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SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

in.reuters.com

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Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#31

Post by hkarthik »

eranation wrote: post #28

I'm using it at work on a daily basis almost. Their expense + flight / hotel booking system is surprisingly OK relative to enterprise software, they also have a mobile app which is pretty great. It's quite a complex topic, lot's of corporate policies to enforce, and basically they had to develop all the tech facade that Kayak, Expedia etc have (flight and hotel booking) as well as a lot of financial logic for expense…

> There is a lot of money in enterprise software... I wish more YC startups would tackle that area.

Enterprise Software requires more much investment in Sales/Marketing so these companies often they invest a lot less in engineering.

YC companies historically tend to be more engineering-focused. Many are now going up market so you start to see more YC job posts for marketing and sales positions now so this is probably changing.

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#32

Post by thearn4 »

brown_ghost wrote: post #29
eranation wrote: post #28

I'm using it at work on a daily basis almost. Their expense + flight / hotel booking system is surprisingly OK relative to enterprise software, they also have a mobile app which is pretty great. It's quite a complex topic, lot's of corporate policies to enforce, and basically they had to develop all the tech facade that Kayak, Expedia etc have (flight and hotel booking) as well as a lot of financial logic for expense…

So I wonder why Concur Government edition is so awful. I mean really, really, unusable.

Agreed. My agency just switched over, and it is 100% awful.

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#33

Post by peapicker »

thearn4 wrote: post #32
brown_ghost wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I wonder why Concur Government edition is so awful. I mean really, really, unusable.

Agreed. My agency just switched over, and it is 100% awful.

Sounds like it will fit in fine with SAP.

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#34

Post by rokhayakebe »

JunkDNA wrote: post #15
msie wrote: post #5

I was trying to investigate what Concur was about and went to their website. They don't show any screenshots of the program (programs?). You have to give contact details to try out their program (so their sales team can contact you I guess). You have to give contact details to download any brochures about their products. Ugh.

This is entirely unsurprising if you've spent time around enterprise software. I once worked in a very large, global (non-IT) company that was interested in software made by a very well-known, large, global IT company. We wanted to see a demo of their product. They pushed back saying "we don't need to do a demo, we're XYZ company you know we can do it. A demo isn't worth our time. If you want a demo, we will have to…

we don't need to do a demo, we're XYZ company you know we can do it

I think this just made my day.

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#35

Post by jayseattle »

brown_ghost wrote: post #29
eranation wrote: post #28

I'm using it at work on a daily basis almost. Their expense + flight / hotel booking system is surprisingly OK relative to enterprise software, they also have a mobile app which is pretty great. It's quite a complex topic, lot's of corporate policies to enforce, and basically they had to develop all the tech facade that Kayak, Expedia etc have (flight and hotel booking) as well as a lot of financial logic for expense…

So I wonder why Concur Government edition is so awful. I mean really, really, unusable.

I'm a ux designer at Concur, have not been there very long but there is an extensive/exhaustive re-design in the works which HN readers will appreciate. Just have a little more patience...

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#36

Post by zippergz »

jacques_chester wrote: post #8

I use Concur as part of my job. It is stunningly, stupefyingly awful. However, it is popular with the kind of hyperglobocom companies that SAP deals with. I can submit expense reports (which take about as long as it would to scratch them into clay tablets) and I can book travel. That's about it. I imagine that -- for the anonymous finance dept folk who delight in taking weeks to examine my reports while I am legally…

Interesting. I actually think it's pretty good. But maybe that's just because I was previously using Oracle Financials for expense reports. After that, anything seems amazing.

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#37

Post by [deleted] »

martijn_himself wrote: post #13
jacques_chester wrote: post #8

I use Concur as part of my job. It is stunningly, stupefyingly awful. However, it is popular with the kind of hyperglobocom companies that SAP deals with. I can submit expense reports (which take about as long as it would to scratch them into clay tablets) and I can book travel. That's about it. I imagine that -- for the anonymous finance dept folk who delight in taking weeks to examine my reports while I am legally…

The problem is: these applications are not designed with the end user in mind. They are always designed to convince the CTO/ CFO/ whoever is in charge of spending the annual IT budget. The designer is rewarded to increase the complexity of the app and add meaningless features to justify spending the millions of dollars that are usually associated with these contracts. SAP is not buying this because it is a wonderful…

[deleted]

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#38

Post by deedubaya »

Everyone here is complaining about Concur and how horrible it is... but it's all relative. If you think Concur is horrible, you should have seen the process before with in-house solutions which were both digital and analog.

It might not be perfect, but dayum is it better than where things used to be.

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#39

Post by joanatello »

martijn_himself wrote: post #27
joanatello wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try out Expensify - it's a post-2000 expense web and mobile app (already way above your expectations right?) Seriously though, Expensify is an expense reporting solution that simplifies the process for all users invoved - employees, submitters, administrators, finance departments, HR, and the companies themselves (tax reporting, etc). Our goal is to completely change the way people do expense reports (for how we work…

I do realise I am quite cynical in my comments but FWIW I do like the look of your product- it seems to be 'leaner' and more targeted towards usability.

ha, thank you! I wasn't offended by your comment, and in fact agree with you that most products in this space aren't really keeping the user in mind.

Just wanted to show you that we're not ALL user unfriendly :)

Re: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3B

#40

Post by jacques_chester »

smackfu wrote: post #21
jacques_chester wrote: post #8

I use Concur as part of my job. It is stunningly, stupefyingly awful. However, it is popular with the kind of hyperglobocom companies that SAP deals with. I can submit expense reports (which take about as long as it would to scratch them into clay tablets) and I can book travel. That's about it. I imagine that -- for the anonymous finance dept folk who delight in taking weeks to examine my reports while I am legally…

I kind of feel like an expense reporting system is like an iceberg: the end-user UI is just the tip that is visible. Like here are things that you don't see as a user: * Data feeds from various providers, each with their own formats. * Rules-engines to route for auditing. * Auditing UIs. * Management reporting. * Fraud analytics. * Feeds to accounting systems. * Feeds to payroll and corporate card providers. * Suppor…

All those things are fanciful nonsense if users either avoid entering data, delay entering data or fudge data entry because the system is heroically terrible.
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