Admin

SAP Concur is in the process of updating the format of all email notifications. These changes will provide a fresher, consistent look and feel across all SAP Concur services. The change will be introduced gradually. Some users will see the updated format immediately; some will see it over the next few months.

Be aware that the email content has not changed – just the look and feel.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The intent is to provide a consistent, updated look for users.

Email Infrastructure Change

SAP Concur is transitioning to a new email infrastructure for outbound emails from our products to SAP Concur users. Because of this, companies who filter inbound email based on the sending IP address must whitelist new IP addresses to ensure that their users receive email from SAP Concur.

The new IP addresses are not published publicly but they are available by contacting SAP Concur support. Please work with your email server management team to ensure any required whitelists for IP addresses are updated so that your users continue to receive SAP Concur emails without interruptions.

Data Retention

With this release, the system will automatically email all users who have the Data Retention Administrator role or permission whenever changes are made to the data retention policy.

Prior to this change, only the admin who made the change received the 72-hour confirmation email.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change provides greater visibility of configuration changes.

Japan Public Transportation (JPT)

The Japan Public Transportation (JPT) database of stations and lines received routine maintenance changes such as additions, name changes and removals.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Lists in Expense continue to reflect JPT's current stations and lines.

Languages

With this release, SAP Concur now supports the following language:

• Indonesian (Indonesia)

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change allows more Concur Expense users to experience Concur Expense in their native text.

Next Generation (NextGen) Expense

Update: In order to respond to and take advantage of feedback from customers, and to align with SAP Concur’s commitment to ensure a smooth and successful transition, we are working on a revised deployment strategy for Next Generation Expense.

SAP Concur is dedicated to the consistent improvement of our products, not only the features they provide, but also the experience of using those features. How users interact with technology changes over time, along with needs and expectations. We are constantly listening to our customers and soliciting feedback on how we can improve the user experience.

NextGen Expense is the continued evolution of the SAP Concur user experience. It was built from extensive user research and data analytics that include 680 1:1 conversations, 58 usability studies, 3,000+ survey responses and 1.3B monthly user actions.

Customers will have the ability to preview and then opt in to NextGen Expense before the mandatory cutover.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The result is the next generation of the Expense user interface designed to provide a modern, consistent and streamlined user experience. This technology not only provides an enhanced UI, but also allows SAP Concur to react more quickly to customer requests to meet changing needs as they happen.

Receipts API

A new field, MapUrl, has been added to the Ground Transportation Receipt schema of the Receipts v4 API. This field contains a link to an image on Google Maps of the trip, if provided by the ground transportation supplier.

WHAT THE USER SEES

If the ground transportation provider sends the MapUrl to SAP Concur, the user will see a map image of the trip in the e-receipt window in Concur Expense.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The new MapUrl field provides additional information about the ground transportation trip.

Admin

As SAP Concur continues to grow, steps must be taken to enhance and improve the performance of our system so that we can meet customer expectations and the needs of their business.

Our overall goal is to significantly improve the performance of SAP Concur services by reducing the amount of data that is stored in our Production datastore. By reducing the data in the Production system, we can use server memory much more efficiently, which reduces processing time for transactions. For this reason, SAP Concur is developing an archive process for users who have been deactivated by their employers for at least three years. The archive process moves this "deactivated" user data from our Production datastore to a separate Reporting datastore.

User/Customer Benefit: Moving deactivated user data will provide faster processing time for transactions. In addition, it provides a more secure environment for inactive users' personal information.

Approval Emails

For companies that use this feature, its retirement means that the content of the emails that are currently received by their users who approve expense claims will change.

BEFORE 11 DECEMBER 2018

When enabled, this feature allows an approver to approve (or reject) an expense claim by replying to the email.

AFTER 11 DECEMBER 2018

After this feature is retired, the approver can approve the claim using either the SAP Concur mobile app or www.concursolutions.com.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change will close a security gap and allow SAP Concur to devote more resources to features that are used by many or most of our clients.

Company Administration

Single Sign-On allows users to access multiple applications using one set of login credentials. Currently, SAP Concur has two methods for signing in: with a user name and password or using SSO with identity provider (IdP) credentials, such as a user's login credentials for their organisation.

SAP Concur is planning to add a Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature to SAP Concur products that provides SAP Concur clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO for their organisation. SSO is currently supported for Concur Expense, Invoice, Request and Travel.

Other SAP Concur products and services are outside the scope of this initial release.

The new Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature will be accessible from the Administration > Company > Company Admin page.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides SAP Concur clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO.

Currency Admin

Following the Central Bank of Venezuela's redenomination of its currency to Bolívar Soberano (VES), the Bolívar Fuerte (VEF) has been withdrawn as legal tender. Accordingly, SAP Concur has retired the Bolívar Fuerte (VEF) currency from Concur Expense.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change supports SAP Concur customers who use the Bolívar currency.

Expense Assistant

Admins can now pre-configure Expense Assistant options.

Expense Assistant can automatically create trip-based expense claims and add trip-based expenses to these expense claims. Currently, Expense Assistant automatically creates monthly expense claims as a client's expenses flow into Concur Expense. This is known as creating a calendar-based expense claim.

With this enhancement, Expense Assistant can create either of two types of expense claims: calendar-based and trip-based. When Expense Assistant creates a trip-based expense claim, Expense Assistant will automatically create an expense claim based on a specific trip booked in Concur Travel and will populate the expense claim with the client's expenses that occur between the trip's start and end dates.

Users using Expense Assistant will only be able to have Expense Assistant automatically create calendar-based or trip-based expense claims, not both types of expense claims.

The type of expense claims created by Expense Assistant will be defined at the group level.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature automates more of the expense reporting process, to provide an easier end user experience.

Client Notifications

The list of non-affiliated subprocessors is available here: SAP Concur list of Subprocessors (English Only)

Monthly browser certifications, both current and planned, are available with the other SAP Concur monthly release notes, accessible from What's New - Professional Edition