Pandemic Year Two and How Companies Have Adapted

On the second anniversary of the pandemic, there’s a lot to reflect on—from the lives and businesses upended by the pandemic to the relief efforts to aid the many in need. There were incredible challenges, but also stories of adapting and overcoming.

From our vantage point, we observed large-scale transformation as companies made rapid adjustments for remote work and other business disruptions. At SAP Concur, our mission is to reinvent travel, expense, and invoice management with tools that simplify everyday processes and create better experiences. We want to help companies solve problems and make the pivotal moments count, whether big or small.

As we reflect on the past two years, our customers’ stories and the challenges they overcame during the pandemic remain front and center.

Corporate travel trials during a global pandemic            

At the start of the pandemic, companies were scrambling to track down traveling employees and ensure their safe return home.

Serco, one of the world's largest providers of public services to governments, had to act quickly on the day the British government announced its first lockdown. The team used reports in Concur Travel to quickly locate employees and help facilitate return trips before business travelers were stranded.

“SAP enabled us to respond to the welfare and safety of our employees,” according to Joanne Cartwright, Manager Services Director at Serco. “When the pandemic hit, our first mission was to bring home our employees quickly and safely—and the SAP Concur platform really facilitated that.”

Penn State University, with more than 35,000 employees, is another institution that had to quickly track down faculty and staff for their protection. “Although we don’t mandate the use of Concur Travel, since the pandemic, a lot of departments are now doing that on their own,” said Lisa Steinbugl, E-Procurement, Travel and Purchasing Card Manager at Penn State. “They clearly saw the value of what the tool offers in terms of duty of care.”

Business travel was put on hold for many companies after the outbreak. Luckily, those that captured bookings through an online booking tool were able to reconcile future trips.

“We were able to take unused airfare booked through Concur Travel and move it to a new UATP (Universal Air Travel Plan) card to use when we start booking travel again,” said Steinbugl. “We couldn’t do that for travel booked outside of the tool.”

If shutting down corporate travel programs was difficult, those that restarted them during the pandemic faced even greater challenges. New and deeper levels of planning were required to ensure travelers’ safe return to travel.

Peace of mind was a key theme for companies that restarted travel programs. Serco used Concur Travel to directly manage approvals for business-critical trips. Integrations with duty of care partners ensured Serco could better protect employees in a range of scenarios when traveling—which is what employees expect from employers. An SAP Concur study found that 89 percent of business travelers want their company to protect their health and safety while traveling.

Going remote in a moment’s notice with automated employee spend management

The pandemic prompted the great remote work migration. Within a short timeframe, the office became synonymous with home—and home was lacking the infrastructure to support work.

CAF America, a global grantmaking organization, used Concur Expense to help employees transition to a home office. Each employee was allocated $1,500 to purchase home office equipment, furniture, and tools. In less than two weeks, CAF America received reimbursement requests from 80 percent of the staff, totaling more than $42,000. Even with the unusually high number of simultaneous submissions, employees had their reimbursements paid with their next paycheck, as usual.

The Tech Interactive, a hands-on science center in the heart of Silicon Valley, is another non-profit that needed to adapt rapidly. It had to modify its manual expense reporting and cumbersome invoice process, in addition to creating virtual exhibits. By adopting cloud-based SAP Concur solutions, The Tech Interactive's back office moved to an electronic invoice process while employees gained the ability to file expense reports on the go.

“We've realized not everything has to happen on site,” said Brandon Lewke, Controller at The Tech Interactive. “Some things should, but some things can happen offsite, especially when you're in a nonprofit. But with SAP Concur solutions, the stuff that can happen remotely can be done from anywhere.”

Embracing change

Companies and employees have been at the forefront of innovation, adapting to unprecedented changes and setting the stage for the future of travel and spend management. We find inspiration in SAP Concur customers that prove that.