Digitising Travel & Expense (T&E) is no longer just about "processing expense claims faster". For a CFO, it is a means of controlling costs, ensuring compliance and improving data quality, with a direct impact on the employee experience and the ability to operate internationally. After more than twenty years in the T&E ecosystem — as a publisher, end customer, integrator and consulting firm — Julien Martinet, now pre-sales at Arago, provides concrete guidelines for a successful SAP Concur project without any false starts.
The winning approach: clarify requirements before discussing solutions.
Map out current processes, identify user pain points (mobile, advances, cards, receipts, local rules), financial issues (VAT, spending policies) and internal control requirements. Involve all stakeholders (finance, purchasing, HR, IT, managers, travellers, accounting) to capture expressed expectations... and those that are not.
The temptation to quickly implement a "standard" configuration is strong. However, this often leads to rework and friction. Julien's approach: define the need, then demonstrate how SAP Concur meets it, using concrete scenarios (multi-country policies, per diem or daily allowance, lodged cards, multi-currency, conditional workflows, digital receipts, ERP integration). We talk about the business, then we talk about screens.
A T&E project potentially affects all employees. Underestimating change management is one of the main causes of resistance and underutilisation.
T&E projects rarely exist in isolation. Synchronise the schedule with other projects (ERP, HRIS, IAM/SSO, directories, business cards, P2P). Clear project governance (roles, committee structure, risk management) prevents things from going off track. The rule: integrate early (employee repositories, accounting plans, analytical axes), test often, industrialise exception management (countries, subsidiaries).
During a presentation to a major French group, business expertise and a personalised proposal tipped the balance. By addressing real issues (control, policy, international) and tailoring the offer to the context rather than rolling out a standard solution, the team was able to build trust. Key message for CFOs: demand partners who understand your use cases and demonstrate how they handle them.
SAP Concur offers a robust framework. Value is created in:
A demanding project can remain fluid and human. Julien's anecdote — an international deployment delivered on time and with the expected quality, despite a tense context — reminds us that a healthy working environment promotes problem solving and commitment among teams. High standards are not the enemy of good humour.
At Arago, pre-sales acts as a bridge between your needs and the promise of the solution: qualification, contextualised demonstrations, responses to calls for tenders, co-design of approaches, and a secure handover to delivery. The result: informed decisions, smoother deployments, and maximised business value.
Successful T&E projects with SAP Concur involve preparing before configuring, listening before demonstrating, and supporting before demanding. Julien's 360° experience — as a publisher, end customer, integrator and consultant — translates into an approach that is both strategic and operational, tailored to international contexts as well as the control and compliance issues faced by CFOs. Are you launching a scoping exercise, an opportunity study or a call for tenders? Let's talk about business needs and value.