SAP Concur Celebrates the 2019 Innovation Award Winners

Each year at SAP Concur Fusion, our annual conference that brings together SAP Concur customers, partners, and experts—we recognize a select group of best-run businesses through our SAP Concur Innovation Awards. These customers push the boundaries of travel, expense and invoice solutions to make a meaningful impact on their employees, their business, and their communities—locally and globally.

This year, Mike and I had the honor of announcing our 2019 Innovation Award winners. We received 58 entries from customers spanning 11 countries across a variety of industries. These customers all had super inspiring and innovative solution stories to tell, from saving thousands to millions of dollars in business spend, to creating safer, more enjoyable travel experiences for their employees.

The five 2019 Innovation Award winners selected represent some of the best run organizations in their industries.They’ve driven automation and integration into travel, expense, and invoice processes. They’ve reimagined employee experiences and eliminated tedious tasks so their teams can work smarter. And they’ve developed new ways to sharpen visibility into spend, so their business can run better and employees can focus on what matters most.  

I’m grateful to all our Innovation Award nominees for sharing their experiences. Their feedback and stories inspire us to relentlessly innovate to keep them running at their best. SAP Concur is honored to be their trusted partner.

Meet this year’s 2019 Innovation Award winners:  

Alteryx: By partnering with SAP Concur, the company eliminated manual processes and applied analytics to travel and expenses. In addition to saving hours every week, SAP Concur and app partner Rocketrip allowed Alteryx to save more than $130K on travel within the last year. “The innovation we’re able to achieve now with SAP Concur is fantastic, and the solutions are simple, easy, and helps us all focus on doing what we do best,” said Libby Duane, Chief Customer Officer & Founder.

Discovery: As the global leader in real-life entertainment, Discovery knows how important it is to adapt to the latest technology. Since adopting SAP Concur and TripLink, the company has connected travel and expense in one solution. And by integrating with brands like Uber and Airbnb, employees can now book directly with suppliers while staying in policy, and the company has full visibility into spend. “Having a connected travel ecosystem and access to critical data analysis from SAP Concur is critical to how we effectively manage our travel program,” said Yukari Catherine Tortorich, VP, Global Travel Service.

George Washington University: GW aspires to change the world through the students it educates and the research it conducts. With Concur Expense, the university was able to move “from a paper-based system to state-of-the-art technology, providing improved controls and traceability,” said Darrell Darnell, Senior Associate VP for Safety and Security. By simplifying travel and expense processes and ensuring the safety of the university community across four international campuses, SAP Concur allows faculty and students to focus on teaching, learning, and making an impact. 

NEC: NEC is a global information technology provider, committed to improving lives and addressing societal problems through the power of digital technologies. "NEC was one of the first major Japanese companies to start ‘digital transformation’ by using one of the most advanced approaches in the Japanese market for travel and expense: SAP Concur,” said Kenichi Sugamuta, Executive VP and Personnel Services Division General Manager. Since implementing SAP Concur, NEC has reduced time spent on travel and expense management by 40%, which translates to approximately 200 million yen ($1.8M USD) per year. By saving time and cutting costs, the company is able to deliver on its promise of "Better Products, Better Services."

RED: RED is a leading global staffing organization with a mission to become the talent provider for the entire SAP ecosystem. “Because we can get a complete understanding of what we’re spending our money on,” said Luke Braham, Head of Technology Operations, “we were able to access SAP Concur intelligence data to realize more than a 20% savings per year on taxi services, simply by introducing Uber for Business.” This is one example of how access to better data and insights helped RED rethink their policies and innovate to better meet key business goals.

Watch for more stories about these amazing customers on our SAP Concur Newsroom.