Describing travel and expense management at AFRY Group’s subsidiaries in Germany

Abstract

Ever-changing organizational trends, expanded markets, and interaction of people located globally have compelled businesses to develop their employees’ mobility strategy. Therefore, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are credited with being more than one-source data software. These systems have helped to standardize processes across firms, provide access to information online, and serve as a valuable tool for managing people and controlling expenses.

This product-based thesis focuses on the study of travel and expense management from the point of view of a global company – AFRY AB. With headquarters in Sweden and client offerings in engineering, design, and advisory services, AFRY AB has determined the need to migrate its ERP system from Basware TEM to SAP Concur Expense in a “country-by-country” manner. The intended migration will occur at their German subsidiaries circa 2024, and thus it is imperative to collect and evaluate data before the project starts.

Thus, this thesis starts by establishing the theory around business travel, its effect on companies’ finances, and how business travel is regulated in Germany. Also, basic vocabulary to understand ERP systems is provided. Later, qualitative methods were used to collect and analyze data, and to close the gap between theory and practice. The methods used were participant observation, interviews, the analysis of documents, and internal benchmarking.

The results describe how the subsidiaries process the employees’ travel and expense claims, how they are treated in the company’s ERP systems, and the most common issues employees face. Based on these results, an updated user guide is delivered to improve the travelers’ current guidance. And when the migration to SAP Concur Expense occurs, the user guide will serve as the basis for the new guide. Also, the outcomes aim to support the transition of the employees to SAP Concur Expense by describing the migration process, the new claim processing workflow, and the new features that SAP provides.

Finally, the study supplies the commissioning company with recommendations to improve the current travel and expense management process. Further suggestions regarding business travel are given to academic research and to the commissioning company.