Breaking new grounds in expense claim management, with Etap-On-Line and Meridian
A new partnership with Meridian, one of the world’s largest providers of added value business process outsourcing services, allows Etap-On-Line to offer novel turnkey solutions for companies willing to outsource their expense claim management.
You need the software? You need the services? Why not get the two together? This is precisely what Etap-On-Line, had in mind when it entered into a strategic partnership with Meridian, a global company with corporate headquarters based in Ireland, Meridian provides Managed T&E services.
With an annual turnover of €40 million and a core business in VAT reclaim services, Meridian diversified five years ago in the fast growing sector of business processing with a clear focus on travel and expense management services. “We provide our clients with a managed T&E service that focuses on the actual spend of the traveller and provides a comprehensive 3-way-check around the actual receipt paper against the data entered into the expense management application and the travel policy, business rules and regulatory requirements of the country in question” explains Gerard Eivers, Meridian’s head of BPO. “We control the receipts, audit the actual spend of the traveller, adjust over and out-of-policy claims and provide a friendly multi-lingual help desks for the traveller”.
The audits performed by Meridian enhance and complement audits performed by automated solution. The company addresses a customer base of global blue chip companies. “We have 15,000 active clients, many of them Fortune 500 companies” adds Gerard Eivers.
Bringing software and services together
In October 2007, Meridian and Etap-On-Line have announced their intention to bridge the gap between supplying software solutions and providing managed back office services in the area of expense claim management, by entering into a novel partnership. “Meridian provides complementary services to companies that, in most cases, have implemented an expense management tool or system internally. Our purpose is to ensure the total trip spend is audited, both booked and actual spend categories, and that our clients maximise the total T&E spend reductions available to them. Meridian is also uniquely positioned to provide our clients with a fully integrated T&E VAT recovery service for all claim countries. There are the obvious synergies of having all the paper under one roof. When combined with the fact that Meridian will maximise your VAT recovery while mitigating the fiscal risk associated with VAT over claims a compelling story emerges. Our service not only enables us to provide feedback to our clients relating to user experience, identification of potential new areas of savings / discounting and business rule modifications enabling the Travel Policy exist dynamically with your business requirements. ” explains Gerard Eivers.
To give an idea of the potential benefits of such a close integration of software and services: companies can now be equipped with the additional visibility into spend patterns, backed up by the assurance of the quality and accuracy of the information, to enable them maximise the discounting available and not just receiving a discount.
Meridian’s field experience shows that for every €1 spent on their service, there are up to €6 euros of potential direct savings to be gained in addition to having the comfort of knowing your VAT compliance is correct and your employees are happy. Adjustments on actual spend can account for up to 6% of your total T&E spend.
“Etap-On-Line provides the application, we integrate the application into our processes” explains Gerard Eivers. The end result is a seamless integration of software and managed T&E services that make the whole process of managing expense claims a great deal easier for companies and users alike. With this in mind, the two suppliers will have a turnkey solution to offer their customers, with many new benefits. “Our processes are underpinned by proprietary software that connects to Etap-On-Line’s Ulysse T&E product to go further with the data” adds Gerard Eivers. “This way, a company can make the most of Ulysse T&E’s reporting and data mining features, without having to manage the process by themselves”.
Pierre-Emmanuel Tetaz, General Manager, ETAP-ON-LINE adds : “Since ETAP-ON-LINE is the European leader on Expense Management Solutions, Meridian is a key European partner to help us provide our clients with additional T&E business processing and VAT services”.
