Highlights from Fusion Exchange DC 2022 for Regulated Industries

For the first time in three years, Regulated Industry attendees from Federal, State & Local Governments, Higher Education, Government Contracting, Utilities, and Healthcare gathered in-person for knowledge sharing and networking at Fusion Exchange D.C. (FXDC). This unique peer sharing event addressed travel, expense, and accounts payable challenges community members face within their organizations.

“It’s great to be able to spend time with our peers in the community and get questions answered by SAP Concur experts in one place. This has more than paid back my investment in time to get here,” one FXDC attendee shared.

Here’s an overview of highlights from the event.

Peer-to-peer collaboration energizes the SAP Concur Community

Community members from Higher Education, Government Contracting, and Government came together to network and collaborate on solving key challenges with their industry peers. From presentations to networking roundtables, thought leaders and peers dissected and discussed a variety of key topics, including:  

• Return to travel
• Expense reconciliation
• Sustainability
• Change management
• Support services, engagement, and collaboration
• Travel safety
• Data & reporting
• Auditing
• Cost control & compliance

Based on the participation and attendee sentiment, these community discussions, as well as the event itself, was a rousing success. In fact, most requested that SAP Concur add another day to the event next year, so they could have even more time together.  

Drawing from collective brain power to share key insights

During the keynote presentation, Christian Wolfe, Head of Client Development for the Americas at SAP Concur, unveiled numerous initiatives of particular interest to Regulated Industry clients. He talked about the investment SAP Concur has made in machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence (AI), and the company’s commitment to apply these tools earlier in the expense process to reduce error and non-compliant spend.

He was later joined on stage by Ermias Desta , Business Information Security Officer for SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network, to discuss progress on Concur Cloud for Public Sector, hosted in Amazon Web Services GovCloud. The platform, which was architected on NIST 800-53 security requirements and is maintained by U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, is now FedRAMP in progress. Read the keynote recap.

The keynote was followed by a panel of peers that represented each sect of the Regulated Industries. They discussed the impacts on their programs over the past two years, and how they’ve adjusted policies going forward. Breakout sessions and micro forms followed, all focused on how organizations are addressing their greatest challenges, and their best practices for navigating a new working environment. The SAP Concur roadmap session was extremely well attended, as attendees learned about new releases and functionality on the horizon.

Here are some top takeaways:

1. Travel has resumed and providing duty of care has significantly evolved.

2. Payment and card management require more significant oversight, but automation greatly reduces strain on resources.

3. ERPs benefit from integrated spend management technology.

4. Technology adoption is on the rise for auditing and compliance, operational efficiency, and change management.

5. Providing on-demand end user support and exceptional employee experience are paramount.

6. Data-driven decision making is gaining additional focus to control spend, particularly with increases in employee turnover and remote workforces.

7. Lowering carbon footprints and other sustainability initiatives need to be a greater focus.

8. Automating invoices cuts costs and reduces frustration.

9. Adopting centralized meeting planning makes the event planning process faster, easier, and more cost effective

10. Real-time user assistance is an effective way to aid adoption and change management.

Making time to get together — and giving back

As a truly inspiring close to the event, attendees came together and took the time to give back by creating care packages for the residents of the Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Children’s Inn serves as a residential home away from home for families with seriously ill children, teens, and young adults participating in NIH research studies.  

It was the perfect cap to an event that, after a two-year hiatus, all agree was worth waiting for.

“It’s amazing to be in a room of like-minded T&E managers who face the same challenges I do on a daily basis and work through solutions together,” one attendee said. “Next time can we add another day of peer sharing?!”

What could you learn at our next event?

Want to level up your spend management, learn from your peers, and experience firsthand all the ways SAP Concur supports the unique needs of Regulated Industries? Make plans to attend SAP Concur Fusion, February 28-March 2, 2023.  Register for Fusion.