Testimonial : RHODIA

Rhodia group rolls out Ulysse T&E worldwide over the internet

 

Rhodia has selected Ulysse T&E in ASP mode in 2001 to manage expense claims for its European businesses. Key advantages are centralized information, automated procedures and greater visibility, all of which will be extended to the US business.

says Yves Bosne, European Director for Shared Accounting Service Centres and Financial Director of Rhodia Operations. Rhodia is a multinational industrial group which delivers services, research and production activities within the field of specialty chemicals.

Yves Bosne European Director for Shared Accounting Service Centers and Financial Director of Rhodia Operations

“We have used ULYSSE Travel & Expenses practically since it was created”,

Originally, the organization and its information systems were decentralized and each company handled expense claims locally. “The group has been completely transformed since 2001 and yet ULYSSE T&E has proved very adaptable over the years. One of the strengths of the Etap-On-Line team is that they understand the needs and practices of different clients and incorporate them in the solution, making the application more adaptable.”

 

Centralization and automation

Since 2005, all Rhodia subsidiaries have been using the  SAP ERP system. The group set up a Core System (Rhodia Core System, RCS) into which Ulysse T&E was integrated in ASP mode. The solution was rolled out by Rhodia in Europe, starting in the UK, then Italy. It is also being used by personnel in Spain and Germany.

“The translated versions were available very quickly and, starting with the UK roll-out, we began to extend it across Europe. Each roll-out was tailored to correspond to the respective tax regulations of the different countries, and we encountered no difficulties. The ASP mode provides great flexibility whilst ensuring that costs are controlled.”

The Rhodia group has a Shared Service Centre in Europe, which manages the Accounting function for the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain and France. All the data generated via ULYSSE T&E from these countries is processed centrally, both in terms of accounting and payment processing. Data management is undertaken by a single administrator, apart from in the UK where they have their own administrator.

“We have implemented a shared organization and have applied the same group travel policy everywhere, via ULYSSE T&E. For example, we wanted to monitor international trips carefully and Etap-On-Line was able to integrate an additional level of validation according to our specification.”

 

5,000 users, all reimbursed within 10 days

No fewer than 5,000 users access Ulysse T&E online at www.ulyssetravel.com throughout Europe and before long in the USA. “The Travel Request module enables employees to formalize their travel requests within the programme, from any computer on the network. The hierarchy then approves these travel requests, also completely online, which completely does away with the need for paper.”

The same goes for expense claims, which can be matched up to travel requests if need be for auditing. American Express corporate card and Société Générale company card statements, are available right in Ulysse T&E. “The banks (Amex and Société Générale) provide us with statement files which are directly integrated into Ulysse T&E. Employees don’t have to input anything: they just need to verify the expense claim automatically generated for approval by the head of the cost centre.

Reimbursement is made extremely quickly: within 15 days of approval from the hierarchy. Users are extremely satisfied since they can regularly consult the tool for the approval status of their claims. The hierarchy has also proved to be conscientious in approving claims and overall, the processes are very fluid. Quite simply, Ulysse T&E has allowed us to greatly improve productivity with regard to managing travel expenses.”

 

Visibility

Thanks to the centralized and automated processes provided for by Ulysse T&E, those managers who so desire – especially supervisors working in project mode – can obtain comprehensive reporting. “In addition, using these same reporting statements, purchasing departments have maximum visibility of spend, which is essential for supplier negotiations, especially with regard to car rentals.”

Worldwide rollout

On the basis of the European experience, the Rhodia group is getting ready to roll out Ulysse T&E in the United States in 2008. “Even at the scale of a continent, rollout takes no longer than four months since it’s just a question of replication, so long as the project is well organized.” Rhodia plans to extend this project to other countries in 2009 in order to standardize the process throughout the group.

About Rhodia : www.rhodia.com

About Ulysse Travel & Expenses : www.etaponline.com

Testimonial : Indexel

Testimonial : AREVA

International Group Areva rolls out UL YSSE T&E through all entities

Harmonizing processes and improving internal controls while making the best of a modern, user-friendly solution that is easily adaptable to all the core business areas: such are the ambitions of the world leader in the energy industry in seeking to manage the 200,000 annual trips made by its staff.

