This is the fifth post in our 6-part series based on a white paper with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services in association with U.S. Bank that examines the growing use of automation to manage corporate T&E.
Does FinTech sound too good to be true? According to two of The Hackett Group’s benchmark reports, finance teams that replace standard business processes with automated, digitized T&E processes can process 3.9x expense reports per full-time employee while achieving processing accuracy that is 4.5x greater. And the overall processing cost as a percentage of travel spending is 2.7x less than companies that don’t deploy these solutions.
>> Related: How Better UX Saves 15% of Time Managing T&E Reports <<
But it’s not just about acquiring the right technology. Organizations that can succeed at digital transformation set themselves apart in other key ways:
- Companies adopt the right governance model and the right policies for managing T&E.
- CFOs morph their team from a traditional “scorekeeper” role into leaders and advisers.
- Instead of embarking on a linear transformation process, these Finance teams test, learn, and make steady, incremental improvements.
And compared to inefficient peer organizations, these successful companies were able to quiet doubts and continue investing in their transformation:
- Many companies already pay for an ERP system and prefer to “get by” with the ERP’s basic T&E functionality (augmented with people and time and energy).
- Despite the obvious benefits, their peer organizations hesitated to adopt unified card, expense, and travel management platforms due to concerns about implementation costs, technology complications, or a perceived threat that automation will eliminate jobs.
- Peer organizations questioned whether they have the necessary skills on their teams to handle the transition and ongoing management of these automated solutions.
Read the entire series with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services >