Morguard embraces automation

Change management is always a challenge, but it's a lot easier when you have a team of cheerleaders on your side. 

That was the case for Cash Management Controller, Phyllis Gleason, and her team at Morguard, a leading Canadian commercial real estate company. 

The need for an efficient expense management process became clear after Morguard implemented a new corporate credit card program. Along with travel and entertainment expenses, the new program also included procurement.

"There's no centralized purchasing function here, so I started engaging with a lot more employees just through their expense reporting," she says. In fact, 87 per cent of Morguard employees touch procurement in some way. The cumbersome manual spreadsheet-based system was no longer an option. 

At the same time, Gleason anticipated that the shift could be tricky for some employees who were used to their established way of doing things.

So, she strategically sought them out. "I went into the business and identified people who would be positively impacted by using Concur Expense, but also those who I knew would be hesitant to change," Gleason says.

They became her first trainees with Concur Expense – and quickly became her champions. 

The benefits were obvious.

"We have one employee who was filing 15 expense reports per month, and she estimates the time it takes her to complete them has dropped by 70 per cent," Gleason says.

Specifically, the ability to submit on the fly through Concur Expense's mobile app is a huge benefit for a company with as many remote employees as Morguard. "The expectation now is for processes to be paperless and streamlined. I have a number of people who don't work in offices –– so the mobility functionality was a huge win for a lot of my users," Gleason says.

Watch the full video case study to learn more.