Areva has launched an international rollout timetable for Ulysse T&E using an industrialized project methodology.

“We manage 200,000 trips per year, in France, internationally and within Europe” explains Anne Vilain from the Areva Financial Department for Cross-Company Projects. And the volume should increase even more, considering our strong organic and external growth.”

The Areva Group was created in 2001by the merger of CEA-Industrie’s activities: Framatome and Cogema, and then expanded through the acquisition of Alstom’s Transmission and Distribution activity in 2004. Because of its recent history, the group comprises a large number of companies, each with their own information systems and different corporate cultures.
The group intends to change this situation thanks to a convergence strategy. “We have launched cross-company projects in order to implement common management rules and solutions across all the companies”, in particular for managing business travel. “Managing business trips and expense claims was done manually for the most part amongst the group’s companies, resulting in a lot of time spent, many mistakes and a lack of visibility, etc. We wish to harmonize the processes, provide a modern and user-friendly tool and have an application that is easily adaptable to the whole world.”

Core model and project plan for an autonomous international rollout

Following an international call for tenders launched at the beginning of 2006, the Ulysse T&E solution, designed and distributed by Etap-On-Line, was selected out of the four responses.

“Ulysse T&E met our specifications very well. All the teams involved were convinced: accountants, IT specialists, buyers and Human Resources.”
Beyond the strictly functional criteria, the Areva teams appreciated the userfriendliness and ergonomics of the tool.“This aspect is all the more important since we want the staff to enter their own data concerning their travels”, adds Jean-Luc Martel, manager of the Ulysse T&E rollout at Areva.

“We have excellent relations with the Etap-On-Line teams, who are available, competent and open-minded. Throughout the project they proved genuinely willing to work in partnership”, adds Anne Vilain.

Once the application was chosen, the Areva teams worked on the definition of a core model during 2007. “This stage took longer than planned, but we wanted to have a configuration that was as standardized as possible for the group, so that the tool would adapt to the differences in organization, culture, processes and information systems. The goal being to offer it to all entities throughout the world”, says Ms. Vilain.
During the creation of a “pilot” company, the Areva teams, together with those of Etap-On-Line, wrote a detailed project plan. “The project plan covers all the aspects of a rollout, from the interfaces to be created with the current system to the communications plan designed to accompany the change management process”, explains Jean-Luc Martel.

Time savings and security

In October 2007 the rollout of the solution for the 800 staff members at headquarters made it possible to validate the functional and technical choices. “In the beginning, we planned to host Ulysse T&E internally. But we rapidly recognized that this was not the best way forward and decided to opt for the ASP, with the benefits of controlled costs, updates done by our application supplier in full transparency, and a lot of time saved”, explains Vilain.

The staff and assistants now connect directly to Ulysse T&E on www.ulyssetravel.com. “The tool is very well suited to our organization and the workflows work perfectly. The approval timescales are considerably shorter and all the travel orders received by the agency are signed electronically. No more fax or phone orders!”, adds Mr. Martel.

Furthermore, and this is a point that differentiates Etap-On-Line from other software companies, the solution is interfaced with travel agencies and car rental agencies, allowing for central invoicing. In short, the securing of flows and processes guarantees application of the travel policy.

250,000 trips managed per year in the long term

On the strength of this success, the Areva group has established a rollout calendar for all its subsidiaries. “When a subsidiary initiates the Ulysse T&E rollout, we give the core model to the project team. It then undertakes a gap analysis between their requirements and the core model offered. Etap-On-Line adapts the configuration to local constraints, such as the tax regulations of the different countries.”

The goal is indeed to integrate Ulysse T&E in all the countries where the group is present. “Two-thirds of French companies will adopt Ulysse T&E in 2008, and Areva T&D has begun to roll out the solution internationally.

