the evolution and revolution of expense management automation cost control

7/31/2019 The Evolution and Revolution of Expense Management Automation Cost Control

1/16www.sumtotalsystems.com 1

Executive Brief

Whitepaper

The Evolution and

Revolution of ExpenseManagement AutomationCost ControlA Complete Guide to Justifying

and Buying an EMA Solution

Executive Summary

The end of another day is fast approaching when a last minute meeting is called,

at which you learn you have been appointed to lead a high-priority formalized

and budgeted project with tight timelines. Expense Management Automation,

better known as EMA, is recognized as the key to substantially reducing and

establishing control over your companys second largest cost. This project to

select and implement an EMA solution will significantly impact the organization

both financially and operationally - as well as your personal career - if executed

successfully. A great deal is at stake.

This is not a typical vendor evaluation with dedicated resources and formalized

committees. So what exactly is the mission? To find the best vendor to meet the

expense management automation needs of your organization in the shortest

amount of time.

Sound familiar? Whether youre a vice president, a director or manager offinance, operations, IT, corporate travel, procurement, accounts payable or even

a CEO reporting to a board of directors, you have inevitably faced this situation at

some point. Chances are you have been provided limited direction and even less

support to find the vendor with the best fit for your organizations requirements.

To help get you started, we have compiled a step-by-step guide on selecting

an EMA vendor. This executive brief has been designed to assist you in

understanding how automated expense reporting, when implemented as a cost

reduction measure, can save your company far more than just money.

This paper, published by SumTotal Systems, Inc., is designed to provide a

comprehensive overview of best practices in selecting an Expense Management

Automation (EMA) vendor. SumTotal Expense Management is a global leader

in the EMA market. As part of SumTotals Human Capital Management Suite,

SumTotal helps you manage your top two controllable business costs: employee-

related expenses and your employees.

We encourage you to read on and learn how to select an EMA vendor from

specialists in the field.

Included are essential tips on evaluating and selecting the right vendor that best

fits your company, as well as strategies for gaining critical buy-in after the EMA

selection process. Find out how to make a meaningful impact on the bottom line

throughout the pages of this brief.
http://www.sumtotalsystems.com/http://www.sumtotalsystems.com/http://www.sumtotalsystems.com/



The Evolution and Revolution of Expense ManagementAutomation Cost Control

Getting Up to Speed on EMA An Important Investment...

Without a doubt, times have been tough for companies everywhere. A precarious

economy, combined with the decline of prominent business institutions, hasscarred the psyche of skeptical investors and clients.

As a result, organizations have been placed under a microscope and forced to

adhere to unprecedented levels of fiscal responsibility. From this accountability,

tighter controls have emerged, mandating transparency and visibility and leaving

companies scrambling to ensure that their spending practices are in order.

One strategy that businesses have employed to achieve greater compliance

and accountability is to enact cost reduction programs. Although cost reduction

has become a commonplace term, the concept is still quite misunderstood. Not

all projects aimed at cutting costs are truly successful in doing so within a short

period of time, or even at all.

Hidden OpportunitiesCompanies have quickly realized that expense management is a relatively

untapped area where tangible, consistent returns are possible simply by

automating the policies and procedures associated with expense reporting.

Automation has proven quite successful in dealing with reporting flaws and

loopholes by managing employee business expenses through a quick, accurate

and easy claim submission.

The end result is greater control over costs, improved compliance and increased

visibility with better expense data capture - potentially translating into a significant

reduction in costs and a direct impact on the bottom line.

EMA Defined

Since the devil is in the details, it is important to fully understand the differencebetween expense processing and expense management. MasterCard offers a

humorous, yet insightful, comparison of these two concepts.

The first, expense processing, a term from days gone by, is defined as:

(ca. 1872) 1: one of those fruitless endeavors engaged by the American

corporation to reimburse an employees costs incurred on behalf of daily

business, satisfying precisely no one individual in the process despite

costing a bundle.

Expense management, on the other hand, is a contemporary term used to

describe a modern, revolutionary practice defined as:

(ca. 1995) 1: the act or art of perfecting the expense process within a

corporation through the adoption of a card program and automation tools

designed to make everyones life much easier and saving the corporation

a bundle in the process.

Traditional manual expense reporting, characterized by excel spreadsheets or

photocopied pieces of paper with receipts is often a tedious and time-consuming

practice, resulting in costly processing cycles for employees, managers and

accounts payable personnel.




