Monday May 22, 8:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Concur Technologies, Inc.
Equistar Chemicals Selects Concur
eWorkplace to Automate Expense
Management Process
System Will Help Equistar Reduce Operational Costs and Increase Business
Efficiencies
REDMOND, Wash., May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Concur Technologies (Nasdaq: CNQR - news), a
leading provider of business-to-business eCommerce solutions, announced today that Equistar
Chemicals, one of the world's largest producers of ethylene, propylene, and polyethylene, has
selected Concur Expense(TM), the world's leading Web-based travel management solution, to
provide company-wide on-line automation of its travel and entertainment (T&E) expense
management process. Concur Expense is accessed through Concur eWorkplace(TM), Concur's
business portal which integrates Concur's suite of workplace eCommerce solutions. Use of
Concur eWorkplace is expected to lead to significant time and cost saving benefits enabling
Equistar to better compete in the global economy.
Prior to selecting Concur Expense to automate its T&E expense management process, Equistar
processed expense reports manually with spreadsheets. Expense report forms were mailed to
managers for approval and to the accounting department for payment.
Licensed for 10,000 users within Equistar, Concur Expense will automate each step of the T&E
expense management process over Equistar's corporate Intranet -- from expense report
preparation and approval to policy compliance, reimbursement, and data analysis. The
automation of this process results in increased traveler and back-office productivity and
uncovers critical travel spending trends.
Bob Wright, Equistar's manager of Purchasing Evaluations and Development, said, ``Concur
Expense provides us with the ability to capture enterprise-wide travel expense data for cost
analysis, which was information we were really lacking in the past.''
Based on Microsoft technology and integrating into Equistar's SAP enterprise resource planning
(ERP) system, Concur eWorkplace provides Equistar with the right technological fit. ``The
technological foundation of the new system was a critical deciding factor for us,'' said Wright.
``We have made a gigantic effort to automate on an integrated ERP platform and we wanted the
same concept for our expense management solution.''
Equistar expects the time saving impact of Concur eWorkplace to positively benefit multiple
areas of the company. Rather than using inter-company mail to get expense reports through each
step of the process, they are now instantly transported electronically. And because the Concur
solution links directly to Equistar's disbursements program, the accounting staff does not have to
re-key any data.
Wright added, ``Our employees will easily obtain the status of an expense report. Before, he or
she had to call in from the field for the status of an expense report, and this is time spent on a
non-productive activity.''
From an operational perspective, Wright commented, ``It all comes down to economics, and
with Concur eWorkplace we will have more people adhering to our travel policy -- which will
save money, and we will be in a stronger negotiating position with all of our travel services
providers, which will also save money.''
``The vision of Concur eWorkplace -- creating process efficiencies throughout an organization,
at multiple levels and among multiple business functions -- will clearly be realized by Equistar,''
said Jon Matsuo, president of Concur's Large Market Division. ``As a result, Equistar will
experience exponential savings that will help the company maintain its market leading position
as a low cost, high quality supplier.''
About Equistar
Equistar is a $6 billion chemical company which is a joint venture among Lyondell Chemical
Co. (NYSE: LYO - news), which owns 41 percent, Millennium Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: MCH -
news), and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY - news), each owning 29.5 percent.
Equistar is one of the largest producers of ethylene, propylene, and polyethylene in the world
today. Equistar is also a leading producer of polypropylene, oxygenated chemicals, performance
polymers, and wire cable resins and compounds. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Equistar has
16 manufacturing facilities along the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest. Equistar prides itself in
maintaining an extended product line, enhanced operating efficiencies, greater geographic
diversity, and stronger research and development capabilities than its competitors. |