In addition to an extraordinary comfort level in terms of maintenance, the ASP mode enables very fast rollouts.” A total of no less than 250,000 trips per year will be managed thanks to Ulysse T&E.
In the long term, corporate management will easily obtain reporting statements making internal controls and purchasing policies easier. “And we also plan to capitalize on the grand opening of Ulysse T&E to use online booking solutions.”

Areva in brief  www.areva.com

Present in 41 countries, the Areva group is a world leader on the energy market.
Employees: 70,000 people worldwide
Turnover: €12 billion (of which 2/3 outside France)

www.etaponline.com

Testimonial : Indexel

Testimonial : ROCHE France

When Roche France decided to overhaul its information systems throughout Europe, they needed to find an expense management solution that was flexible and powerful. The application they chose was ULYSSE T&E in ASP mode.

“As we moved to globalize our SAP applications throughout Europe, we decided not to renew the expense account handling module we had used to date. We therefore needed to find a tool that matched the specificities of our business in France”, explains Martine Godart, a project manager with Roche. As a leading provider of cancer treatment, Roche pharmaceutical laboratories employ around 500 medical representatives in France who produce a large volume of daily expenses using the Siebel CRM application. “We needed to find an expense management solution that would integrate easily not only with SAP but also with the Siebel CRM application used for sales visits”. On no account did they want to ask users to change their routines.

Rapid integration

A call for tenders was made at the end of 2006, and ULYSSE Travel & Expenses designed by Etap-On-Line was chosen. “The simplicity and user friendliness of ULYSSE T&E convinced us. What’s more, the ASP mode corresponded well with the move to globalize our information services. Finally, the e-booking connection module and the integration of the application with internet solutions really interested us.”

Four months was enough to implement ULYSSE T&E, with the aid of project teams from both sides. “Defining user needs was an easy process as the handling of expense accounts had already been computerized. The Etap-On-Line team had a clear understanding of our needs and also gave us the benefit of their expert knowledge in the field.”

A significant number of claims

Thanks to its configuration, ULYSSE T&E can mirror the structure and the organization of a company. “And the Etap-On-Line team fine-tuned the interfaces we needed, so that now medical reps continue to enter expense account information into Siebel, from where the data is automatically forwarded into ULYSSE T&E.” This data amounts to nearly one claim per day per person among Roche’s 500 medical representatives. “Etap-On-Line also provided us with a solution which allows every medical rep to receive a monthly recap of their expenses via “push e-mail” which is delivered directly to their inbox; they don’t have to do anything.”

Travel expenses from the 700 head office staff are handled directly via the www.ulyssetravel.com website in ASP mode. The workflows were defined in consultation with Etap-On-Line. Assistant staff enter the claims and then each staff member receives an email informing them that their claim has been forwarded for approval. Progress can then be followed online in real-time, and once approved, the data is automatically integrated into the company accounts system.

Positive user feedback

“The feedback we’ve had from users has been extremely positive, particularly as they’ve been able to come to grips with it very quickly. For the solution administrator here at Roche, the workflows have been easy to master, thanks to simple configurations and the fact that messages sent to staff members can be customized.” Choosing ASP mode enabled Roche to free up technical staff from supporting expense claim processing, whilst guaranteeing regular, hassle-free maintenance and updates.

Next steps

Roche is phasing in the multiple functionalities of the solution. “We have already begun to implement a partnership with the French bank Société Générale, which provides us with company card transaction data. Expenses are then extracted and integrated into individual expense claims.” As well as ensuring that company travel expense policy is applied, this partnership also facilitates the completion of expense claims for users as supplier information is already pre-defined in the statements. Users can now work in comfort and save time too !

Roche – a brief overview

Roche pharmaceutical laboratories work to provide health professionals with innovative medicines to prolong or save patients’ lives.

In France, Roche works in six therapeutic fields: Cancer treatment, anaemia / transplantation, virology, rheumatology, auto-immune diseases, metabolic problems.

The leading provider to hospitals, Roche is the 6th biggest pharmaceutical laboratory in France.

