T&E market projected to reach $2.5B by 2020 and Concur is the “unquestionable leader”
The digital era has changed modern finance, and SAP (Concur) is keeping up with the increasingly-evolving T&E market. In 2015, the T&E market reached $1.6B, of which Concur owns ~54 percent. In fact, according to IDC, “Concur continues to be the unquestionable leader in the travel and expense management software market.”
IDC also notes that their market definition of T&E now includes invoice, as travel and expense management software has evolved to provide travel, expense and invoice management services for a connected process for managing spend.
Significant developments in the industry have impacted demand, which has grown 8.8 percent since 2014. Jordan Jewell, IDC research analyst comments:
“Travel and expense management software is a competitive market within the broader financial application market. While travel and expense management solutions have long been treated as peripheral applications, the rise of SaaS has led to businesses investing more heavily in travel and expense management. Travel and expense management software are now easier to use across most device types, providing superior visibility into employees' spending habits in accordance to company policy.”
What is driving the T&E market?
There are significant market developments impacting travel and expense management software. According to IDC, today’s market for T&E management software is being driven by:
1. User mobility and enhanced user experience
Basically, user experience on mobile devices is becoming increasingly important in travel and expense management software. Employees are seeking ‘user-friendly’ options and businesses need compliance integrated into the mobile solutions.
Cloud technology enables business to happen 24/7 from any location in the world, but the right technological support needs to be set up to accommodate both employees and their employers. User-friendly options need to be integrated into business technology so that there’s not only control over spend, but also compliance and security.
2. A growing SMB market
SMBs, which have historically used homegrown solutions or spreadsheets are adopting expense management applications at an increasing rate as implementation is easier and offered at a less expensive price than traditional ERP solutions.
The ‘if you build it, they will come’ philosophy of implementing modern technology to drive better and more informed business is now a possibility for small and medium sized business.
3. Modern travel and expense platforms and intelligent ERP
Business travel, expense and invoice management software is now able to intelligently and seamlessly sync with backend solutions. In fact, a wave of intelligent ERP (i-ERP) applications have been introduced into the software market which use machine learning to automate high-volume repeatable tasks.
These intelligent applications also have a place in the T&E software market, which is great news as the technology allows businesses to make more informed decisions on employee travel, in addition to keeping employees digitally in-sync and compliant with businesses in terms of built-in hotel and restaurant suggestions that meet the traveler’s needs as well as the company’s policies.
4. Business travel in emerging markets
In some geographical regions, the T&E software spend is not yet proportional to the actual spending that is happening during business travel – which means T&E management software has not yet been adopted in these regions. For example, Asia/Pacific are expected to see rapid growth in the next five years or so.
Read the study to learn more!
Read the research paper to learn more reasons why modern T&E should be a top priority – and discover how a modern solution could benefit your organization beyond driving efficiency and cost savings.
The IDC report, Worldwide Travel and Expense Management Software Market Shares, 2015: Year of the Mobile User Experience explores significant market developments impacting the travel and expense management software market, based on in-depth industry and vendor research.
Source: IDC Worldwide Travel and Expense Management Software Market Shares, 2015: Year of the Mobile User Experience, doc #US42060415, December 2016.