Both personally and professionally we all know that good budgeting is the foundation for good cash flow. But if you don’t know what’s coming in or going out, budget shortfalls become the norm and lead to failure, rather than success and growth.
For organizations in need of automated and integrated travel, expense, and invoice management services, there are several providers. However, SAP Concur and disrupter Coupa are key competitors in the market and of late, are the talk in the travel industry.
According to a recent article by Skift, SAP Concur currently holds the “largest market share for helping the world’s largest companies manage their travel expenses.” In essence, SAP Concur is a global behemoth that services 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 500 companies. SAP Concur was also recently named one of the top 10 most popular corporate apps – providing its customers with full integration travel management.
On the flipside, Coupa is increasing its financial portfolio by acquiring companies such as Yapta. Named to Deloitte’s List of 500 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies in North America for the third year in a row, Yapta is a Seattle-based company that provides real-time travel pricing, such as airfare and hotel rates, using advanced, proprietary analytics. With moves like this, Coupa has the ability to disrupt the spend management industry.
“Coupa helps companies spend smarter by giving them visibility and control over their business spend,” said Rob Bernshteyn, the chairman and CEO of Coupa. In a recent collaborative study conducted by Coupa and The Economist Intelligence Unit, data shows that 60 percent of CFOs lack visibility into their organization’s expenses, which affects their control over the overall spend, and impairs their organization’s strategic goals and objectives.
Other expense software provider mergers such as Certify and Chrome River, with a combined value of more than $1 billion and 11,000 global customers, also are in the running. Alan Rich, CEO of Chrome River says, “We can create a solution for different customers and different products.” And, according to Bob Neveu, CEO of Certify, “Our single largest competitor in the space is Concur; Concur has embraced this one-size-fits-all strategy where whether you’re 50 employees or 50,000 employees, you get the same software. We just fundamentally believe that isn’t what the market is actually looking for and expecting.”
So, although SAP Concur is the current market share leader within the travel expense industry, the ability to break into the market and provide more customized programs, using artificial intelligence around spending and travel patterns, is still anyone’s game.