Staff in France (2006): 1,295

Turnover in France (2006): €1,110.7m

SME testimonial : DEVANLAY

 

ULYSSE T&E rolled out in 5 weeks flat at Devanlay

Devanlay, the licensed clothing manufacturer for Lacoste, realised that it was no longer practical to keep processing their business expenses manually.  The company, which produces and markets the famous polo shirts with the green crocodile logo, turned to Etap-On-Line and ULYSSE T&E to centralise their data and automate their processes.  The rollout via internet was completed in just 5 weeks, with better reliability, visibility and time savings as part of the bargain. 

“Up until 2006, all of our business expenses were processed manually, using Excel spreadsheets.  We were losing a huge amount of time, accumulating lots of paperwork, and ultimately had virtually no visibility”, explains Dominique Bastien, Financial Controller at Devanlay.  As the exclusive worldwide licence holder for Lacoste clothing, the company manufactures and sells the brand’s clothes to a network of retailers, via franchises and in owner-operated stores.

More than 100 people make regular trips to the numerous countries where Devanlay is based.  In the absence of any centralised, automated processing of expense accounts, reimbursements were paid out without any annual overview, especially with respect to the number of exceptions requested by each employee.  There was therefore no data history, summary or analysis, meaning there was very little control over travel expenses.

Choosing the ASP method
In 2006, a decision was reached to rectify this situation, and Devanlay carried out a market study.  Two software publishers, including Etap-on-line, were identified as being able to meet the needs and expectations laid out in the specifications.  “We then met both service providers and attended in-depth demonstrations of the tools on offer.  We selected ULYSSE T&E as its ergonomics and functionalities suited our needs perfectly.  The Etap-on-line teams also gave us extremely precise information about their references, which was what ultimately convinced us.”  For this “non-strategic” application, Devanlay opted to lease ASP-based hosting on www.ulyssetravel.com.  “We can access the application directly online, and don’t have to worry about things like maintenance and updates.”

Automating the processes starting at 50 users
Initially, the project involved a pilot group of about 50 users, mostly from the Marketing department. Etap-On-Line’s approach includes all the parties.  “We set up a project group, with representatives from all the posts that would be affected: the Head of Accounting, an IT manager and a management auditor, who also works with the Marketing department, and who assumed the role of User Project Manager.”  Two consultants from Etap-On-Line were assigned to integrate and configure ULYSSE T&E.  Members from both sides finally composed the team which finally launched the project in mid-February 2007.

The first stage was to validate the approval hierarchy, thresholds and workflow.  “We gave Etap-On-Line our workflow-related information and entered our company data into ULYSSE T&E.  Our internal procedures here at Devanlay were then perfectly replicated within ULYSSE T&E.”  Thanks to the ULYSSE T&E interface with the SAP accounting tool already in use at Devanlay, all expense account data was automatically transferred, without having to be re-entered manually.

A user-friendly tool
Five weeks after the project was launched, all the pilot group users were able to access ULYSSE T&E online.  “The User Project Manager attended a training course and now holds the role of Internal Support Officer, ready to supply first-level assistance.  The ULYSSE T&E interface is very user-friendly, and our team had little trouble learning to use it.”

Reliability and visibility in 5 weeks flat
Employees now enjoy simple one-click access to the records of their requests for reimbursement and pending payments. They are very pleased with the new system, which has drastically cut back on the number of phone calls that used to be required to handle their expense accounts.  “On the one hand, management now has a much clearer picture of the requests concerning business expenses, and can refuse to make reimbursements if necessary.  Our expenses policy can be applied consistently.”  In the accounts department, they now obtain their data automatically from ULYSSE T&E: everything has already been approved and typing errors are a thing of the past.  “Now that all our data is centralised, and our business expense processing is fully automated, we save a lot of time every day.  The data is also more reliable and we receive status reports automatically, particularly regarding the breakdown of expenses by department or the average cost of hotels.”

Extended use
With an average of 30 expense accounts to be handled each month since the pilot group rollout, Devanlay has no intention of stopping such a successful project in its tracks.  “Preparations are underway to extend ULYSSE T&E to all group personnel in France who travel for business purposes.  In time, ULYSSE T&E will be used by 200 staff members, and will handle more than 100 expense accounts every month. We should be able to do this more quickly than the initial rollout as we’ll just have to duplicate the first company setup we’ve created !”

