Purchasing Power: How CFOs Can Use Collaboration to Buy Better Tech

In today's interconnected and, dare we say, unpredictable business environment, collaboration between key leadership roles is essential for driving organizational success. The partnership between a CFO and their C-suite colleagues is particularly critical when it comes to picking the right spend management solution. As our more than 51,000 customers will tell you, it’s not just about crunching numbers—it’s about making sure the chosen technology will meet the needs of employees companywide. 

Here's how CFOs can use collaboration across their leadership team to make a confident technology choice.  

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Collaborating with your IT leader 

Your CTO/CIO and their team are the tech gurus—they know your current business systems inside out and can spot any potential ERP, CRM, and third-party integration hurdles before they become roadblocks. Your IT leader will also be focused on your company’s data handling and data security requirements, and how these can be met without compromising the end-user experience.  

When evaluating an expense management solution, your IT leader will likely want to understand: 

• Will the solution integrate with our ERP, CRM, and HR solutions, such as Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Dynamics 365, ADP, and SAP?  
• Does the solution provider have a large ecosystem of solution and service extensions, along with a network of third-party technology and service partners? 
• Is the solution provider on the forefront of technology innovation and what proven track record do they have?  

And let’s not forget about the technology hot topic across all industries: artificial intelligence (AI). Granted, it’s a big topic, so we created a tipsheet on 14 ways your company can use AI and machine learning (ML) to optimize travel and expense management.  

Make sure to also read our article on Finding Security in Data Intelligence and the Cloud to understand how SAP Concur builds, runs, and maintains secure operations for our customers. 

Collaborating with your HR leader 

HR folks are the ones who really get what makes employees tick. They’re often the first to hear all about the headaches and hassles people face with submitting expense reports, booking travel, and pushing invoices up the finance chain.  

In fact, 54% of HR leaders agree too many manual processes and/or procedures make it challenging to facilitate work-from-anywhere processes.1 

By including your CHRO in your tech buying group, they can bring their unique understanding of what employees need to do their best work, not busywork. Hint: The SAP Concur mobile app is highly rated on the Apple app store and Google app store for good reason!   

Dig deeper into this topic by reading our article on How the Right Solutions Can Help HR Elevate Employee Experience. 

Collaborating with your business transformation leaders 

While finance and IT often take the lead with spend management technology purchases, leaders at all levels of your company should likewise play an active role in defining solution requirements and evaluating options.  

From sales and marketing to administration and customer service, your business leaders can help clarify what good, better, best looks like so you can zero in on technology features that will deliver the most bang for your investment dollars.  

It’s worth noting that solutions like Concur Expense, Concur Travel, and Concur Invoice are part of a single spend management platform, helping to connect spend data across teams companywide and facilitate collaborative decision-making.    

Here's a great resource worth sharing with your entire leadership team: Why Now Is the Best Time to Digitalize How You Manage Company Spend. 

SAP Concur solutions = no tech regrets 

There are numerous reasons why our customers—and competitors—all say SAP Concur is the one to beat. Ready to see what’s possible for your team? Reach out to us today.