A few months ago, Concur and FINANCE Magazine presented a webinar to German finance departments. During the webinar, attendees were asked to take a brief poll, and I thought the results were quite intriguing.

Out of 80 webinar attendees, the majority are looking to automate or improve their existing T&E processes. The reason attendees are looking to automate? 80 percent told us that they want to reduce costs, 37 percent want to enhance transparency and over 75 percent are looking to increase compliance.

What does all this mean? It means that organizations all over the world, specifically Germany in this scenario, are looking to streamline their T&E processes. During this uncertain economic climate, more than ever, organizations are increasingly aware of the importance of finding ways to drive costs out of their organization. In fact, for most organizations, T&E accounts for 10 percent of the operating budget, representing the second largest area of controllable spend behind payroll.* With such a significant portion of their operating budgets representing T&E spend, it’s no wonder why the majority of the German organizations we polled are looking to automate this process.

I’d love to hear from more finance departments – all over the EU – what you think? Which of those issues is most important for you to improve?

*Aberdeen Group