Capgemini France on www.ulyssetravel.com

-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.

Testimonial : BNP PARIBAS

Managing expense claims: BNP Paribas cuts the paperwork with Ulysse T&E,in Europe, Asia and the United States
  

With 138 000 employees in 88 countries and an annual net banking income of 29.7 billion euros, France based BNP Paribas ranks among the top international banks in continental Europe. The group has a strong worldwide presence in many different fields, including retail banking, asset management, as well as corporate and investment banking. In such an organisation, managing travel and expense claims can be quite an issue.

“On a group wide basis, we have to deal with close to 250 000 travel events each year, explains Francesca Harrison, deployment Manager at BNP Paribas. Our most frequent destinations are Paris, London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Geneva, Madrid and Moscow, where our largest sites are located. The average cost of transportation is 465 euros and the average cost of incurred expenses is close to 400 euros, including hotel room charges.” Yet, until recently, the submission of expense claims by the travelling staff and the associated approval process were mostly paper based. In many cases, an Excel spreadsheet template was used to gather transaction data in a uniform way, but the input of expenses in the local accounts payable system (from which the reimbursement process is performed) were managed manually. 

Moving to a paper free process

At the beginning of 2001, a decision was made to set up a group-wide solution for the management of travel expenses. The required features included an online expense claim creation process, interfaced with each traveller’s credit card account, for automatic inclusion of transactions in the expense claims. Also required was an automatic validation process to check items against BNP Paribas’ travel policy, an online approval workflow, as well as an automatic interface with the accounts payable systems for expense reimbursement.A study of the major travel expense solutions available on the market was conducted with the assistance of the consultancy firm Arthur Andersen. “We set up a series of evaluation workshops and at the end of the day, we finally settled for Ulysse T&E.” Among the features that made a difference was the multi-language translation of the Ulysse T&E application, including both user and administration screens. The BNP Paribas working group was responsible for defining the key requirements surrounding the hotel referencing feature, as well as Ulysse T&E’s ability to itemize invoices into different expense categories, which are now part of Ulysse T&E’ standard functionality. A hotel invoice can therefore be segmented into room cost, food, etc. Finally, the software’s three tier technical architecture was identified as a strong security feature. 

A hassle free rollout

Implementing the Ulysse T&E application was handled internally by the group’s procurement optimisation staff. Two initial pilot sites were set up, one English speaking based in London and one French speaking based in Paris. This was followed by a phase of marketing the Ulysse T&E solution to the group’s different entities, with a focus on those with significant numbers of travellers and volumes of travel claims. “After a pilot phase conducted in London, the software is now hosted internally on servers managed by the Paris IT staff. The system is accessed by all users and administrators over the corporate intranet. There have been no significant issue with the integration of Ulysse T&E with other BNP Paribas systems.” 

With no major incident in the rollout phase, BNP Paribas met its deadline of completing the deployment among all strategic group entities by the end of 2005. Over the course of 2006 and onward, deployment is continuing among other group entities. “User adoption has been relatively smooth and Ulysse T&E has been generally perceived as a user friendly tool that turns out to be quite self explanatory. Our corporate users appreciate Ulysse T&E’s benefits as an integrated solution”, says Francesca Harrison, who also expresses satisfaction in the level of support that was provided throughout the decision cycle: “From the early stages of project definition all the way down to rolling out the solution, Etap-On-Line has provided a valuable support and working knowledge of expense claim processes. They have always handled our requests with a high level of reactivity and interest. They have always been happy to receive feedback and, where it made sense, included our suggestions in their product plan.

“Today, at BNP Paribas, the system handles close to 20 000 active users in 10 countries, in Europe, Asia and the United States. Over 134 000BNP Paribas claims were submitted through Ulysse T&E in 2006.

Testimonial : ALSTOM UK

Streamlining Alstom UK’s expense claims management with Ulysse Travel & Expenses

With Ulysse Travel & Expenses on the corporate Intranet, Alstom UK’s Transport Information Solutions unit keeps paperwork under control and provides valuable cost analysis information.

