OKI Europe gains global capabilities and streamlined expense management

Challenge

OKI Europe is a leader in business technology; however, its expense management process was unable to meet the needs of a modern enterprise. Lacking a central system, OKI Europe’s offices across the EMEA region managed travel expenses with varying policies and systems (mostly manual), and had more than 250 GL codes in use.
Because of this, it was impossible to centrally manage and accurately analyse spend data for the EMEA organisation, and travel expense reimbursement typically took three weeks or more.

OKI Europe reduces spending and gains visibility with Emburse

OKI Europe also saw Enterprise* as a modern, customisable, and user-friendly solution. Stand-out features included Emburse Enterprise*’s mobile capabilities, reporting, and self-service functions that allow admins to maintain and update rules on their own.

Working with Emburse Enterprise*’s implementation experts, OKI Europe’s finance team streamlined its rules and consolidated 250+ GL codes down to around 80 standard GL codes that are now used across the EMEA organisation. They also built country-specific per-diem rate calculations within Emburse Enterprise*, even for the most complex use cases in Germany.

The centralised system gives the finance team full visibility into expenses across EMEA. This has helped them make more accurate budget projections and identify areas for cost control gains, resulting in a 20% reduction in spending in the region. Managers also have greater visibility into staff spending, and with automatic routing, pre-approval, and mobile approval capabilities – the expense report approval process is quick and easy. In fact, travellers are now reimbursed 70% faster – going from three weeks, to just one week.

OKI Europe travellers also find Emburse Enterprise* intuitive to use. They can take photos of receipts with their mobile device, while built-in OCR technology automatically populates receipt details so they can easily submit expense reports on the go, saving time and reducing administrative hassle.

Benefits

• Streamlined expense management and VAT reclaim processes across all OKI Europe offices, resulting in 70% faster traveller reimbursement.
• Centralised expense data and identified areas for efficiency gains – reducing spend by 20% across EMEA.
• Standardised routing rules and GL codes, reducing total number of GL codes by 70%.
• Improved user experience with time-saving mobile features and OCR technology.

*Previously known as Chrome River