Case study: Orica’s global integration of Concur Travel & Expense delivering on its vision

Orica is the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas and construction markets, a leading supplier of sodium cyanide for gold extraction, and a specialist provider of ground support services in mining and tunnelling. Founded in 1874, Orica has more than 145 years of experience and investment in innovation and is the global leader in mining and civil services, with customers across more than 100 countries.

Why Orica choose SAP Concur?

Undertaking a global SAP transformation program, Orica used the opportunity to deploy a fully integrated global travel and expense management solution from SAP Concur, providing real-time visibility on staff spend and travel, and a consistent global user experience across 54 countries.

Orica case study

Orica deployed a fully integrated global travel and expense management solution from SAP Concur, providing real-time visibility on staff spend and travel, and a consistent global user experience across 54 countries.

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Orica’s global integration of Concur Travel and Expense delivering on its ‘Simple, Standard, Single SAP’ Vision

Orica had already been using Concur Expense for ten years for spend management but was using a range of different travel systems and travel management companies (TMCs in each of its countries of operation. In 2018, Orica undertook a business transformation program to introduce new global standard processes and enterprise systems supporting better integration, in line with good commercial practice. The ‘4S’ (Simple, Standard, Single SAP program was based on the re-platforming and integration of Orica’s financial systems on a single SAP HANA platform. This gave Orica the opportunity to completely reevaluate its systems and processes to improve business efficiencies and visibility of real-time data throughout the organisation.

“It allowed us to ask the question: What should be managed globally and what should remain de- centralised/local?” explained Orica’s Senior Manager, Global Supply Chain Rakesh Anand.

With millions spent annually on employee travel, and lack of visibility and difficulties in consolidating data from around the world, Orica identified global management of travel as a project priority. Concur Travel was chosen as the global platform and, together with Concur Expense, was integrated with Orica’s core SAP environment to provide real- time visibility and reporting on employee travel and expense in 54 countries of operation.

“Having Concur Expense and Travel together in SAP means we have the data instantly, and we aren’t waiting 45 days for it to come through in our employees’ expense claims. In the past management used to ask us, ‘how much did we spend in June?’ and we’d have to say ‘I’ll tell you at the end of August.’ Now, at any given point in time I have immediate access to and visibility of spend data, which helps us to better control and manage it,” said Anand.

“Choosing Concur Travel was a no-brainer. Having Concur Expense and Travel together in SAP means we have the data instantly. The real-time reporting is amazing!” Rakesh Anand, Senior Manager, Global Supply Chain, Orica

Orica completed the rollout and integration of their SAP Concur solutions for all 54 countries in under 16 weeks, thanks to the team members (Joanna Ng, Global Category Lead and Steven Benedict, Specialist Applications Engineer from Orica and Tony Pretty, Service Delivery Manager from SAP Concur) – an incredibly short timeframe for a project of its complexity and scale. The go-live date was August 2019.

“We have a very good partnership. Everything is possible with Concur, and by working together hand-in-hand we have become more flexible too. They have over-delivered. I am super impressed with the Concur team at all levels,” said Anand.

Globally Consistent User Experience

A consistent user experience for all staff was one of the most significant benefits of a global travel and expense solution. Users also have access to the platform’s complete functionality via Concur’s mobile apps including TripLink and ExpenseIt, which could be securely pushed out and installed to employees’ devices via Orica’s managed mobility platform. User take up and feedback on the new platform has been universally positive.

With ExpenseIt, users can avoid manual data entry by taking photos of receipts on-the-go to automatically add to their expense reports for submission.

Localisation for each country and territory means that all applicable taxes, legal and regulatory requirements, currencies and languages are configured to operate automatically through the platform.

Orica staff have the option of either making simple travel bookings directly using Concur’s online booking tool, or contacting Orica’s global TMC who is integrated with Orica’s Concur platform.

“The beauty of one common booking tool is consistency – your profile moves with you and works wherever you are, all around the world.” Rakesh Anand, Senior Manager, Global Supply Chain, Orica

Employee Health and Safety

Another key advantage of an integrated travel and expense management system and real-time visibility of data is its ability to support Orica’s responsibilities for the health and safety of its people.

Staff are not only travelling long distances (Orica typically has five or six people at each mine site); it’s very important for Orica to understand how many people it has in the field or in the air, and where they are at any point in time.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added another level to Orica’s responsibilities. With most mines around the world still in operation during the crisis, it’s been essential for Orica to protect the health of staff and ensure its people can travel safely.

“COVID-19 has opened people’s eyes to the challenge of managing health and safety. We know who is going to be on the road and we can pinpoint who is where at any time. The data is right in front of us. Our Executive Committee is getting a weekly report of who is travelling and who will be travelling,” said Anand.

Using Concur, Orica’s team is able to proactively manage travel in line with the constantly changing restrictions in each country in response to the pandemic

Real-time Data Visibility

With full integration of travel and expense in SAP, Orica has a consolidated and real-time view of data from credit card spend, and travel and accommodation bookings which can then be turned into reports and dashboards using Concur Intelligence. Orica also has the assistance of a dedicated Consultative Intelligence specialist from SAP Concur to generate further insight.

In addition to employee health and safety, this real-time visibility assists Orica’s Supply Chain, particularly for negotiating preferred rates with key airline and hotel suppliers. Orica can easily present consolidated global or regional spend figures with each supplier, as well as projected spend – which helps in proactively managing suppliers’ expectations.

“For example, for one of our staff members booking a return flight from Sydney to Johannesburg, I will see this 20 minutes later. That means I’ll have a good idea of their expenses immediately,” said Anand.

It also allows Orica to better manage spend, rather than responding reactively in having to wait for expense claims to be submitted and processed.

“It allows us to manage aspects like travel and spending compliance proactively and more intelligently. We ask our staff to include reasons for travel, particularly the booking choices they make, and we include these in reports to management for any further attention or policy action,” said Anand.

Future Plans for Drive

Orica plans to streamline the reporting process relating to car travel and mileage claims by implementing Drive from SAP Concur. The global deployment and integration of Drive is currently on hold due the COVID-19 pandemic but once it goes live it will allow Orica’s people to capture and report on mileage automatically via a mobile app.

Once implemented, real-time visibility on this Drive data will also assist Orica in meeting its employee health and safety obligations, ensure accurate mileage claims are being submitted, and provide even greater ease of use and convenience for staff in the expense claim process.

Orica was awarded the Highly Commended Award for the 2020 ANZ Client Excellence Award Program. This program recognises organisations who embody digital innovation and purpose-driven business practices.

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