AMS Group wanted to free up capacity in their finance team by automating parts of their AP process and upgrade the capabilities of their SAP Concur platform when it came to international payments.
About AMS Group
AMS Group is a company that bring the links of the global supply chain together. They source materials for businesses and public bodies, including the U.S. Department of Defense, by making sure their clients capture 100% of the market so they get the right materials, at the right cost, and at the right time.
The Challenges
As part of the global supply chain, AMS Group makes approximately 50, often large, international payments every month. Through their old solution, this involved a huge amount of manual work, with employees dedicated to this one part of the AP (accounts payable) process, and they couldn’t use their bank as a solution.
“We had a lot of payment challenges of funding our foreign suppliers. Paying in foreign currencies and into different countries just wasn’t in the capabilities of our regional bank” says Bradley Stevenson, Chief Finance Officer, AMS Group. “And, if we had to move to a national bank, we were worried about the level of customer service we’d receive.”
Another challenge was any other potential partners didn’t have the integration with the SAP platform, which AMS Group used and wanted to keep using.
“The SAP platform is great and had become a core part of our AP process. What we really wanted was to add to its international payment capabilities, not start over again with a new solution.”
This resulted in the AMS Group using another payment provider alongside their SAP platform, without the systems connecting. It meant a lot of manual work for employees every payment run, and that manual work also meant a much higher propensity for errors to creep in.
“The cost and time we had to invest to do one payment, it was like half a day or even longer for just issuing one payment. We had to download data, re-enter it, check it, re-check it, and then extract it for reconciliation later. There was real risk of putting in a wrong number or decimal point, which could really mess up the payment.”
The Solution
The solution to their problems came through a recommendation from SAP Concur. They suggested AMS Group look into the PaymentsHub by TransferMate integration in the Concur App Center. Once AMS did their checks, they decided to go for it and added it to their SAP platform and AP process.
“After one or two training sessions on the integration, we were up and running. Any of the typical issues that come up for implementation were resolved quickly, and the team in TransferMate were super responsive to any of our questions.”
The integration immediately expanded their global reach in how many currencies and countries they could pay into, and the speed and efficiency they could process them in was game-changing for their AP process.
“With TransferMate, it’s a fluid process. It’s all streamlined from the point of entry all the way to the end, and we’re no longer having to re-enter any bit of data from start to finish. It’s a complete procure-to-pay journey.”
The automation piece has allowed AMS Group to not only free up time, but also bring more control to the process.
“It’s really simplified it to the point where it’s addressed the control issue as well. We can pick any payments we want in a list of open unpaid invoices and, within two clicks, we’re basically issuing 50 payments. It doesn’t take much work.”
The Results
AMS Group’s decision to integrate PaymentsHub by TransferMate with their SAP Concur platform has given them back control and time. It’s automated processes that used to be done manually and has done it all within an integrated and end-to-end workflow.
“The platform gives us control and clarity on what’s outstanding, what needs to be paid. The interconnection between Concur and TransferMate is seamless. We’re now getting the same flow for all payment methods back through Concur, which then can be posted to our ERP instead of having to pick up four or five different fees and then integrate them into the ERP.”
The system has proved reliable and easy-to-use for the team.
“The technology is, I think, far and away the most appealing aspect of it. And I would say it’s been very reliable. It has been a great experience and it’s kind of hard to imagine going back, almost like it’s like a foregone conclusion that it’s now part of our core business.”
The integration has freed up so much administration time within the AMS finance team that its allowed Bradley to move people out of monotonous tasks and into more productive areas.
“I was able to hire staff accountants that have a more varied workload and wouldn’t have to concentrate on one thing. And so, while the staffing level hasn’t gone down, the skill sets have changed. Let’s be honest, no-one likes doing AP – there’s no variety in the work – so being able to bring people up a level is beneficial to the individual, the team, and the business itself.”
Final Word
“For any Concur user that makes international payments not using this tool, they’re really missing out. It’s a no brainer.”
Bradley Stevenson, Chief Finance Officer, AMS Group
To add PaymentsHub by TransferMate to your SAP Concur platform, visit the SAP App Center. For partners looking to leverage TransferMate’s capabilities for your own platform, contact the team here.
