The recession is proving a powerful recruiting sergeant for hosted travel & expense management systems, according to European market leader KDS. A widespread determination to reduce corporate travel and expense costs, plus the rising popularity of SaaS (Software as a Service) offerings, has led to a marked increase in sales enquiries for KDS over the past six months."We have the wind in our sails because companies are actively seeking cost killers," says Yves Weisselberger, the company’s CEO. "The magic bullets in our case are…
The recession is proving a powerful recruiting sergeant for hosted travel & expense management systems, according to European market leader KDS. A widespread determination to reduce corporate travel and expense costs, plus the rising popularity of SaaS (Software as a Service) offerings, has led to a marked increase in sales enquiries for KDS over the past six months.
"We have the wind in our sails because companies are actively seeking cost killers," says Yves Weisselberger, the company’s CEO. "The magic bullets in our case are better control of claims processing, automatic matching of invoices with reservations, and assured policy compliance, all of which result from integrating travel and expense management into a single application.”
“The SaaS message has also reached tipping point,” he continued. “More companies now appreciate that hosted solutions save them money on hardware investments and maintenance, while also ensuring that the data they access is updated in real time.”
KDS is receiving enquiries from companies of all sizes, as they pursue cost savings that can be as great as 20 percent once a KDS application is fully deployed.
In France, Halton, a leader in ventilation and air-conditioning solutions, is one of the latest midsize businesses to turn to KDS. The company, which employs over 1,100 people, has chosen mid-market solution KDS Express to simplify its expense account processing. "KDS Express has allowed us to simplify expense account processing from start to finish, benefitting both the company and our employees," explains Frederic Durot, Halton’s administrative and financial manager.
As a larger employer, French mobile communications operator SFR has recently deployed the KDS Corporate Expense module to improve the management of expense accounts across the group. This is fully integrated with the KDS Corporate Travel module, which the company has used successfully for several years.
On the largest scale, European aviation and defence group EADS Group has recently extended its use of KDS Corporate’s Travel module for a further five years and complemented this with adoption of the Expense module. "EADS and Airbus selected KDS as a unified solution to simplify and automate our travel and expense processes,” says Michael Doerr, business travel manager for EADS. “The solution has already generated substantial savings in France and Germany and adoption throughout the Group is reaching 80%."
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
