Travel and Expense
How to modernise the Public Sector – one step at a time
Public sector organisations are at varying stages of their digital journey. But whether you’re just looking to get started, or trying to save the planet, automated spend management can deliver the tools you need for big results from a small investment. Gary Goodenough, Business Development Director for Public & Consumer Sectors, SAP Concur, explains how.
We know from our dealings with many public sector organisations and departments, that they are at hugely varying stages of their digital journeys. Some are simply starting out – maybe looking to find simple efficiencies by reducing staff resource or automating some processes, such as expenses.
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Many more, of course, are somewhere in-between – having started their journey with a small investment in a specific piece of digital technology, but not yet seeing the full potential and still needing to advance to the next stage because of the growing budgetary and resource pressures.
There is a silver bullet
Whatever stage of your journey you are at, however, there is a silver bullet that can help you take your digital transformation to the next level to deliver tangible benefits to your organisation: automated spend management.
“There is a silver bullet that can help you take your digital transformation to the next level to deliver tangible benefits to your organisation: automated spend management.”
Gary Goodenough, Business Development Director for Public & Consumer Sectors, SAP Concur
If you are simply looking to get started, automated spend management can kick-start your journey – and deliver fast and effective results for little investment and little effort. A simple automated expense management solution, for example, costs little, is not disruptive to your existing operations, will often pay for itself in savings and will deliver results – fast!
If you are looking to advance beyond the early stages of your journey, automated spend management can equip you with the results, savings and success stories you need to gain buy-in for further investment in digitalisation and automation – to power your organisation onto the next level.
For those who are already far advanced in their journey – it can deliver the data and insights you need to enact further and necessary change, not only within your department, but in wider society and beyond. This is evidenced at places like Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC), where data and insights served up by automated spend management are helping change how people travel, the shape of the fleet and carbon usage – and aiding the organisation’s move to net zero.
Success in action
These were all key messages delivered at a recent event we held which brought together finance and HR professionals from a range of public sector organisations to share their challenges, experience and tips for success when it comes to modernising the finance function.
As part of our day of presentations, discussions and workshops exploring the big issues impacting public sector modernisation, we heard from Shirley Tanner and Alun Roberts at the Department for Transport (DfT). They told us how they have recently implemented an automated spend management solution across five separate agencies that operate under the DfT umbrella, in order to comply with Government requirements to move to the Cloud.
But while the driver was complying with that requirement, the outcomes have been much broader – helping them kick-start what will become a wider digital transformation programme and delivering immediate efficiencies across the five agencies.
“By taking one small step to comply with a desire to standardise systems across government – we have seen how you can have a major impact and deliver plenty more benefits for everyone,” Shirley told attendees.
“SAP Concur integrated the solution with our existing ERP systems, ensuring the correct information is entered at the time of submission, driving efficiency into back-end processes. In-depth management information provides insight into spending, too,” she added. “As a result, we have seen improved behaviour, better compliance levels, intuitive reporting, staff can now use expenses on the move, and electronic receipt capture and storage are driving better practice and control.”
“We have seen improved behaviour, better compliance levels, intuitive reporting, staff can now use expenses on the move, and electronic receipt capture and storage are driving better practice and control.”
Shirley Tanner, DfT
Presenting on the nuanced challenges facing the education sector when it comes to modernisation, Nicola Nestor, Deputy Finance Director – University of Portsmouth and Stephen Kent-Taylor, Head of Corporate & Shared Services – University of Cambridge, told the event that a relatively small investment in expense management can also provide the evidence and ‘success story’ needed to gain buy-in to greater change.
“It’s amazing how impactful it can be to have a success story,” Stephen said. “Starting with expense management, which is easy to implement and can greatly improve the user experience – and promoting the success across the organisation – has been a huge driver for growing the appetite for further digital change.”
Our event also heard from David Robinson, Shared Service Director – Customer, Information and Digital Services, Barnsley MBC – which is much more advanced on its digital transformation journey. In fact, having streamlined and automated its expense and spend management, Barnsley is now using the data and insights provided to completely overhaul its use of travel and its fleet. Furthermore, as pressure grows on the organisation to journey towards net zero, it is combining data on carbon usage in vehicles with hotel data to get a true picture – and reduce – its carbon footprint.
“Ours is a more advanced story – but it shows just how big an impact you can have with the data and insights such simple solutions will give you,” he said. “What’s more, the VAT reclaim benefits of the solution pretty much covered our investment – making the project cost-neutral.”
“It shows just how big an impact you can have with the data and insights such simple solutions will give you.”
David Robinson, Shared Service Director – Customer, Information and Digital Services, Barnsley MBC
Meeting different objectives
Our day-long event highlighted just how far automated spend management can take public sector organisations – and the results it can deliver regardless of where you are on your journey.
It demonstrated how:
- automated spend management can deliver many benefits beyond a simpler and more efficient expenses claims process – including money saving, reduced errors, more data and insights, and a direct impact on the bottom line.
- you do not have to start ‘big’ or with a hefty financial investment – you can start small, see immediate results, and add more later.
- starting small, with a simple implementation such as Concur expense management, can be the driver for increased buy-in to further digital transformation.
- such systems are not solely about improving expense management processes, saving money and reducing compliance breaches – they are also about data and insights that can inform far greater changes, such as moves towards carbon-neutral
- the importance of working with an organisation that listens and adapts to your needs – and can flex systems to suit whatever stage of your journey you are at.
Doing so is enabling and will continue to enable the public sector to modernise – one step at a time!