The UK branch of the french industrial blue chip has taken steps, a couple of years back, to effectively turn a bureaucratic bottleneck into an efficient and streamlined process, with the implementation of Ulysse Travel & Expenses, Etap-On-Line’s intranet expenses management solution.This move has made the life of Alstom Transport Information Solutions’ chief accountant Martyn Jones a great deal easier.

This unit of Alstom UK, specialised in railway technologies, operates from two locations, in Birmingham and Borehamwood, in the north of London. “We have a work force of over one hundred, including close to ten home workers. Every month, about half of our employees submit an expense claim” explains Martyn Jones.

Managing expense claims electronically

With the implementation of Ulysse Travel & Expenses on the corporate Intranet, back in 2003, travel expense claims management has been turned into a paperwork free process. “We have a company wide agreement with American Express” explains Martyn Jones. “All of our staff have a charge card, that they use for all of their travel expenses”.

Every month, the accounting department receives a statement from American Express with the details of all expenses. This statement is loaded into Ulysse T&E. Employee copy expense items from their online Amex statement to their monthly expense claim. They only need to fill in the details to explain what each spending was for, by selecting from a list of predetermined codes (hotels, petrol, meals, etc). Once completed, the claim is directed to the team supervisor for approval, before being sent back to accounting for processing. “

The system is a great time saver” underscores Martyn Jones. “There is no need to fill in dates and amounts, all necessary information being already in the statement. Also, using codes to identify the nature of each spending makes it easier to log information accurately in our accounting system”.

Leveraging SAP

To make things easier for both employees and book keeping, Ulysse T&E is connected to the company ERP, under SAP. “For this matter, Ulysse T&E acts as a front end to SAP” explains Martyn Jones. In effect, there are three incoming data feeds from SAP to Ulysse T&E. User accounts in Ulysse T&E are created automatically using data from the employee list in SAP. General ledger account codes are also input from SAP as well as cost centre information and project charge codes, to allow for efficient cost analysis of all expenses.Ulysse T&E then sends back information on expense claims to SAP, in order to effectively post invoices to the right account.

This set up makes everyone’s life easier. Employees have access to a centralised expenses management system, with a very shallow learning curve. The company provides them with a comprehensive user guide that is enough to get them going in record time. Supervisors and management, on the other end, have a clear view of all expenses linked to every group or project.

Cutting down on overheads

At the end of the day, all involved seem to appreciate the way the system gets the job done, with limited overheads. “In general, everyone is very pleased with Ulysse T&E. Our previous expenses system was paper based, and Ulysse T&E has reduced the workload for travellers, approvers and the finance department” stresses Martyn Jones. The benefits are many.Ulysse T&E enables users to track their claims through the system. This is particularly beneficial for staff that are out of the office.

It also allows the finance department to track the number and value of claims at the various stages of the process.With the online American Express statements, users select items to load into their claims. The finance staff no longer have to input claim details manually. This effectively eliminates double typing.Claims with invalid codes are no longer received, since all codes are provided directly from SAP. Cost analysis is therefore optimised and accurate.Finally, Ulysse T&E allows for better expenses reporting. This is particularly useful in the UK, where it facilitates compliance with the tax rules on benefits and expenses. Also, management has a much clearer view on the real costs involved in each project.

With the current implementation of Ulysse Travel & Expenses, Alstom Transport Information Solutions has cut down the cost of managing expense claims by close to 70%.

But to reap the maximum benefit, Martyn Jones considers that providing staff with dedicated charge cards is a key driver : “Our staff now charge air flights to their American Express cards and receive reimbursement via Ulysse T&E. Previously, air flights were booked through our company travel agent and charged to the company’s account with the travel agent. Among the benefits, we see a greater use of low cost airlines. Also, we no longer have any accounts payable problems with the travel agent”. It is also true that having all travel expenses go through the charge cards helps the system reach its maximum efficiency, by eliminating all manual inputs and, ultimately, cutting down the laborious paperwork that nobody really wants to do, either in the accounting department or on each employee’s laptop.