SAP Concur Conversations

Business spending looks very different than it used to. More payments happen online, more of them are subscription-based, and nearly everyone in an organization may need to spend on the company's behalf, all with the right controls in place. Virtual cards have emerged as a way to meet that moment.In this episode of the SAP Concur Conversations podcast, Widad Chaoui, SVP of Corporate and B2B Products at American Express, joins host Jeanne Dion to share how virtual cards can be a powerful and highly versatile spend and expense management tool. With built-in spend controls and incredible ease of use, virtual cards are one of the fastest growing commercial payment methods, neatly augmenting expense management workflows and purpose-fit for today's modern workforce.Tune in to hear real-world use cases, why virtual cards aren't just for large enterprises, and how to find the right place to start, whether you're a small business or a global organization. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A growing trust and perception gap is emerging across business travel: what CFOs and travel managers believe is happening doesn’t always match what travelers experience or how they behave in real life. In this episode of SAP Concur Conversations, Sara Sarwar, Strategist at alan. shares the findings behind the eighth annual SAP Concur Global Business Travel Survey. The data makes that disconnect clear: 48% of travelers say they’ve bent or broken policy, while 84% of travel managers say they can’t fully meet business goals without more CFO support. But the research also reveals that pressures are converging from several directions at once. Rather than viewing travel challenges individually—policy compliance, AI, fraud, duty of care, cost, or traveler experience—trust becomes the underlying lens. Organizations need a more connected way of thinking, with better communication, stronger alignment between finance and travel leaders, and governance that reflects how employees actually work and travel.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does travel and expense management look like when there's no reliable electricity, no stable internet, and card payments aren't an option? In this episode of the SAP Concur Conversations podcast, Ben Andrews, Global Spend Management Director, and Bob Perkinson, Global Spend Manager, from World Vision share how they manage global spend across some of the world's most challenging environments. Hear how a confederated, 100+ country organization balances global standardization with local flexibility, why trust (not mandates) drives adoption, and how World Vision is applying AI responsibly — cleaning messy, human-entered data and modeling — while staying true to a mission of good stewardship. It's a candid look at what it really means to innovate when you're accountable to donors, beneficiaries, and the field realities in between. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most companies think travel and expense data is just for tracking spend. Saia LTL Freight used it to uncover inefficiencies, influence leadership decisions, and give time back to their teams. But they didn’t originally set out to transform their travel and expense program. They just started asking better questions of their data.In this episode of SAP Concur Conversations, Jeanne Dion talks with Ed Hebert of Saia LTL Freight about how his organization transformed T&E from a routine process into a source of strategic insight. With nearly 30 years at Saia, Ed shares how his team learned to spot patterns others missed, turn raw data into stories leaders actually act on, and continuously refine processes as the business grows.You’ll hear how one data discovery eliminated the equivalent of 42 days of manual work per year, how storytelling — not spreadsheets — is what earns leadership attention, and why a “set it and forget it” approach quietly drains time, talent, and visibility.If you want practical ideas for making your T&E data more actionable, more visible to leaders, and more valuable across your organization, this episode delivers a real-world blueprint. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Modernizing travel and expense management is never just a tech upgrade, especially at a large, complex institution like the University of Massachusetts (UMass). In this episode, UMass Associate Vice President for Strategy & Innovation Dave Nero and Supply Chain Partner principal consultant Shannon Nortier pull back the curtain on one of the most successful T&E transformations in higher education.You’ll hear how UMass turned a long-standing pain point into a system-wide modernization initiative powered by clarity, collaboration, and a “policy before platform” strategy. Dave explains why T&E rose to the top of the innovation agenda, how two years of meticulous preparation laid the foundation for real change, and why investing in an internal transformation muscle is now table stakes for any organization.Shannon shares the partner perspective: what made UMass uniquely prepared, how their alignment accelerated implementation, and why the right partner relationship can make or break a project this complex.Listen to learn:Why UMass started with strategy, governance, and policy (not technology)How they united five campuses with different cultures into one Concur instanceWhat it really takes to reduce risk, increase compliance, and modernize employee experienceHow to build a transformation engine capable of tackling projects beyond T&EThe hard-won lessons you can apply immediately to your own modernization effortsWhether you’re in higher education, the public sector, or any complex organization juggling competing priorities, this conversation offers a roadmap for getting transformation right, and doing it in a way that lasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.