In a Web-based world, this entire method is streamlined - from submission to approval

to audit to reimbursement. Expense reimbursement is expedited by eliminating

the re-keying of data, which may significantly decrease costly administrative errorsand duplicative tasks. Through EMA, an average company can realize savings within

6 to 12 months and reduce processing time and costs by 40 to 60 percent.

Beyond these immediate savings, companies are also benefiting from the

capture of hidden discretionary spending that can remove yet another 10 percent

in unseen costs. EMA enables businesses to strategically control expenses by

providing valuable spend data to leverage vendor negotiations, preferred rates,

spend analysis and other business intelligence.

This additional control allows management to implement, communicate and

enforce compliance with employee expense policies. With EMA, organizations

can take advantage of savings through Value-Added Tax (VAT) recoveries for

expenses incurred in the UK and Europe, timely and accurate expense re-billing

to clients, corporate card rebates and income tax recovery. Later, this brief will

explain how to extend the benefits of EMA to these hidden areas of cost savings.

Basic Expense Metrics

To help assess the value of EMA within your organization, lets analyze the cost

of an average expense report, starting with some basic statistics. Many studies

have shown that on the low end, a typical expense report costs about $28 to

process manually, with certain cases costing $75 or more.

These same studies also demonstrate the impact EMA has on shrinking the

time and cost associated with processing expenses. According to studies by

Aberdeen Group, a leading North American analyst f irm, EMA can:

Reduce expense report completion time from 35 to 18 minutes

Reduce accounts payable processing time from 22 to 5 minutes

Reduce days required to process and reimburse expenses from 14 to 3

Reduce overall processing costs from a low of $27.86 to $6.54 per report

Reduce overall time to create an expense report by 75 percent

EMA emerges as a truly important investment and a strategic opportunity to

create dollar-for-dollar improvements in profits.

Why EMA for Cost Reduction? - Simple, It Works.

Most businesses today are challenged to maintain or grow revenues, but instead

shift the focus to cost cutting as a way to demonstrate value -- a logical move

since employee business expenses (like travel and entertainment) account for an

organizations second largest cost after payroll. Getting expenses under control

has become critical for businesses of all sizes to survive in todays environment.

LESS TIMELess Cost




Before delving into the specifics of EMA, we should pose some important

questions that are answered in the sections below:

Despite EMAs ability to produce immediate returns, what is the long-term impacton costs and the bottom line? Does EMA have fiscal longevity in the world of cost

reduction projects?

How does it compare with other similar projects?

Consistent Financial Performance

When put to the test, the hard cost savings derived from EMA implementation

have proven consistent over time. In fact, these savings tend to increase with

maturity when applied to other expense areas. For instance, take a company

with revenues of $700 million, $50 million in EBITDA and $20 million in annual

employee business expenses.

If automation reduces these expenses by only 5 percent in

the first year (and thats just half of the potential 10 percent),

the savings alone have the same impact on the bottom line

as $12 million in new revenue! The Gartner Group supports

this finding in a study that notes, .. . a 5 percent reduction

in operating costs in the expense management process

has the same impact as a 30 percent increase in sales.

To address the long-term financial benefits of automation, when compared with

other cost reduction projects, investing in EMA is extremely low risk and high

reward. By streamlining the expense reporting process, companies can achieve

the above-hard-costs savings within a short period of time by simply managing

expenses. Companies can extend these results year over year through

opportunistic savings at the optimized stage.

Organizations at the optimized stage go beyond transaction processing to more

strategic functions by deploying EMA to restructure corporate card programs,

prevent fraudulent activities and secure preferred rates on vendor contracts. The

hallmark of a mature, EMA solution is its robust functionality. Through its ability

to handle complex requirements, an EMA produces greater savings through

compounded benefits. As savings build up over time, companies can easily

achieve fiscal and operational excellence in all areas that EMA impacts.

EMA is a cost reduction initiative that prevails over revenue-generating projects

because it requires a minimal investment for implementation and realizes quickerreturns. While revenue-generating projects usually require a significant up-front

investment, EMA solutions offer more flexible, attractive pricing models with

minimal IT and licensing issues. Today most organizations are licensing their

EMA solution through the cloud. In this model, organizations typically license

the service while the provider hosts it on its own infrastructure. This significantly

reduces and eliminates upfront commitments seen with traditional software

licensing. Simply put, EMA allows companies to dramatically cut maintenance,

technology and IT costs while protecting financial performance.




