SAP Concur drives meaningful change for GBM

GBM found that SAP Concur was the perfect solution to support positive company culture.

GBM, the Middle East’s leading end-to-end digital solutions power brand with one of the largest portfolios of infrastructure, security, and server solutions, has not only nurtured ties with the world’s leading technology companies but has also invested in a fantastic staff.

The Covid-19 pandemic altered the way individuals worked for the rest of their lives, disturbing business as usual and permanently altering the employee experience. Employee experience management is critical, according to McKinsey & Company research, especially when it comes to engagement and productivity. Businesses may use technology, data, and analytics to provide significant support to their employees as the world slowly returns to work.

“With over 30 years of experience, GBM required a partner that could help enhance the overall employee experience, and who could provide cloud capabilities and real-time analytics to empower us to become more cost-effective,” says Feras Al Majed, VP Human Resources and Communications at GBM.

GBM, the Middle East’s leading end-to-end digital solutions power brand with one of the largest portfolios of infrastructure, security, and server solutions, has not only nurtured ties with the world’s leading technology companies but has also invested in a fantastic staff.

As part of their digital transformation journey to more than 1,500 people across seven offices, GBM evaluated all of their legacy systems, and one of the primary areas for improvement was their invoicing and expense management system.

According to a Gartner survey, only 13% of employees are satisfied when it comes to experience – most companies are falling short, leaving their workforce disengaged and as a result, less productive. However, those organisations who take the time to invest in their employee experience see positive results which is why GBM found that SAP Concur was the perfect solution to support a positive company culture.

“We believe a positive employee experience guarantees greater productivity, higher morale and a favourable work environment,” adds Majed.

He added, “The morale of our people has really been improved because they no longer have to spend large amounts of hours having to submit their monthly claims. An invoice and expense management system touches all of our employees on a month-to-month basis.”

As part of their digital transformation, GBM implemented two SAP Concur solutions: Concur Expense, which increases productivity while improving compliance and mitigating risk, and Concur Invoice, which allows users to easily automate AP management in order to be more efficient, increase profitability, and gain better visibility into spend.

“It has set us on the right track to further automate our processes. SAP Concur was the beacon that started our transformational journey and a quick win that we achieved within the organisation,” says Majed.

“Allowing the flexibility of employees and managers to access the system anywhere and everywhere, at any time in the world – this is a major advantage. From reporting to forecasting and budgets, allowing this flexibility is excellence,” adds Ahmed EL-Khashab, GBM’s Head of Procurement.

GBM discovered that after SAP Concur was implemented, employees readily adjusted. SAP Concur provided for faster and more accurate decision-making processes because it is mobile-friendly and available in real-time.

“SAP Concur understood our pain points. A lot of cloud-based solutions don’t offer flexibility – they offer a product that’s uniform,” explains Al Majed. With flexible solutions, SAP Concur recognized GBM’s goals and adapted to their needs, ultimately helping the company to enhance their people experience and enable their management and procurement teams to better serve the organization.

“Today’s world has changed,” says EL-Khashab. “Businesses are looking for whatever advantage they can get and having an expense management tool like SAP Concur that ticks all the boxes for your organization, reduces compliance risk, and increases your cost savings helps with business continuity.”