SAP Concur’s Martech Ecosystem Comes into Focus
Case Study
SAP Concur’s Martech Ecosystem Comes into Focus
The challenge:
A new, centralized martech team was faced with reconciling disconnected technology and tools
When David Hsu, Global Vice President of Data and Analytics at SAP Concur hired a Director of Marketing Technology, his first ask was that the new Director better understand the current, highly distributed global martech ecosystem. Through years of rapid growth and decentralization, disparate teams at SAP Concur had purchased many point tools for their dedicated use. The result was duplication of functionality and a lack of consistency in what tools were being used for what functions.
Licensing and budgeting information as well as assessment on the technology’s need and fit for the business were difficult to get arms around given the sheer number of tools and the centralization of their use.
“There was a lot of, ‘what are you using for this? What are YOU using for this?’ type of conversation,” said Hsu. “It became clear that we were going to need a strong process for organizing this, and knowing what to prioritize, what tools were siloed, underutilized, etc.”
The solution:
SAP Concur leveraged Inverta’s Martech assessment and consulting to to get a realistic inventory along with prioritized recommendations.
Inverta’s discovery and inventory process helped SAP Concur get an exhaustive picture of the current tools in use, including existing system integrations, overlap and redundancy, cost, level of license subscription and term, as well as active and inactive users.
Additionally, Inverta worked with Concur to create a consistent scale on which to evaluate each tool and prioritize based on impact and cost vs. usability. The scoring methodology determined where functionality should be expanded to new regions, enriched, further maintained and enabled, or eliminated all-together.
In addition to delivering a path forward, the inventory and recommendations fed directly into planning and budgetary conversations – an important reconciliation when you are centralizing technology investments for the first time.
“The timing was right,” Hsu said. “We completed the project right at planning time. We uncovered a lot of martech gaps that need to be filled. We can now deprioritize random tool requests in favor of tools we know will have a greater impact.”
What’s next for SAP Concur? A focus on expanding tools to new regions in lieu of investing in new tools outright. Hsu adds that they are in the process of putting more definition and rigor around new martech acquisition.
The results:
0: The number of tools that were shared by the entire marketing organization
61: The number of tools inventoried
28: The number of tools earmarked for expansion to other regions