Aligning expense management for 45 countries: how Etex did it with SAP Concur
Global leader in innovative construction materials, Etex, addressed the challenge of decentralized expense processes across various locations. With SAP Concur, the company found a tool to align their expense management processes globally, providing better financial oversight and enhancing operational efficiency.
Decentralized expense processes
Global innovator Etex creates construction materials for beautiful, sustainable, and futureproof living spaces. With operations in 45 countries and a dedicated team of 13,500 people, Etex has experienced steady growth year after year, driven by expert knowledge and a clear strategic vision. With growth comes the challenge of streamlining and unifying processes across a diverse and expansive organization. One key area was expense management.
The expense management process relied on various decentralized solutions. Although an expense management tool was in place, its alignment capabilities were limited. Consequently, many expenses had to be manually synchronized between the tool and the Finance department.
Fragmented reporting, manual synchronization, limited audit control, … we were missing some crucial elements in our expense management processes, When our existing tool came to the end of life, we had to switch quickly to a new solution. One that could cope with a fast rollout yet meet our specific requirements as a multinational.
SAP Concur: one tool to rule them all
With SAP Concur Etex found the expense management tool that could cope with the complexity of being a global organization, with different local languages, legal requirements, and governmental policies.
Full Automated Integration between HR and finance departments. Integrating HR and Expense data from SAP SuccessFactors and SAP Concur with the Finance back-end in SAP S/4HANA
Data accuracy and reporting
Transparent user experience, available on mobile
Tax reclaim ability for every country
Scalability
Not only were the requirements met, Etex sees clear results since using SAP Concur. “We now have more than 10,000 people at Etex that use Concur. In fact, there are over 2,000 expense reports every month,” says Anastasia. “With SAP Concur we have an end-to-end expense tool, integrating HR and Finance. And even though we have one global tool and policy, there is still flexibility for local legal adjustments or optimizations when needed”
Read the article about how Etex unified their expense management in 45 countries in FDMagazine (Dutch only)
Implementing SAP Concur in 45 countries required a phased approach, yet time was of the essence. With strong leadership and collaboration between the business and IT, coupled with the help of the Concur experts at Flexso the implementation was scheduled in 4 different go-lives or ‘waves”. Starting at the end of 2022, the first wave, which focused on seven European countries, went live in April 2023, followed by waves 2, 3 and 4, which covered the other regions.
Looking ahead
As an innovative company, Etex is always looking towards the future. After the SAP Concur implementation, they still see many opportunities to enhance efficiency.
“We are currently looking out to enhance Concur with new functionalities. And we are thinking about adding the travel solution of Concur as well.’’
Are you looking to align your expense management as well?
Find out how SAP Concur can be the user-friendly and highly adaptable tool you need.
