PREMIUM – Every year Bank Innovation assembles a list of 44 #innovators that caught our attention in digital #banking and #fintech. These are the people Bank Innovation believes to be this year’s movers and shakers in the industry, paving the way with forward-thinking technologies and ideas. This year the list contains a variety of innovators […] Bank Innovation
Three years ago, SAP’s acquisition of #expense#management software provider Concur sent shockwaves through the expense management industry. Its impact continues to shape the evolution of the #market today. The pairing of Concur, already the expense management market share leader, with SAP, one of the largest ERP software providers in the world, sent a clear message to the rest of the market: significant advancements and changes would be required to keep pace with the market leader. As a result, competing providers have responded with a flurry of product enhancements and strategic partnerships.
As shown in Figure 1, some of the major players in the expense management market have moved quickly to leverage new, customer experience-enhancing #technology. They have pursued partnerships with complementary providers to compete with the massive scale achieved by SAP and Concur together. Perhaps most notably, Certify united with a number of leading expense management specialist providers in the past year to broaden its offering and emerge as a formidable challenger.
Based on this recent activity, five key trends appear to be driving the future direction of the market:
Market Consolidation: Merger and partnership activity is likely to continue as providers try to close the gap on market share leader, Concur.
Expense and Booking Convergence: Integration between expense management and travel booking tools is becoming more common and creating a more streamlined process.
Virtual Card Integration: Virtual card issuers are continuing to develop points of integration for payments with booking and expense management solutions.
Automation and Machine Learning: Providers are exploring new ways to leverage smart technologies, such as OCR, chatbots, and geolocation, to automate the expense management process.
Real-Time Expenses: As transaction data is loaded to expense management solutions at the time of sale, approvals and reimbursements are being handled in real-time, rather than in expense report groupings.
Implications for commercial card issuers
While many of the potential market changes will be driven by expense management software providers, commercial card issuers will also feel the impact of the evolving market. For them, the implications of the key expense management trends may include:
Rising demand for virtual cards used for travel
Significant opportunity for booking tool integration
Increased bank investment in travel card programs
Higher end-user expectations for user-friendly interfaces and functionality
Increased competition among issuers for #fintech partnerships
Customer emphasis on travel-friendly mobile payment functionality
As the market continues to evolve, the coming years will reveal what roles providers and commercial card issuers will play in #shaping the future expense management landscape.
Three years ago, SAP’s acquisition of #expense#management software provider Concur sent shockwaves through the expense management industry. Its impact continues to shape the evolution of the #market today. The pairing of Concur, already the expense management market share leader, with SAP, one of the largest ERP software providers in the world, sent a clear message to the rest of the market: significant advancements and changes would be required to keep pace with the market leader. As a result, competing providers have responded with a flurry of product enhancements and strategic partnerships.
As shown in Figure 1, some of the major players in the expense management market have moved quickly to leverage new, customer experience-enhancing #technology. They have pursued partnerships with complementary providers to compete with the massive scale achieved by SAP and Concur together. Perhaps most notably, Certify united with a number of leading expense management specialist providers in the past year to broaden its offering and emerge as a formidable challenger.
Based on this recent activity, five key trends appear to be driving the future direction of the market:
Market Consolidation: Merger and partnership activity is likely to continue as providers try to close the gap on market share leader, Concur.
Expense and Booking Convergence: Integration between expense management and travel booking tools is becoming more common and creating a more streamlined process.
Virtual Card Integration: Virtual card issuers are continuing to develop points of integration for payments with booking and expense management solutions.
Automation and Machine Learning: Providers are exploring new ways to leverage smart technologies, such as OCR, chatbots, and geolocation, to automate the expense management process.
Real-Time Expenses: As transaction data is loaded to expense management solutions at the time of sale, approvals and reimbursements are being handled in real-time, rather than in expense report groupings.
Implications for commercial card issuers
While many of the potential market changes will be driven by expense management software providers, commercial card issuers will also feel the impact of the evolving market. For them, the implications of the key expense management trends may include:
Rising demand for virtual cards used for travel
Significant opportunity for booking tool integration
Increased bank investment in travel card programs
Higher end-user expectations for user-friendly interfaces and functionality
Increased competition among issuers for #fintech partnerships
Customer emphasis on travel-friendly mobile payment functionality
As the market continues to evolve, the coming years will reveal what roles providers and commercial card issuers will play in #shaping the future expense management landscape.
#2017 was a tumultuous year, but despite some stops and starts, innovation in finance is only gaining more momentum. As the year saw changes in financial regulation, startup culture, and trends in venture capital, innovation moved forward: #blockchain labs were made, funding was fought for, mobile payment systems were integrated, and the limits of artificial […] Bank Innovation
Some of the shine seems to have come off #fintech innovation in #2016. Startup valuations are dropping; once abundant venture capital is growing scarcer; marketplace lending has gotten bruised — even the self-proclaimed capital of fintech, London, faces an uncertain #future with Brexit. But that doesn’t mean innovation is any less necessary.Read More Bank Innovation
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