How cutting paperwork is keeping ABM on the cutting edge
Not long ago, one of ABM Integrated Solutions' senior sales executives was notorious for bringing in piles of receipts every six months, letting his expenses pile up until it was finally time to take on the paperwork.
"The last thing a salesperson wants to do is fill out an expense form," says Greg Macdonald, the corporate controller at ABM, an IT consultancy and service provider based in Nova Scotia.
When MacDonald joined ABM, chasing down expense reports was commonplace. He realized quickly that its manual system hadn't kept pace with the rest of its business, which is constantly evolving to stay ahead of disruption in the market.
The company's roots are in servicing computers, point-of-sale devices and other technology for customers across sectors, but as technology has evolved, ABM has had to as well. Today, it's largely more app-based, creating cloud-based solutions for its customers to stay agile.
Complicated, time-consuming expense reports were no longer an option. It was time for a change.
MacDonald turned to SAP Concur to help his business shift to a more simple, user-friendly experience that would keep employees up-to-date with their expenses, and free up time for the accounting team to concentrate on more proactive tasks.
Flash forward a year, and it's been a total 180-degree turnaround. The whole sales team, including their leadership, are managing expenses in real-time, taking advantage of Concur Expense's mobile app to stay up-to-date. In fact, before Concur Expense, only about half of ABM’s employees submitted their monthly expenses on time. Today, 85 per cent of the team does.
"Change is difficult, but this one was pretty simple," MacDonald says. "Most employees today have a smartphone and are used to apps, so training has been easy."
In turn, MacDonald and his team have a better picture of its overall cash flow month-to-month, so MacDonald and his team can make timelier, more informed decisions for how to run the business.
But perhaps most importantly, ABM's whole team is less bogged down with paperwork - leaving them free to concentrate on growing the business.