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Our 2015 Goal – To Be More Than The Best Expense Reporting Software

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Happy New Year and hope your 2015 is off to a great start! We are really looking forward to a very exciting new year with you. Our 2015 plan is to continue excelling in areas where we do really well:

Our #1 priority was, is and will always be our customers & partners

We maintain very strong personal and professional relationships with our customers & partners. The philosophy we live by every day is – ‘We are successful only when our customers & partners are successful’. We look forward to expanding our relationship and continuing to amaze our customers & partners in 2015.

Innovation

Our technology team really pushed the edge in 2014 and released several new features that our customers are raving about (read the raves here). Here is a recap of key features:

  • The new ‘never get in front of a computer’ mobile app
  • Automated integration with Project module in Dynamics GP
  • Ability to include multiple Dynamics NAV Dimensions
  • The ‘FWD and forget’ email feature
  • Advanced cost center allocation capability (multiple companies, business units and cost categories)
  • Do mileage expenses with integrated Google maps
  • Plus several other additions and updates

We are going to continue the rapid development pace into 2015. We have exciting new-product launches planned this year. Stay tuned for more ‘Wow!’ news.

Having fun

Even after long days, the entire team at Gorilla Expense enjoys the work and has fun with it. We love working with customers, solving problems creatively and putting smiles on faces. We are ever-enthusiastic in coming up with new ideas to solve unique challenges. And we encourage you to contact us – it doesn’t even have to be expense reporting related! (isn’t that how great ideas are born?)

In conclusion, 2014 was one of our best years ever, and 2015 is going to be even better (and bigger!). We thank you for your support, guidance and friendship. Lets Rock On together in 2015!

PS: And don’t forget, we have a new Star Wars movie coming out in 2015 (a friendly reminder from the Gorilla techies)

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Sincerely,

The Gorilla Expense Team

While SAP Acquires Concur, We Renew our Commitment to SMBs

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It’s been a few weeks since SAP agreed to purchase Concur. The deal makes plenty of sense for SAP because of their focus in the ‘enterprise + powered by the cloud’ market. In a similar vein, it has been a few years since SAP purchased Ariba and SuccessFactors. With Concur now folded into the giant SAP umbrella, SAP will have access to an enterprise T&E solution that they can sell to their 200K + enterprise size customers.

But equally important over the next several months, SAP has its work cut out in trying to build an enterprise suite with these cloud acquisitions – a tricky job that will consume plenty of resources and time.

Concur’s focus in the last few years has been primarily in evolving their travel booking solution, investing in travel related apps and setting up of their marketplace. But the next few steps are going to be critical for Concur – they currently have the huge 15 year US government contract that they must deliver, meet additional requirements and opportunities from SAP and evolve their mobile and web mobile expense platforms to keep up with nimble and innovative cloud travel & expense competitors like us.

Above all, supporting all of these initiatives equally well through the choppy seas of a typical M&A process is paramount. While the cloud is very attractive to most customers, SAP must understand that no customer wants to be stuck with segmented cloud applications from different acquired vendors that don’t ‘talk’ to each other.

The marriage of Concur and SAP makes a lot of sense for both companies and the enterprise market. But, what does this mean for SMBs? Would the SAP-Concur nexus consider SMB travel and expense requirements to be mere distractions? Perhaps too small to worry or even care about? Will they even have the resources and time to help the ‘little guys’ out?

SMBs must take a very close look at this situation and understand where they fit in the landscape. There are different aspects to this – how is the Concur service going to be in the future now that they are a small part of a much larger behemoth? Would Concur’s travel & expense solution pricing change? Where do SMBs fit in Concur’s plan as they reach out to larger enterprises with SAP?

These are all big questions. But one thing is guaranteed – Gorilla Expense will continue to service the needs of SMBs at the same economical price and exceptional service that our customers are used to. The SMB market is our sweet spot and we pride ourselves in working with customers like you. If anything, the SAP-acquiring-Concur transaction has redoubled our efforts and renewed our long-term commitment to this space.

Our recent update of our mobile app – Gorilla Expense Pro is proof of that. We evolved the mobile app to the point where users don’t have to get in front of a computer to submit expenses anymore! This is very important and powerful for the typical SMB where employees are increasingly juggling more work and time spent on unproductive tasks is directly related to lost dollars for the company. In our journey through working with several SMBs, we realize that no two companies manage their T&E processes in the same way. Our focal points have always been:

– Make the solution super easy to use (if you have to read our manuals, then it means we are not doing our jobs)

– The solution is flexible and can be configured to meet the customer’s requirements

– Provide exceptional customer support (Wow! the customer all the time)

– Keep the solution economical to own for our customers (less than the price of 3 cups of Starbucks coffee per month)

We really strive to make a difference in our customer’s lives and also be successful in this space. We don’t compromise performance for price. We realize that SMBs frequently operate in a cost control mode and should not have to pay for features that are unnecessary to them.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Gorilla Expense is currently offering an attractive switchover program for current Concur users. As part of this program, you will get access to our entire solution – mobile, web and integration (credit card, travel, accounting and payroll systems). Customers who have made the move typically see savings ranging from 10% to 60% of Concur’s price. To learn more, please contact us at info@gorillaexpense.com.

Three Amigos: NAV2013, Gorilla Expense and The Cloud

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We have been receiving several inquiries over the last few months about our integration with NAV2013 in relation to what would happen if NAV is hosted on the cloud. Here is the quick scoop –

Microsoft has made significant investments towards the “hostability” of NAV2013. This helps deploying and using NAV in the cloud, thus benefiting both customers and partners. Microsoft is currently fine-tuning deployment scenarios and developing guidance for deploying NAV on Azure. Microsoft expects to make deployment of NAV on Azure broadly available in Q1, 2013. They had initially planned it closer to Nov 2012.

