Airbus North America Holdings

The problem

• Paper-based system was time consuming, cumbersome
• T&E budget reporting was insufficient
• Limited tracking of reports by expense categories or vendors
• Weekly T&E reimbursement policy was overwhelming AP

The solution

• Cost effective solution that yields rapid ROI and improved productivity from a fixed headcount
• Minimal in-house IT involvement/support required
• Paperless solution leveraging receipt imaging
• Provides excellent options for management expense reporting

The benefits

• Enhanced financial control & visibility for improved spend policy compliance
• Helped achieve compliance with Airbus internal financial control standards
• Provided clear visibility regarding the processing status of any report in the system
• Simplified and improved efficiency of travel system audits
• Recognized by Airbus' worldwide corporate "Awards For Excellence" program

Airbus North America Holdings, Inc is the U.S.-based subsidiary of Airbus, SAS, France, the world's largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft. With over 500 employees spread across the U.S. – the majority of which conduct extensive business travel – it's critical that the Airbus North American operation provides business services to match the global needs of their traveling employees.

"We have a lot of people who conduct highcost travel to Europe," explains Bob Wentworth, director of financial systems & reporting for Airbus. "These employees demand pretty quick turnaround on their expense reports, but our paper-based process was just too cumbersome, time-consuming and labor intensive." Realizing that their manual process was simply unable to keep up with the 300 to 500 expense reports being generated per month, Airbus decided to look for a solution to help streamline the entire expense reporting process.

The company evaluated several automated expense reporting solutions before choosing Concur® Expense Service Pro*, purchased through their ADP representative. "We're already an ADP customer, so the Concur Expense Service Pro solution dovetailed nicely with both ADP's Payroll service and our own back office accounting system."

In addition to the benefits of streamlining the entire expense reporting process for employees, the organization required a solution that would support both the automatic feed of expense data from their corporate card program and direct deposit to eliminate the time and expense of generating manually cut checks. But given those requirements, was the cost justification to proceed with the project compelling enough?

"The cost study we conducted with the help of our ADP representative was actually too compelling, so we chopped every assumption in half and still went forward with the program". In November of 2003, Airbus made the decision to automate their expense reporting process using Concur Expense Service Pro. Implementation proceeded at a rapid pace, with the system online in January 2004 and full deployment to the entire organization achieved less than 60 days later.

Web-based Interface Simplifies Filing and Expedites Reimbursements

In addition to adopting Concur Expense Service Pro to automate their expense reporting process, Airbus also added the optional receipt imaging service, enabling employees to use a fax to electronically submit all paper receipts. "Now there is no paper, period. Imaging is mandatory for everybody, direct deposit is mandatory for everybody and filing online is mandatory - so we have eliminated all the paperwork."

With Concur Expense Service Pro's intuitive browser interface, any North American Airbus employee with Web access can now submit their T&E expenses from anywhere in the world. Employees can even enter their expenses while offline or using a PDA, synching that data with Concur Expense Service Pro when they are back online. By streamlining the entire expense reporting process, Airbus was able to accelerate reimbursement time from 3 weeks to approximately 4 to 5 days. "We have people all over the country that travel all over the world and they don't want to go to the bank to deposit an expense check. With Concur Expense Service Pro and direct deposit, the employees are happy, and our lives are made a lot easier too."

However, Airbus doesn't just use Concur Expense Service Pro for T&E expenses. Miscellaneous employee expenses – like cell phone charges – are also submitted through this easy-to-use automated service.

"Where we used to get a piece of paper that had to go through a manual and timeconsuming approval process, now these miscellaneous monthly expenses can be routed to the appropriate approver and reimbursed just like a T&E expense."

Deeper Insight Into Data Enhances Visibility Over Expenses

With T&E being one of their top five cost items, Airbus management is also recognizing the benefits of Concur Expense Service Pro. In addition to inserting an additional level of accountability into the approval process, automation provides an extra measure of visibility not possible using manual processes. "Issuing reports on T&E expenses not only used to be a cumbersome process, the resulting data was limited to a total by GL and department. With Concur Expense Service Pro, we are now able to easily provide detailed reports to any manager for any or all travel expenses."

This increased visibility and attention to internal customer service has also reflected well on the Airbus North America Financial Systems & Reporting team. As a finalist in the Airbus Corporate Awards for Excellence, the team received personal letters of appreciation from the Chairman and President/CEO. "Concur Expense Service Pro has been recognized by both Airbus executive management and our own internal auditors, who give it the highest ranking in the company."

So what's on the horizon now that Airbus's North American operations are reaping the many benefits of an automated expense reporting process? "We're interested in doing a lot more with the expense data that we have. Mining this valuable information can help us uncover substantial potential savings and even help us negotiate better rates with our vendors." One thing is for sure – with powerful automated tools like Concur Expense Service Pro, it's a safe bet that the Airbus North America team will continue flying high while keeping the cost of T&E expenses low.

*Airbus North America Holdings, Inc is using a rebranded version of Concur Expense Service Pro called ADP Expense eXpert.