The Magic Word: Control - at the Point of Spend

While the value of EMA to hard costs is straightforward, there are many other

less obvious expense areas where companies can get more from this investment.EMA is more than just automation - its about bringing all the pieces together to

realign an organizations business processes and overall approach to employee

business expenses.

Beyond process improvements and expedited approval cycles, EMA extends its

ROI by offering a holistic source of expense data not possible within a manual

system. Through automation, companies have the unique ability to capture history

and trends relating to purchasing and corporate card programs. This valuable

information can amount to additional, ongoing discounts and rebates if properly

leveraged and managed. In fact, indirect, discretionary spending can represent

as much as 30 percent of total expenditures, with travel and entertainment

comprising only 1/5 of that amount. This offers a compelling reason to pay closer

attention to discretionary employee business expenses.

Change Employee Behavior

Perhaps one of the most significant and enduring aspects of EMA is how it helps

shape habits by instilling control at the employees point of spend. By creating

spending rules and business policies within an EMA solution, companies can

establish mechanisms to quickly educate users on what they can or cannot

spend and with whom. This control automatically reduces maverick and off-

contract purchasing with non-preferred vendors.

Users who attempt to submit an expense line item or report outside of these

internal rules and business polices, will receive instant notification of the violation.

For example, this functionality immediately notifies users that spending on hotel

mini-bar items is outside of company policy and not permitted. Organizations arein control of their own coffers.

For companies operating in industries such as professional services, EMA can

secure timely and accurate re-billings to their clients, contributing to improved

allocation of expenses to profit centers. Capturing information becomes easier

as employees are enabled to correctly categorize expenses and support them

with relevant information such as business purpose and other pertinent details.

Achieve Compliance - Internally and Externally

Equipped with an EMA solution, management is empowered to implement,

communicate and enforce compliance with employee expense policies. In

addition to these corporate policies, EMA also helps organizations achieve full

compliance with IRS and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. Through improvedcommunication and visibility into expenses, employees and managers become

liable and responsible for expense claims, which assists the organization in

ensuring external legislative requirements are met in a transparent fashion.




Claim Taxable Expenses

Since certain tax agencies, such as the IRS, allow for entertainment and meals

to be treated as tax shields, employees who frequently travel for business shouldalways claim these expenses for corporate income tax purposes. While a manual

system cannot identify this type of expenditure, an EMA solution will flag eligible

expenses and separate them from those that do not meet the qualifications for

tax shelter, further adding to savings compounded through direct and indirect

spend areas.

Recover International Business Taxes

Automation provides opportunities to recapture previously unavailable savings

in the areas of value-added taxes (VAT) and receipts management. A mature

EMA solution has the ability to operate in multiple currencies and tax structures

with ease, facilitating the VAT recovery process with a third party partner. Many

companies dont realize that up to 20 percent of total international employee

business expenses are incurred as value-added taxes. These amounts can either

be fully or partially reclaimed using an EMA solution in a timely fashion, saving

precious days in a billing cycle and directly contributing to the bottom line.

Eliminate Costly Receipts

Receipts digital filing (RDF) allows the travelers to upload images of their receipts.

This process dramatically reduces the costs of receipt storage and processing.

For example, rather than sifting through mountains of paper to find a particular

item, the finance department can easily conduct all audits by instantly recalling

electronic files of the receipt images.

Case Studies Examples That It Pays To Automate...

Look at the expense areas below to grasp quickly these and other unforeseen

costs can add up to a significant amount. When combining the potential hard

and soft cost savings of EMA, top-performing organizations can even achieve a

reduction in headcount of staff previously assigned to deal with manual expense

reporting processes.

With better intelligence and accountability, EMA alleviates employee and

management frustration by providing enhanced support for vendor negotiations

and compliance. Above all, EMA forms favorable employee spending habits that

facilitate greater control over expense management procedures, adding to your

organizations competitive edge.

Case Study 1

A leading utility realized an 8 percent reduction in travel and entertainment

spending using EMA for the following:

Dissemination of information to line managers

Enforcement of existing negotiated rates

Comparison of spending trends quarter-by-quarter

Access to an exhaustive set of spending information

Access to spend data during the year, not just after

year end


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TIME SAVING TIPBefore getting involved in demos and vendor presentations, firstunderstand the argument for and against the suite and siloed

approaches. Determining which approach best fits your orga-

nizations strategic direction may save your team weeks in the

evaluation process.