Our application is deployed on the cloud too (as one of the options), specifically Azure (Yes, we are heavily Microsoft oriented and we love it :). With this option, the customer has nothing to worry about in regards to hosting the data, managing the application or tackling the overhead associated with maintaining a server, support etc. Our integration with NAV is agnostic to the hosting format employed. NAV can be on a dedicated server on the cloud or we could be co-hosted with NAV too. Neither approaches affect out integration from the user’s perspective. On the back-end, there will be a few more gerbils turning wheels. But the customer will always experience a seamless and fully automated integration between our solution and NAV.

This flexible integration and hosting capabilities between our solution and NAV makes life much easier for the customer, the partner and of course for us too. Read about our integration with NAV here. If you would like to learn more or have any further questions, send us a message at – info@gorillaexpense.com.

Meanwhile, here are some more tidbits about NAV013 you may find useful

– Microsoft announced the availability of NAV 2013 in 15 markets. With significant improvements in functionality and several new capabilities, this launch was hailed as the most significant release of NAV yet
– Functionality such as Cash Flow Forecast, Cost Accounting, and Excel Integration to Query enable greater accounting efficiency for customers while offering partners the ability to develop customized solutions
– The new NAV web client allows users to access NAV from virtually any device. Improved query and charting offer compelling ways to analyze and display data for more users
– Improvements to the migration tool, partner development tools, and increased interoperability with Microsoft technologies mean less time is needed for partners to customize and deploy solutions, and they are easier for customers to learn and have impact
– Specifically useful for partners, NAV2013 enables easier deployment, configuration and installation through the RoleTailored developer experience. The new .NET Framework enhancements makes it easier to build, deploy and integrate high-performing add-ons with existing NAV solutions, and share data more easily

Adios!

Stress Triggers for Business Travelers

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More and more corporate travel managers are paying more attention to make life and travel easier for their corporate travelers. They understand that frequent business travel has an impact on travelers’ personal health, productivity and affects employee’s willingness to remain at the firm. Many travel managers indicated that they were dissatisfied with the way their companies address the impact of business travel on travelers. Concerns about traveler’s health and willingness to stay at the firm weighed heaviest, followed by safety and productivity. Carlson Wagonlit (CWT Solutions Group) put together a study that discussed key stress triggers for travelers.

Here is the synopsis –

“What emerged from this survey is that the 33 stress triggers studied can be grouped into 3 main categories (which are not mutually exclusive), based on the way they impact a traveler:

1. Lost time: situation in which work is difficult or impossible (e.g. Flying economy on long haul)
2. Surprises: when an unforeseen event occurs (e.g. Lost or delayed baggage)
3. Routine breakers: inability to maintain one’s habits (e.g. Unable to eat healthily at destination)

The main stress drivers reported by our respondents all have a “lost time” component and fall into at least one additional category (surprise and/or routine breaker):

Lost or delayed baggage [79/100]
Poor Internet connection at destination [77/100]
Flying economy on Medium/Long haul [73/100]
Delays [72/100]

Furthermore, we observed significant differences in the stress perceived by the different demographic groups we studied. For example: Women report on average four points of stress more than men (on the most stressful factors, defined as scores above 60/100).

There is a cumulative effect of stress with increased travel frequency. A difference of four stress points is measured between  frequent (over 30 trips per year) travelers and occasional travelers.  Frequent travelers are more skilled at tackling surprises, but  more distressed by “lost time” events.  There is a high correlation among the demographic groups segmented by job seniority, age and trip frequency, creating similar patterns of perceived stress.  For respondents living with a partner, traveling during weekends and long stays (over 3 days) generate an additional 8 points and 4 points of stress respectively compared to those living alone. The same effect is observed when comparing respondents with and without children.  This research lays the groundwork that will enable us to build an overall measure of stress and to assess the corresponding productivity impact on an organization. Our ultimate objective is to provide recommendations to tackle the hidden costs of  business travel.”

The full report is available here

GP2013 new features and integration with Gorilla Expense

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Microsoft Dynamics GP2013 which was released on Dec. 19 has several new features that are designed to help SMBs grow their businesses. These features are powerful and very easy to use. From our preliminary research, some of the key enhancements that we have seen include:

  1. A rich web client to access information when you need it and on the device of your choice
  2. Improved cloud-deployment model to streamline deploying and managing GP in the cloud
  3. Faster deployment with new “RapidStart” tools that significantly reduce time to configure GP for each customer
  4. Deeper interoperability with Office 365, other Microsoft technologies & ISV products

Microsoft has indeed made interoperability very easy for ISVs like us. We integrate fully with GP2013 and it is seamless while the implementation time for our solution is almost immediate. The mechanism is similar to GP2010, in that once expense reports are approved by the manager within our system, the data is automatically pushed as GL entries to GP2013 with the single click of a button! This definitely provides a robust value add-on for T&E expense reporting and also extends the company’s investment in GP2013. We are extremely thrilled with the advancements made by Microsoft in GP2013 and look forward to seeing more.

Air Travel Spend Management

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This paper (Air Spend Management 101 by NBTA) published by the NBTA discusses various areas to look at and specific steps to take for better management of air travel expenses. The results of this research include lowering costs, improving compliance, setting and managing air travel policies and long-term initiatives for better management of air travel for the company.

Hope you find the results to be useful!

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 .