Business model of Concur

Customer Segments

Concur has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer segments. The company targets its offering at firms across industries and sizes whose employees need to fill out expense reports.

Value Proposition

Concur offers five primary value propositions: convenience, cost reduction, performance, risk reduction, and brand/status.

The company offers convenience by simplifying operations for clients. It provides a solution that optimizes business travel, expense, and invoice management by integrating these activities. The solution can easily work with a customer’s existing systems, including human resources (HR), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and accounting systems. Lastly, its dashboard features a comprehensive set of standard reports, providing complete visibility into spending.

The company offers cost reduction by offering a free 30-day trial of Concur Expense. New customers can test out the solution with pre-loaded sample reports, card charges, and receipts.

The company has demonstrated strong performance through tangible results. It claims to offer 70% time savings on expense reports, 49% time savings on travel planning, and 85% faster invoice processing (the solution reduces the time period from 35 to five days). High-profile examples of positive outcomes for specific clients include the following:

• Acumed used Concur’s solution to comply wth physician-spend regulation, enabling it to eliminate paper expense reports and reduce travel booking fees by 30%
• Bourns used Concur’s solution to automate its processes, resulting in savings of 40% per expense report processed and annual savings of $126,000 in report procesing
• DHL used Concur’s solution to automate its processes, resulting in reduction of corporate card late fees to nearly zero and an adoption rate of over 90% for its travel booking tool
• Educational Data Systems integrated Concur’s solution with its own, resulting in a reduction of 50% in expense report reconciliation time and 70% in report processing time
• General Mills used Concur’s solution to standardize its processes, resulting in increased pollicy compliance and $1.4 million in cost savings within three years of implementation

The company reduces risk by providing a “Service Status Dashboard“ on its website that offers up-to-the-minute information on service availability and performance (e.g., outages and partial outages).

The company has established a strong brand as a result of its success. It serves over 32,000 clients in over 100 countries, processing 150 million billable transactions each year. On a daily basis, it processes over 357,000 expense reports and sees mobile uploads of over 580,000 receipts. Lastly, it has won many honors, including rankings on Forbes‘“100 Best Small Companies“ list (2010), CIOZone's “50 Fastest-Growing Software Companies“ list (2009), Business 2.0's “100 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies List (2007), and BusinessWeek's “Top 100 Small Companies to Watch“ (2007).

Channels

Concur’s main channels are its direct sales team and its website. The company promotes its offering through its social media pages and participation in expos, forums, symposiums and conferences. It also hosts a road show called “Fusion Exchange”, a one-day event featuring training and networking.

Customer Relationships

Concur’s customer relationship is primarily of a self-service, automated nature. Customers utilize the service through the main platform while having limited interaction with employees.

The company’s website features a “Resource Center” section that includes white papers, reports, brochures, solution sheets, infographics, videos, webinars, and product tours. The site also provides answers to frequently asked questions. That said, there is a personal assistance element in the form of phone and e-mail support.

Key Activities

Concur’s business model entails maintaining a robust cloud platform for its customers. The platform includes a website and mobile app.

Key Partners

Concur maintains the Global Alliance Network, which includes the following types of partnerships:

Alliance Partners – Resellers and other firms that sell Concur’s solution to their clients in order to extend its reach. Specific partners include AirPlus International, American Express, Bank of America, BMO Financial Group, Citibank Commercial, Cvent, Egencia, ESM Solutions, NetSuite, and Oanda.

Service Partners – Firms such as Customer Success Partners and Certified Implementation Partners that assist Concur customers with the deployment of its solutions, providing their expertise. Specific partners include Acquis Consulting Group, Birchman Group, Cognizant, and Infosys.

Technology Partners – Firms that assist Concur by providing necessary technologies and functionalities for its solution and helping it to deliver its services effectively and efficiently. Specific partners include Amadeus, Cognos, Galileo, Kinevia, MasterCard, Oracle, and Visa International.

Travel Partners – Travel management firms that partner with Concur’s clients for their specific needs. Specific partners include AAA Corporate Travel, Cain Travel, Direct Travel, and Fox World Travel.

Travel Suppliers – Firms that provide electronic folio data through e-receipts, which instantly populate a business traveler’s expense report, providing Concur’s clients with the information. Specific partners include transportation suppliers such as Avis/Budget Group, Enterprise, Hertz, and Virgin Australia, and hotel suppliers such as Accor Hotels, Choice Hotels, Hilton Hotels, and Marriott.

Systems Integrator Partners – Firms that provide consulting services for Concur clients.

Concur Solution Providers – Firms such as cloud solution providers, value-added resellers, and traditional IT partners that partner with Concur to offer solutions to its clients.

Benefits for Concur’s members include the following:

• Invitations to participate in Concur's annual user conference
• Invitations to take part in industry trade shows, conferences, seminars, and other promotional activities
• Access to marketing collateral and case studies
• Opportunities to interface with Concur's sales team
• Information on product updates and enhancements
• Access to a designated Business Development Manager

Concur also partners with developers who want to build travel, expense, and procurement apps on its open platform. They can use the company’s sample code, technical library, sandbox, and web test guide to speed development. They can also promote their apps in its Concur App Center.

Key Resources

Concur’s main resource is its proprietary cloud-based software platform, which serves more than 32,000 clients.

It depends on its engineering employees to maintain the platform, its sales staff to promote it, and its customer service staff to provide support.

As a startup it has relied heavily on funding from outside parties, raising $291.8 million as of April 2010.

Cost Structure

Concur has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation. Its biggest cost driver is likely sales/marketing, a fixed cost. Other major drivers are in the areas of customer support/operations and administration, both fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

Concur has one revenue stream: revenues generated from the fees it charges for access to its software-as-a-service platform. Sales staff must be contacted directly for pricing quotes.