Q&A with Christopher Juneau: How SAP Concur simplifies expense and travel management

Head of Concur Market Strategy, Christopher Juneau

Christopher, tell us about SAP Concur.

Concur was founded in 1994, before SAP acquired it in December 2014. We’re the largest provider of travel booking and expense report processing for companies of all sizes, from 10-employee organisations to the largest organisations in the world. We’re also the first integrated travel and expenses experience.

How can Concur Travel & Expense make life easier for finance teams and leaders day-to-day?

At the end of the day, the expense reporting process is a financial process that has regulations to follow, whether it be ensuring there’s proper GST calculation and reclamation or that it’s compliant with fringe benefit tax. So, in some respects, it’s a nuisance process - it takes time for employees to facilitate it, to input their information and ultimately get reimbursed – taking time aware from the company’s core business. In addition, finance also has to spend time and effort ensuring that the process is compliant and transparent.

With all of that in mind, SAP Concur removes the complexity from those processes to enable employees to spend the least amount of time on them. It’s also about letting technology work on behalf of the finance team. Our technology is meant to give back time to both the employees and the finance team while assuring financial processes are compliant with both company policies and market regulations.  

Managing expenses can get tricky with issues like out-of-policy spending or fraud. How can Concur Expense help finance teams tackle these challenges?

By automating the travel and expense process, you’re immediately providing visibility in terms of who’s spending what and where. When you have that information, you can then take control of the process, put additional rules in place, potentially change your policy, and work to educate your employees. Now, we can also apply technology, whether it be data analytics or AI, to look at vast amounts of data and identify if a transaction looks a little bit out of the ordinary and whether businesses should investigate more. We also now have the technology to inform both the employee and finance team throughout the process, rather than just wait for the employee to submit their business expense claim at the end. Being proactive can make a world of difference.

 How have you been using Concur Travel & Expense during your trip to Australia and New Zealand?

Of course, I’m booking all my travel with Concur Travel, and as I’m doing that my expense reports are being created by Concur Expense. I’ve been using Uber while I’m here, and my Uber for Business transactions are flowing into my expense claim. As I was sitting in the Uber, I was validating the claim in Concur Expense. Even though it’s a very complex trip, I’m not stressed that I’m going to miss something because Concur Travel & Expense is already doing it on my behalf. 

What new advancements do you see coming in expense and travel, and why should finance teams be excited about them?

I believe the next advancement is that the trade-off between user experience and compliance will be broken. Organisations using AI will be able to deliver a greater personalised experience, whilst also having greater control and governance.

Secondly, we’re super excited about AI and application of Joule, SAP AI copilot, which is a digital assistant across SAP business systems. We’re in the works of introducing Joule use cases within Concur Travel and Concur Expense in Q1 2025. Joule will deliver for all SAP customers a consistent experience whether you’re using Ariba, SuccessFactors, or Concur Expense.

What will be the business travel and expense trends that will shape the next wave of innovations for SAP Concur?

The first is capturing the right nuances by country, like GST or VAT validation and reclaim processes. This enables fluidity across borders despite national differences and complexities.  For example, for an employee travelling; understanding and capturing the appropriate tax protocols such as GST or VAT, and then ensuring the correct reclaim processes are followed.

AI also cannot be overstated, so we’re introducing a service called Request Assistant. This is especially useful here in ANZ and across APAC where pre-authorisations are required before you book a trip. Using generative AI, it’ll estimate the cost of my trip and the system will automatically give me the travel choices based on the approval I receive from my manager. This provides compliance with the travel and expense policy before travel or business expenses occur, but also makes it easier for me. 

The third, as I mentioned, is Joule. I think, especially for SAP customers, having that consistent experience with the digital assistant is going to be key.