Business Environment
In response to increasingly competitive conditions worldwide, businesses are seeking cost savings and productivity gains by using enterprise applications to automate business processes. While these applications have traditionally targeted discrete functional or department level business processes involving relatively few employees, businesses are now seeking similar applications for 'employee-facing' business processes including T&E expense management, front-office procurement, human resources self-service, time and billing, and facilities management. The emergence of the Internet and corporate Intranets has made it possible to deploy applications that reach all employees in the enterprise and connect the enterprise to corporate partners, vendors and service providers. In addition, in contrast to traditional client-server applications, Intranet-based applications can be deployed rapidly throughout the enterprise and on a cost-effective basis. Based on the results of the 1997 American Express T&E Management Process Study, businesses using best-in-class automation that process 1,000 to 5,000 T&E expense reports per month can achieve savings from $300,000 to $1.5 million per year in processing costs alone. The Company believes its customers can achieve these cost savings rapidly because the products are designed to minimize burdens on IT professionals and to maximize employees' ease of use.
Company Strategy
The Company is a provider of Intranet-based employee-facing applications that extend automation to employees throughout the enterprise and to partners, vendors and service providers in the extended enterprise.
Product/Services Portfolio
The Company's Xpense Management Solution ('XMS') and CompanyStore products automate the preparation, approval, processing and data analysis of travel and entertainment ('T&E') expense report and front-office procurement requisitions. Since the introduction of XMS in 1996, the Company has licensed its products to over 125enterprise customers with over 450,000 end users. Through its June 1998 acquisition of 7 Software, Inc., the Company added the CompanyStore front-office procurement application to its product suite. By automating manual, paper-based processes, the Company's products reduce processing costs and enable customers to consolidate purchases with preferred vendors and negotiate vendor discounts. The Company offers a variety of consulting services in connection with licenses of XMS and CompanyStore. Company's consulting staff meets with customers
prior to product implementation to review the customer's existing business processes and IT infrastructure, and to provide advice on ways to improve these processes using industry best practices.
Thereafter, The Company's consultants install, configure and test the application and integrate it with the customer's existing ERP and employee reimbursement systems. The Company's consultants also help customers implement bar-coding processes and develop a strategy for the customer's enterprise-wide deployment of the application. The Company provides product upgrades and customer support through its 'CustomerOne' maintenance program. Customers generally purchase the first year of the CustomerOne program at the time they license an application; thereafter, support is available on an annual renewal basis. Customer support staff are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Company also offers Internet-based support that features an on-line knowledge base. The Company offers a variety of training programs for XMS and CompanyStore. These classes are tailored to particular user groups, such as end users, help desk personnel and trainers. Training classes are typically offered at customer sites and also at the Company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The Company plans to begin providing training classes for third-party service providers, such as systems integrators, as it expands its relationships with such parties. |
