers. We will delve into the logic and analysis behind each discussion. If you’d like to contribute or ask a question, send a message to info@gorillaexpense.com with ‘Finance Speak’ in the subject line.)

Gorilla – Would you like for us to host the application & data or do you want to manage it yourselves?

Executive (Anonymous) –  I think we will be going with an On-Premise package because it will be cheaper

G – Do you have a server? Do you have internal experts who can tackle this? Do you plan to host other applications?

E – We don’t really have an IT team or other applications but it shouldn’t be too tricky I imagine

G – Well, firstly you will need IT experts to deploy and manage the application. Secondly, you are handling important data, which will be accessed periodically, so you need to be sure about security, encryption, retrieval etc. Plus you don’t want the system to go down when people are traveling around the clock and using the application

E – In that case, we will let you manage it. But won’t that be more expensive for us?

G – Not really, considering all factors. Let me break it down in more detail………

We get this question every time, 99.9% of the time actually. Most of our customers evaluate On-Premise (OP) vs Cloud (CL) based solely on price which can be misleading. When you go with a CL based solution you get several things – flexibility, scalability, transparency, maintenance, On-Demand expertise etc.

And when it comes to price comparisons, CL can be cheaper than OP in some cases. Most companies don’t consider the TCO of an OP solution and therefore assume CL will be more expensive. Of course in some cases CL may be more expensive. But there are more facets to that discussion than a simple OP costs-divide-by-12-months and compare to a CL monthly rate. In some companies, there may be corporate mandates to use OP for all applications and that makes sense because price is not the sole reason.

For a more in depth analysis, see this article from CIO.com that captures the salient points very well –

Article

Why organization of T&E data is as important as ever

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One area that many companies struggle with is organizing of expense related data. This is especially important because stakeholders in these companies frequently utilize the data to observe trends, study patterns and take proactive steps towards improving the T&E process. We have guided our customers in this area to use best practices. Here are some anecdotal observations –

The lack of success with data organization & management can be broadly attributed to the following reasons –

Case 1) There are no defined structures – Many companies ‘toss’ expense data into one area. While this expedites the submission process initially, it becomes onerous at a later point when specific information is required. What’s more, without any organization, all T&E related data look the same. If there is ever a case for lack of T&E visibility, this one takes the cake!

Case 2) There are defined structures but no retrieval mechanisms – Here, companies define areas but offer no means to retrieve and analyze the data. This makes any front-end organization pointless because the end goal of analysis and fine-tuning of data cannot be achieved. While this is still a problem, it is better than Case 1

Case 3) Too many structures – The other end of the spectrum includes companies that have defined to many areas. While this may give an impression of better organization, it is really an illusion because of too much granularity. To arrive at meaningful conclusions, several areas must be analyzed concurrently. This makes it burdensome and error-prone. Then again, this is definitely better than Case 1 and Case 2

From these notes, it is very obvious that organization of data is very ‘company specific’. Different companies have different processes and procedures, sometimes even disparate, and therefore need unique solutions to manage this.

A big factor in this is human nature. If something is arduous and complicated, we usually put it off. This leads to forgetfulness, which leads to a mad rush during tax time or at the end of the year to get organized. The implications are huge and the penalties for not managing the data better are substantial. Companies frequently throw away millions of $$ due to –

– Failure to take proactive steps from T&E data on time

– Not realizing all the tax deductions before tax season

– Forget to bill clients because post-deal activities were not categorized

– Lack of spend visibility on runaway projects due to untimely data management

etc.

At Gorilla Expense, we assist our clients by first helping them define clear, non-redundant areas. Once this is done, specific advice is provided to create future areas carefully. Everything is defined based on how these areas are managed in the back-end ERP/Accounting systems. Since our application is extremely pliable, it can adapt to varying formats. Only after this is technology employed.

Using unique tagging & mapping mechanisms built into the application, come tax time or end of the year, our customers are fully aware areas of spend, steps for improvement, categories to monitor for the next FY etc. which are broken down further by customer accounts, projects, work-orders and more. Now that’s called successful T&E data management!

We are always interested in discussing your pain points and help in any way we can. Contact us at info AT gorillaexpense.com.

