Global expense management at Beaulieu International Group

For a multinational company like Beaulieu International Group, dealing with travel and expense processes manually is quite an intensive and time consuming process. That’s why they teamed up with Flexso to integrate SAP Concur: one of the most powerful cloud-based expense management tools out there. Here’s how they approached the ambitious transformation.

Global company, global challenges

The activities of Beaulieu International Group (B.I.G.) are not easy to summarize. From raw chemical materials to engineered solutions, floor covering and upholstery fabrics, the global company produces a wide array of innovative and sustainable solutions. B.I.G. employs over 4,900 people in 19 countries.

With this kind of scale, the company’s processes require streamlined departments across several countries. B.I.G. was looking for a way to digitize the travel and expense management process. Throughout several acquisitions, it had remained mostly manual: data was logged in Excel sheets, the receipts were stored physically, and managers and finance team members went through every expense by hand to approve them.

From a manual process to an integrated way of working

Formerly, B.I.G.’s expense processes were done manually, resulting in localized way of working per country. This lead to an inconsistent expense policy throughout the group, as there was no system in place to automatically enforce the rules. Having multiple manual processes impacts the data quality, for instance when calculating the tax reduction for an expense or when categorising expenditures.

5 requirements, 1 solution: SAP Concur

B.I.G. wanted to implement a tool to improve this process, and identified 5 requirements:

A user-friendly mobile experience;
Efficient processes, reducing time spent for end users;
Fully integrated with finance and HR tools;
Capable of applying one global policy and way of working;
Ensuring a single source truth for expense data and finance logic.

Enter SAP Concur: a powerful but easy-to-use expense management tool developed by SAP to ensure maximum visibility and ultimate usability – anytime, anywhere. B.I.G. teamed up with Flexso to roll out Concur and for further support of the transformation.

Parallel SAP tracks and multiple implementation waves

The key approach was to integrate different project streams into one solution. The SAP Concur application was combined with parallel tracks: SAP Finance integration, SAP SuccessFactors integration, Credit card integration, change management and training, and finally, BI reporting integration. The aim of this approach was to not only implement SAP Concur successfully, but to leverage it to work seamlessly with other SAP modules and business tools to unlock a fully unified approach: ‘ONE B.I.G.’

The integration of these projects entailed a global rollout with one policy for all countries, which was adapted to local regulations. The integration of SAP Concur with SAP Finance was necessary to ensure automated expense data. Next, the integration with SAP SuccessFactors enabled centralised HR master data, leading, finally, to the integration of the company’s current BI reporting tool.

The implementation took place in several waves. The prewave focused on the preparation and analysis of the integration and configuration needs for all countries. In the first wave, Concur was implemented in 4 countries, including the HQ in Belgium. Other countries were divided over four more waves.

Ensuring maximum user adoption through transparency

To support this transformation on all levels, Beaulieu relied on Flexso to help develop custom training material and a change approach specific to each country. Focussed workshops were organised with key users from different departments, and included dedicated training sessions and local admin training sessions.

Because an essential part of change management is communication, B.I.G. organised multiple communications beforehand, announcing what changes were coming up next. Their team created a dedicated webinar and included a user experience demo. Finally, a full online training course was set up, including a training catalogue for self-learning, country-specific Q&As, custom training manuals for local processes and one dedicated mailbox for questions.

Expense management gets a digital-age makeover – and beyond

With SAP Concur, B.I.G. now reaps the benefits of a fully digital and globally managed tool that offers an automated and unified approach to expense management. Some of these benefits include:

Reduced manual and administrative work, thanks to a fully automated flow;
A user-friendly mobile app that allows for fast and efficient reimbursement;
Excellent HR master data quality with optimal VAT recovery;
An integrated infrastructure in line with the company’s IT strategy.

Beaulieu fully reaped the benefits of teaming up with a tried-and-true implementer throughout every stage of the project. Thanks to experienced help from – and a close collaboration with – Flexso’s experts, everything from preparation and implementation to change management was handled smoothly and professionally.