The Missing “E” in T&E: Concur Expense Success Story

Half the process, twice the problem 

In mathematics, an incomplete equation cannot be solved. In business operations, the same principle applies. A global investment firm specializing in secondary markets discovered this truth when it implemented only half of the natural T&E pairing — successfully adopting SAP Concur’s Travel module without the corresponding Concur Expense solution.  

As the firm expanded across multiple countries, this operational imbalance created increasingly visible friction. The company had streamlined how its professionals booked travel, but employees continued to manage expenses through disconnected, outdated systems that created friction, redundancy, and frustration. 

T + ? = operational excellence: the missing variable 

By 2024, the firm recognized that its T&E system was incomplete. The previous Concur Travel implementation proved to be a success, yet the firm lacked the same efficiency in its expense management. This half-implemented solution generated four distinct business problems: 

• The Broken Circuit: Travel data entered the system smoothly but could not flow through to expense reporting, creating a disjointed process with duplicated effort 

• The Data Divide: Leadership had visibility into global travel bookings but could only access expense data in fragmented silos, blocking holistic spend analysis 

• Employee Experience Gap: Employees experienced a modern, streamlined interface when booking travel, but were met with outdated, clunky tools when submitting related expenses 

The solution was clear: complete the equation by implementing the missing “E.” Only by integrating Concur Expense could the firm create the unified T&E ecosystem required to support its international scale. 

Laying the groundwork

Acquis began with a rigorous discovery process focused on identifying the knowns, diagnosing the unknowns, and defining the problem space before attempting to solve it. 

This strategic assessment phase included: 

• Policy Mapping across eight markets to identify inconsistencies and compliance gaps 

• Process Diagnosis to uncover inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and manual workarounds 

• Technology Evaluation to assess integration points and system readiness 

• Best Practice Benchmarking to align with industry leaders 

Acquis’ analysis resulted in a tailored roadmap balancing global standardization with necessary local variations — a formula calibrated for success in multinational environments. 

Executing the formula

With a solid equation in hand, Acquis moved into implementation, building the Concur Expense component with precision and user-focused intent. Key priorities included: 

1. Seamless Integration of the new Concur Expense module with the existing Concur Travel platform 

2. Process Optimization to eliminate manual tasks and reinforce best-practice workflows 

3. User-Centric Design to ensure intuitive, accessible interfaces that encouraged adoption 

Throughout the project, Acquis stayed closely aligned with the firm’s business goals — treating the implementation not as a tech deployment, but as a lever for operational transformation.