Year End Introspection on Benefits and Value

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As we approach the end of 2011, we have been discussing with our customers about the benefits they have seen from using our system. The feedback we received was plenty and came in several flavors.

Some of our customers loved getting away from the manual systems they used before. Some others loved the mobile app and how it simplified their lives. Others found huge benefits in integrating with their back-end system, which minimized manual work at two places – one at the user level and other at the accounting level.

We found a common theme running through several pages of feedback we received. It is no surprise that this resonated with research published by The Aberdeen Group in 2007.

It all boils down to this – At the end of the day, an expense management system must help a company achieve the following:

Cost reduction: Companies must cut costs associated with the managing of expense reports. With the help of a vendor who knows the game, companies can trim the fat at every step in the lifecycle – creating, submitting, processing, tracking and auditing of expense reports.

Enhance Productivity – By incorporating a system that is user-friendly and intuitive, employee productivity takes a shot in the arm. Using the latest technology, employees spend less time on unbillable work such as expense reports, thereby leaving more time for the important tasks.

Reduce Compliance Risk – Compliance comes in two flavors – internal compliance and government/tax compliance. Internal compliance includes the set up of policies that are lenient in nature, well understood and constantly communicated. Government/Tax compliance includes compliance to Sarbanes-Oxley, receipt capture and expense data as required by the IRS and other regulatory requirements.

Economical to Own – The application must not break the bank. It must be economical for the company to use while providing a modest if not quick ROI.

Seamless Interoperability – The application must be able to seamlessly integrate with the back-end system. Typically, this is less complicated with certain systems such as QuickBooks but can be complex for ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle etc.

Quality Intel – The application must provide access to data that can be used to fine-tune various aspects of the process. Stakeholders should be able to slice and dice the data which should help them take steps that directly improve the bottom-line.

If all of these points can be achieved, the application’s implementation may be considered a success. It is also important to note that the process of selecting and implementing a solution is not linear. There are various dynamic parameters that vary drastically from organization to organization.

We specialize in implementing our application with least disruption to existing processes. We help customers recognize the pertinent level of implementation while evaluating potential risk at every stage. Our expertise in integration with almost every ERP system under the Sun helps customers understand the benefits of going 100% automated.

If you haven’t contacted us yet, lets talk. We can be reached at info AT gorillaexpense.com. We’d love to hear from you and look forward to meeting your requirements.

2011 was great strides and 2012 is going to be greater strides. We are excited!

Mobile Apps for Expense Management

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When we started creating apps for our expense management solution, we focused on 3 broad categories – Capability, Security and Ease of use. There is always a dynamic balance between these parameters.

Capability – The app should be capable of solving a problem. Capability is usually broken down in terms of feature set. Of course, if the feature set is too expansive, the capability is expanded but ease of use suffers.

Security – With expense management applications, security is paramount. Compromising on security invalidates capability. At the same time, increased security can lead to more checkpoints thus resulting in reduced ease of use.

Ease of use – The mantra for ease of use includes an intuitive interface that is easy to follow and an  ‘All thumbs’ approach where beginner level dexterity is sufficient. An application that is too easy to use, usually lacks enhanced capabilities or provides reduced security or both. While this is not always true, it is usually the norm.

Striking a balance between these 3 is what good designs are all about. Here is an example – our mobile app allows users to submit transactions and validate them in no time on the web application. Other mobile apps allow users to create entire reports on the mobile device. With this expanded capability, ease of use is severely undermined. It takes longer to create and validate a report on the mobile device when it is not really needed. Plus, it is more error prone.

What is most important to you in a T&E Solution

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So far, we have discussed the common problems companies face due to the lack of an expense management system. We also briefly looked at the benefits of obtaining a T&E system. This included industry estimated savings from using a comprehensive expense management system.

We are now interested in hearing the most important reason you would invest in a T&E solution. Send us your responses to info AT gorillaexpense.com

Gorilla expense joins Microsoft BizSpark

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Gorilla Expense has now joined Microsoft BizSpark. Using BizSpark, we expect to develop and deploy solutions for customers with more ease. The global reach of BizSpark will help us expand to overseas customers quickly.

BizSpark offers us access to immediate professional technical support, deployment avenues and direct interface with customer systems. This will help us in providing customized versions of Gorilla Expense to customers faster than most other solutions in the market.