Moving from package software to SaaS cloud for expense management solution
TOKYO – According to ITR Market View: ERP Market 2015 Japanese Expense Management Market Trends, a market survey report issued by ITR Corporation (hereafter “ITR”), Concur Travel & Expense services developed and offered by Concur Japan, Ltd. (headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Masamune Mimura; hereafter “Concur Japan”) took the top share in the domestic expense management market in terms of sales revenue by vendor. Concur Japan is the Japanese subsidiary of Concur Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based travel and expense management solutions. Concur Japan share for fiscal 2013 is 54.5 percent.
The report also detailed the changing market share (in yen sales) of different forms of service provision in the Japanese expense management market, highlighting a growing trend among Japanese companies to select SaaS cloud-based services over package models.
According to ITR Market View: ERP Market 2015 (Japanese Expense Settlement Market Trends), “In fiscal 2013, sales of expense management solution amounted to 18.3 million USD (2.2 billion JPY), a significant year-on-year increase of 66.7%. Concur, whose products have seen widespread adoption around the world, was a driver in the market. At the same time, domestic vendors are expanding functionality and boosting marketing efforts, which have greatly increased awareness of the market and contributed to its expansion. The trend is expected to continue in fiscal 2014, with projected growth of 36.6%.“
Concur Japan CEO Masamune Mimura responded to the report as follows: “Japanese companies are shifting to more profit-based structures and focusing on overhead cost management. In particular, companies are working to improve travel and expense management with a view to raising working productivity of employees, implementing governance controls at a global level, and making expense expenditures more transparent.”
“Our global-standard products meet the high-level requirements of Japanese companies. Building on this base, we are rolling out services to meet the special conditions of the Japanese market, such as linking with traffic IC cards and providing route search functions. I believe this is why we have been able to take the top share in the market in only four short years since our establishment.”
“Going forward, in the travel and expense management business we expect demand to transition from packages to SaaS cloud-based services, and this will continue to drive our results in the medium and long term. I am looking forward to continuing to meet the requirements of the robust Japanese corporate sector, helping Japanese companies to further improve competitiveness through overhead costs reform.“
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