STEP 2: Assemble Your Evaluation Team

One of the most critical steps in your evaluation of EMA vendors is ensuring the

right people are on your evaluation team. This team will help you first determine

the requirements for an EMA solution and then help analyze which solution bestmeets the requirements of your organization.

You need to have the right balance on your evaluation team of all parties that will

be affected by the EMA solution. These people should represent all levels of your

organization. You need to ensure that this team is not too small, but yet not too

big and unwieldy. The key to the evaluation team is having an empowered group

that has the knowledge of the business requirements and can make decisions on

a go-forward basis with the vendor that best fits your criteria.

An effective evaluation team should include representation from the following

departments:

1. Finance - typically Accounts Payable

2. Corporate Travel

3. Corporate Card Vendor Management

4. Purchasing

5. IT

In addition, to gain critical buy-in from your executive management and end-

users, this team should also include:

6. Senior level Executive Sponsor

7. Representation from your Human Resources

group

8. Representation from your end-users




TIME SAVING TIPMost of the people on your evaluation committee should also beon the implementation team. Failing to move forward in this way

often results in a steeper learning curve when its time to actually

begin the implementation because all of the knowledge gained

during the evaluation process can be lost without continuity.

STEP 3: Know Your Business Do a Self-Assessment

To ensure a successful selection and implementation process, first take stock of

your organizations current situation, capabilities, resources and characteristics.

This will help you identify the functionality, support and, most importantly, thesolution that best fits your companys needs.

We have identified key areas below to get you started. Here are some important

questions to ask when establishing your EMA strategy:

Systems and Integration

What is the breadth and scope of IT

resources available to manage the

solution?

What kind of IT support will you

require to implement and maintain

the EMA solution?

Are you interested in maintaining

the solution in-house or hosting it

externally?

Do you want to leverage an existing

platform?

Does your IT department lock

down user workstations preventing

installation of applications or third

party plug-ins?

Do you currently use an ERPsolution?

Does the ERP have an EMA mod-

ule? If so, whats the modules

depth or breadth of functionality

and time to implementation?

What other software/systems will an

EMA solution need to integrate with?

Does the vendor offer offline client

capabilities when users dont have

online access?

Current Reporting Processes

What is the volume of expensereports created monthly and

annually?

If a corporate card is deployed, what

is your annual spending on travel?

Specifically, can you break out

spending by air, hotel and rental car?

What is the process by which

employees currently fill out expense

reports?

Is the current process paper-based

or electronic?

For what items do employees typical-

ly submit expense reports? Is a cer-

tain item reported more frequently?

Are there other employee business

expenses beyond travel and enter-

tainment that could be better identi-

fied and tracked through EMA?

How does your organization deal

with receipts?

Do you currently recover VAT paid

on expenses occurred in the UK

and Europe?

Remote and Mobile Users

Do you have employees who travfor business purposes and require

remote access?

Do traveling employees complete

expenses while on the road? Wha

sorts of items do these road war-

riors complete expense reports fo

Do they consistently work with spe

cific vendors; i.e., booking rooms

with the same hotel, rental car, ca

service or restaurant chain?

Do employees make purchases o

behalf of the company while trave

ing? Are there corporate discount

with specific vendors?

Does your organization supply

mobile devices?

Will the EMA solution be required

leverage your mobile platform?

Would you like managers to have

access to approve expense repor

while they travel?

Technology




Cost Reduction

What are your objectives for cost

reduction?

What kind of returns are you expect-

ing and within what timeframe?

What budget do you have to investin EMA?

What are your risks for implement-

ing EMA?

Administrative

How long does it currently take

for an employee to fill out an

expense report?

How many days does an expense

report sit in a queue while going

through the approval chain?

How long is it to process an

expense report?

How many people in AP are

assigned to processing expenses

and what are their tasks?

How much does an expense report

typically cost from submission to

reimbursement?

Financial

What type of GL and/or AP

systems do you use and how do

these operate?

Do you have multiple cost and/or

profit centers?

Do you bill and charge expenses

to clients?

Do your employees use a time

entry system?

How efficiently can you identify,

allocate and monitor expenses by

projects or clients?

What types of expenses are usually

accepted and/or rejected?

