-Press release-
www.ulyssetravel.com is chosen by Capgemini France to manage its business travel expenses
Etap-On-Line, the N°1 travel and expense management solutions company in Europe (travel requests, expense claims and travel supplier invoices) announces that its Ulysse Travel & Expenses solution was selected by Capgemini France, subsidiary of the Capgemini Group, one of the world leaders in consultancy, IT services and information management, to optimise its business travel expenses.
End of paper expense claims to externalise the process
With over 100,000 expense claims to administer each year, Capgemini France wanted to simplify and optimise the whole of its administration process of business expense and travel claims. “We wanted an Internet-based solution which would enable us to make our process flow better and to spread the management activity across the month.” explained Eric Michel, Financial Director at Capgemini France.
There were three major objectives:
• To reduce business expense administration costs by rationalising and externalising the management of the process.
• To keep expense management local,
• To improve the quality of service to partners by reducing the repayment periods and by ensuring that the whole process is completely traceable.
The choice of a European business travel expense expert
Having consulted several key market players, Capgemini France chose to use Etap-On-Line’s Ulysse Travel & Expenses in ASP mode (Application Service Provider). This takes the number of CAC 40 groups using Ulysse T&E to 18. Etap-On-Line knew how to satisfy its client’s objectives by offering a major innovation in the European market. The end of paper expense claims, by automatically linking them to the expense bill in the system with the help of a barcode allowing online consultation of the paper expense claims.
One of the key elements of Etap-On-Line’s offering lies in integrated digitalisation of the paper expense claims which are essential for rationalising and externalising the management of the process in order to avoid the lengthy validation of realms of paperwork. This in itself can be a source of errors and delay when treating expenses.
The transformation and rationalisation of the process were confirmed to the Capgemini Consulting teams, the management consultancy arm of the Capgemini Group.
A quick roll-out of a large-scale project
Implementation in ASP and a simple and quick roll-out of the solution meant that Etap-On-Line could adhere to very tight deadlines which this project imposed. It was at the very least an ambitious project as it meant the end of paper expense claims for over 8,000 users at Capgemini France.
The project was rolled out in the last quarter of 2006. A 3 month pilot scheme for national and international business travel started at the beginning of 2007 for 650 partners. This phase enabled the performance of the new process to be tested within the limits to be respected.
“The performance of our process for reimbursing business expenses is based on the quality and reliability of the scan images and validation workflows. We chose Etap-On-Line’s Ulysse Travel & Expenses because it offered an end to paper expenses.” said Birotheau, Principal at Capgemini Consulting. “We are also convinced of Etap-On-Line’s capacity to build innovative solutions and of their dedication to drive these projects through to completion.” she continues.
Capgemini France, building on the success of the pilot project, launched phase three of the roll-out for 3,000 users, which will start in May 2007. Since July 2007, the business expenses of over 8,000 professionals have been managed in this way at Capgemini’s European centre for Business Process Outsourcing via www.ulyssetravel.com.
