The ROI of an integrated travel and expense solution

Most organizations already know that travel and expense need to work together. The harder question is whether your integration is actually delivering. An independent study by Emerald Research Group, which surveyed 2,350 finance, IT, T&E, and procurement decision-makers across 10 countries, found that among organizations already running on an integrated T&E solution, SAP Concur customers still consistently outperform, reporting an ROI of 100% or more at 72%, compared with 49% for customers of other integrated platforms.

What Integrated T&E Delivers Across Four Business Goals

Organizations that run travel and expense on one connected solution consistently outperform those with fragmented systems. The research identifies four areas where integration makes a measurable difference:

Improve cost control and spend visibility

Central reporting brings travel and expense data into a single view, so finance leaders can act before month-end, not after. 82% of SAP Concur integrated T&E customers see more than half of their T&E spend in central reporting, and 63% say timely spend data helps them decide with greater confidence.

Minimize risk and maintain compliance

Integrated platforms apply policy at the point of spend, not weeks after the fact. SAP Concur integrated T&E customers lead on all five compliance benchmarks tested, with 77% able to locate and contact affected travelers within one hour of a disruption, compared with 64% of customers using other integrated solutions.

Improve workforce productivity and employee experiences

A single workflow from booking through reimbursement reduces the time employees spend on expense administration. Organizations on integrated solutions report that employees are repaid faster and spend less time on manual processes.

Improve operational efficiency

Automation and AI built into the workflow handle routine processing and review. 57% of SAP Concur integrated T&E customers report that AI improved policy enforcement, compared with 42% of customers of other integrated T&E solutions, and finance teams absorb business growth without adding headcount.

Integration is table stakes. The platform is the differentiator.

Not all integrated T&E solutions deliver the same results. This study compared SAP Concur customers directly against customers of other integrated T&E platforms. SAP Concur customers lead on every single measure tested, by at least 12 percentage points on cost outcomes and 9–14 percentage points on compliance outcomes. The gap isn't in whether T&E is integrated. It's in how deeply that integration works.

Download the Report

This report presents benchmark data from 2,350 global decision-makers on what integrated T&E delivers across cost control, compliance, productivity, and efficiency. It also includes a self-assessment tool at the end to help you benchmark your current T&E program against SAP Concur customer results.