Vendor/supplier relationships

Does your company use a corpo-

rate card program? If so, what type

of program is deployed and are

changes pending? If not, do you

intend to offer a corporate card pro-

gram as part of the deployment of

the EMA solution?

How does your company purchase

items like office supplies/furniture

and field equipment?

Do you have preferred vendors? Do you receive vendor discounts

or rebates?

Have vendors not presently on

contract been identified through

expense report submissions?

Do you have a mandated

Online Booking Tool and Travel

Management Company (TMC)

for travel? If not, do you plan to

select one?

Policy compliance What internal expense reporting

policies exist?

Are these policies documented and

readily accessible for employees

to refer to?

How closely do employees follow

these policies on a day-to-day basis?

Does a system or process to moni-

tor unused airline tickets exist?

How do you monitor and control

employee purchases of non-esse

tial upgrades (rental car class, ad

tional insurance and hotel extras)

Is your companys expense reportin

fully transparent and compliant withlegislative requirements of taxatio

authorities? Sarbanes-Oxley? And

other industry-specific regulations

Do you have a corporate rate with

the firms your business travelers fre

quently use? Could you realize cos

savings by requiring employees to

use specific vendors and/or makin

the selection of the approved ven

dors easier through EMA?

Productivity

How user-friendly is the

current system?

Do employees frequently complai

about filling out expense reports o

time to reimbursement?

If employees encounter difficulty

with an expense claim, is it easy t

obtain help?

Does a manual or designated sup

port desk exist to deal with inqui-

ries? Or is there a person availab

during business hours to answer

questions about expense reportin

How long must a user wait to receiv

help with an expense claim?

How would you rate overall emplo

ee satisfaction with expense repo

ing processes?

What improvements are required

to boost employee satisfaction wi

expense reporting?

Current/Future User Profile

How many users will initially use

the EMA solution? How many expense reports does

your AP group process monthly

and annually?

Do you have multiple office locations?

How many languages and/or curren-

cies does your company operate in?

Do you have plans to expand your

user base to other departments,

locations or countries?

How do you see your expense

management needs evolving?

Finance and Administration




Vendor Profile

How long has the vendor beenin business?

What is its management

teams background?

What are the qualifications of your

companys assigned sales and

implementation teams?

How is the vendors

company funded?

Has the vendor shown growth

through increased market share,

acquisitions or mergers?

Client Profile

Who are the vendors clients?

What is the vendors client

retention rate? And can you speak

to client references?

What experience has the vendor

had with companies of similar size,

type and location?

Partnerships and Affiliations

Does the vendor take a partnering

approach to non-core ancillary EMA

functionality? Or does it build or buy

non-core ancillary functionality?

What strategic partners is the ven-

dor affiliated with that complement

its EMA solutions?

What value-added services are

available through these partnerships

for items such as VAT recovery,

travel booking, receipts imaging and

business process consulting?

Solutions and Service

Does the vendors EMA solutionmeet all of your business and

cost reduction requirements? What

is the expected timeframe to pro-

duce results?

Does the EMA solution require

customization to integrate with your

current systems?

Is the EMA vendor willing to work

with your organization to help you

understand the cost savings? Will

they work with you to produce a busi-

ness case to internally justify EMA?

Is the EMA solution

easily upgradable?

Does the vendor allow you to decide

whether you want an on demand or

in-house hosted solution?

What is the vendors

service philosophy?

Does the vendor offer a flexible

implementation approach tailored to

your objectives for quick knowledge

transfer or services addressingcomplex requirements?

Does the vendor have a published

Implementation Methodology? One

that outlines the project plan steps

from planning through testing, train-

ing and roll out?

Does the vendor offer support

beyond implementation and

to what degree?

What is the vendors level of

responsiveness in an emergencysituation? Is there a contingency

plan in place for disaster scenario

If you are considering a hosted

solution, who owns the data? Is th

clearly in the contract?

How many upgrades are required

per year if using the vendors hos

ing environment?

Can the vendor provide additional

outsource services such as audit

and payment?

Pricing

Does the vendor give you options

for licensing the solution?

What is the total cost of ownershi

for the EMA solution and various

modules?

What is included in the price and

what is not?

If something is free, is it really

free, or is there a cost associated

with maintenance or licensing

this feature?

If you review the contract, how wi

ing is the vendor to modify the co

tract to your terms?

