Selling Finance Automation to Your C-Suite
As the department that holds the purse strings, you’re used to hearing other members of the C-suite pitching their spending plans to you. But what happens when the boot is on the other foot? Because when it comes to invoice and expense automation, it will be you trying to get buy-in from the other members of your C-suite. And the start of the new year is the perfect time to start having these conversations.
Success lies in building compelling arguments that appeal to the different perspectives different stakeholders have. Doing this will demonstrate how finance automation will address their particular concerns and strengthen the entire business, not just the finance team.
Let’s look at some examples.
Pitching Invoice and Expense Automation to the CEO or Business Owner
Your CEO is going to be as interested in ROI as you are, so it’s important to demonstrate the value invoice and expense automation brings. So highlight the fact Concur Invoice has been shown to deliver a 505% five year ROI and typically pays for itself in five months. It’s sensible to point out SAP Concur solutions operate on a per-transaction basis so it’s easy to scale and offers value for money from day one.
They’ll also be interested in solutions that will improve employee satisfaction and therefore retention levels. So it’s important to highlight that research shows employees are much happier with the overall expense reporting experience after automation, including the shorter duration between report submission and reimbursement, which is reduced by as much as 80%.
Pitching Invoice and Expense Automation to the Sales and Marketing Director
The Sales and Marketing Director will be concerned about improving the customer experience so they can increase customer retention. As one of our customers commented: “We’ve seen calls from vendors drop. This has created more value-added time for our customer service staff to take on more jobs – probably a 50% drop in the number of questions coming in and a 75% drop in the time spent compared with looking for the physical paperwork.”
They’ll also be interested in the additional time finance automation will create for their team. Companies whose employees use mobile travel and expense management apps save 4.5 hours per month, which is the equivalent of a week each year. That’s a week they could spend doing more productive things that generate revenue for the business.
Pitching Invoice and Expense Automation to the Operations Director
For the Operations Director, the improvement invoice and expense automation makes to processes is important. So make sure they see that compliance with procurement policies is 99% with Concur Invoice. And note that staff time on invoice processing typically reduces by 68%, meaning your team is much more cost-effective.
Also important is the additional visibility automation brings – and what that means for the business. In past years, organisations using SAP Concur tools have been able to reclaim about 95% of their recoverable VAT and can have greater confidence in their compliance.
Pitching Invoice and Expense Automation to the IT Director
The IT Director is likely to be concerned about the impact a new IT system is going to have on their team’s resources.
With SAP Concur, it’s likely to be considerably less than they fear. For example, Luke Braham, formally Head of Technology Operations at SAP Concur customer RED, says: “I really believe that from signing the paperwork you can be live within two weeks. Anybody, in any department, could administer, configure and run the product.”
Ongoing support is likely to reduce too. The IT staff time required to manage AP solutions is typically 29% less once Concur Invoice is in place.
The Power of Persuasion
Creating a compelling business case tailored to the individual members of your C-suite and backed up with facts and figures is essential to success. If you need help getting started, get in touch with an SAP Concur advisor today. They’ll be able to provide you with resources, a presentation template and more.