Once you know what you need, youll be in a position to effectively evaluate

potential vendors. Understanding your requirements according to the answers

you provide to the above questions will also ensure that a vendor can properlymeet your EMA requirements today and in the future. Starting off on the right foot

through a mutual exchange of information will set the tone for the entire process.

Step 4: Whos Worthy, Whos Not - Evaluating Vendors

EMA vendors, like businesses, do not come in a one-size-fits-all package. Whats

right for your organization may not be right for another. In acknowledging how one

company differs from the next, potential EMA vendors should be prepared to answer

all of your questions.

To help you determine your approach, here are a few questions you should ask

when assessing the right vendor for your business.




Technology

Which vendors technology best

fits the requirements of yourorganization?

Does the vendor have experience

in deploying the solutions to clients

similar in size and scope

to your organization?

Does the vendor have different solu-

tions based on the size of its client?

Does the vendor have different solu-

tions based on cloud or in-house?

Is the vendors solution scalable to

meet your requirements today and

in the future?

Is the vendors solution based on

leading technology, or is it dated?

Is the vendor SAS70

or CICA 5970 certified?

If you conduct business overseas,

is the vendor US/EU Safe Harbor

Compliant?

Overall Rapport

Is the vendor comfortable answer-

ing questions?

Has the vendor demonstrated a

level of knowledge of your industry

and business needs?

Does the vendor understand yourneeds and provide solutions rather

than point out problems?

Does the vendor concentrate on

selling its solution? Or does it

spend more time on selling againtheir competitors?

Does the vendor treat you like a

small fish?

Do you feel you would like to ente

into a business relationship with t

vendor? Do you think it will aid yo

in unexpected issues?

How quickly does the vendor

respond back to your e-mail and

phone inquiries?

Obtaining answers to the above questions puts you in excellent shape to make

your final decision. Remember that service is key - a vendor should be reliable,

responsive, knowledgeable and competent. When interviewing references, keep

in mind that happy customers are satisfied ones.

The information you receive will also tell you a great deal about the vendors team,

level of professionalism and long-term financial viability. The last thing you want

or need is a vendor that is not focused on your needs because it is distracted by

other priorities or isnt committed to maintaining the solution one implementation

is complete.

TIME SAVING TIPUnderstanding which vendors to invite to the evaluation table

may be one of the most important decisions of this process. Aside

from searching the Web, there are several analysts covering this

space that can help you narrow your list. Also, do not discount the

knowledge each vendor possesses about each other. Sometimes

a simple question such as, Who do you feel you compete with for

businesses of our size? may yield some interesting results.

Step 5: Schedule Demonstrations Based on Your Requirements

As part of your initial research and evaluation process, you should have seen an

online overview demo of the different EMA vendors solutions. These demonstrations

give you a basic understanding of the look and feel of the different solutions in the

market. Now that you have your business requirements identified and you have

narrowed down your search to a limited number of vendors, it is time to schedule the

detailed demonstration.




This EMA solution demonstration should focus on what you want to see and what

is critical for your business - not what the vendor wants to show you. This is a

mistake that many companies make when they go into an evaluation unprepared.They buy the solution that looks the best from the vendors demonstration driven

from the vendors point of view.

To truly determine the best fit for your organization, you need to move the

demonstration from a feature/functionality review to a workshop concept that

concentrates on showing the vendors solution within the framework of your

organizations business requirements. Be prepared to invest more time in a

workshop as compared to a typical demonstration. This time will be spent to

ensure that the vendor fully understands your requirements and is able to

address the requirements in their solution.

Below is a sample workshop agenda that you can use as a template:

Time Agenda Item Participants

9:00 10:00 Building and Reviewing the

EMA Solution

Project Champion

10:00 10:30 Submit and Approve

Expenses

User Representative(s)

10:45 11:15 Back Office Receipts and

Audit Function

Application Administrator/

Auditor

11:15 11:45 Reporting and Analytics Application Administrator/

Purchasing

11:45 12:30 Technology Review It Resource

12:30 1:00 Implementation IT Resource/ Application

Administrator

1:00 1:30 Executive Summary Executive Decision Maker(s)

Step 6: Making the most out of the Reference Process

Now that you have narrowed your list of potential vendors, you will want to

conduct reference calls and/or site visits with the vendors existing clients. This

process can bring much value to your evaluation, yet many organizations treat it

simply as a checkbox they need to mark off in the buying process.

It is no longer enough to simply ask for a reference in a similar industry, or with a

similar back office system. Instead, it is highly recommended that you identify a

mix of desired discussion points so the vendor can pull together the right mix of

references to satisfy those points. Some recommended areas of evaluation include:

Vendors track record of support

Overall experience with the solution and vendor

Cost savings attained

Lessons learned during the evaluation

Operational questions about implementation

Why they selected who they did





On demand or in-house hosted

Challenges faced during the implementation

TIME SAVING TIPBe sure to manage your teams expectations for each reference call.

A discussion on cost saving attained, for example, may mean the

client is operating on a previous version of the software and that

specific implementation experiences may not be as relevant. Be sure

to understand these tradeoffs before undertaking this process.

Become an Expert...Knowledge Is Power

Now that you have gone through the process of selecting the most appropriateEMA solution, the more you know about EMA, the more credible you will be

when explaining it. If youve learned everything you possibly can know about the

solution and its advantages for your company, you can easily convey it to the

people who will benefit most and encourage them to use it. Furthermore, you will

play a high profile role in training others on how to maximize the potential of EMA

to achieve best practices.

Such a diverse audience inevitably produces unique viewpoints and biases about

expense management. While you may find a receptive audience in the finance

department, you could quickly find out that IT, for example, is not as enthusiastic

about this new addition to its systems lineup. Find out what those biases are,

why they exist and how you can overcome them. Here are some suggestions

for marketing EMA to your internal audiences to get the buy-in you need for an

effective company-wide rollout:

Form an Internal EMA Roll-out Committee

Getting the right people to work together on the internal team is important. Select

members from each department and designate them as EMA Team Leaders.

Involve them in every step of the implementation process and teach them all

there is to know about the new EMA solution. Collect their ideas and insights

and have them act as ambassadors for their respective departments. Give them

credit through acknowledgment in internal communications vehicles.

Create Training Seminars to Introduce the EMA Solution

Depending upon the logistics of your user community, you may want to set up a

series of dates for when you officially introduce the EMA solution to your organization.

Keep seminar attendees at manageable numbers to ensure maximum engagement

and retention. Put together a comprehensive, step-by-step presentation to deliver

to your audience and create an open dialogue for concerns and feedback. Be

sure to incorporate a question-and-answer period at the end and provide contact

information for post-seminar follow-up.




Make Regular Contributions to the Employee Newsletter

Once you have selected a vendor, start early in promoting your new initiative by

contributing informative articles about EMA to your companys newsletter. Keep yourarticles to a few paragraphs and consider formatting information in a tips column

on EMA. You can even use your creativity to establish a contest surrounding the

upcoming EMA solution, soliciting feedback from readers and offering incentives

in return. Since an EMA solution has the potential to be used by many, if not all,

employees in the organization at some time, clear communications are key to

helping them understand the importance of the solution to the company and to

ensure adoption.

Provide Regular Updates via E-mail to Create Interest

Again, start early in educating and informing your user community on EMA by

keeping them updated on the details and developments surrounding its imple-

mentation, training, benefits and other areas of interest. Use your marketing/

communications staff to help create effective messages and send these via a

formal communications email.

Hold Training and Refresher Sessions

Once youve formed your alliance of champions, utilize their knowledge to share

in the challenge of training users on the system. Hold quarterly refresher sessions

in the first year, if possible, and once a year thereafter to remind employees of the

value of the EMA investment made possible through your efforts.

Conducting an internal stakeholder outreach is extremely important, along with

understanding your audience and what they want out of an EMA system. By

marketing the benefits of EMA to your entire organization through a group of

internal experts, you will achieve the buy-in you require to smoothly integrate the

solution and gain acceptance across all departments.

Benchmark your EMA Success

Your job doesnt end once the solution has been rolled out, so keep a close eye

on how EMA is transforming your organizations processes. Take stock of this

transformation by documenting process improvements, frequently measuring

returns and demonstrating progress through updates to your peers and superiors.

Take the time to network with others who have also gone through an EMA

implementation and compare different approaches and results. Always benchmark

and analyze your results to understand what worked, where and why. Lastly, dont

forget to reap the rewards and tout your successes - publish these results so that

others can note your achievements.

Final Thoughts

EMA is a strategic compliance and spend management tool that has emerged as a

valuable investment in todays business environment. Companies that have adopted

EMA now have visibility into their second largest controllable business cost and

are able to convey what they understand into business improvements and better

decision making, previously impossible with manual expense reporting processes.


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