May 2020 Expense Professional Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Release Note Summaries
Authentication
**Ongoing** Deprecation of HMAC Initiates Migration to SSO Self-ServiceThese changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
SAP Concur will soon begin the deprecation process of removing Hash-Based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) as an SSO option. The replacement service for HMAC is SAML SSO, a self-service method of setup whereby client admins have access within SAP Concur to complete their SAML connections.
Clients currently using HMAC are encouraged to migrate to the SSO self-service tool as soon as it is released (targeted for Q2 2020). The new SSO self-service tool allows multiple portals (Identity Providers) to be added.
The HMAC deprecation includes two phases:
PHASE I:
Clients must have an Identity Provider (IdP) or a custom SAML 2.0 solution.
Clients begin testing the new SSO self-service tool.
Travel Management Companies (TMCs) prepare for onboarding new SAP Concur clients using the new SSO self-service tool, which is targeted for release in Q2 2020.
Once the SSO tool is available, customers will be notified via release notes about the official deprecation date of HMAC. As of the official deprecation date, no new clients can be onboarded using HMAC; new clients must be onboarded using the new SSO self-service tool.
Existing clients using HMAC need to be migrated using the new SSO self-service tool.
PHASE II:
Travel Management Companies (TMCs) continue migrating existing SAP Concur clients from the HMAC service to the new SSO self-service tool.
Shut down the HMAC service after everyone has migrated from HMAC to the new SSO self-service tool. Phase II is targeted to end mid-year 2020.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change provides better security and improved support for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.
Old Sign-In Experience No Longer AvailableOn 31 October, 2019, SAP Concur introduced a new experience for users signing into SAP Concur.
Since introducing the new sign in experience, users have been able to choose between signing in through the new Sign In page and reverting to the old sign-in experience. Beginning with the May release, the old sign-in experience is no longer available.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The new sign-in experience provides better security and is faster and more convenient for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services. This change makes the sign-in experience uniform for all users.
Data Retention
Manage Holds & Purge Users Description Updated (3 Apr)The description of the Manage Holds & Purge Users data retention feature that appears on the Administration > Company > Data Retention page has been updated.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This update provides more accurate information about where a user with the Data Retention Administrator role can find the Hold User, Remove Hold and Purge User buttons.
Expense Pay – Global
(CAD and USD) Expense Claim ID Added to Citi RemittanceFor Expense Pay – Global clients, Citi USD and CAD remittances generated by SAP Concur, will include the Claim ID in the Transaction Description field. This allows clients to reconcile Expense Pay credit card payments down to the report level the same way as is possible using classic Expense Pay.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Including this additional data in Citi CAD and USD remittances assists clients with reconciliation of payments down to the claim level.
File Transfer Updates
**Ongoing** SAP Concur Legacy File Move MigrationThis Release Note is intended for the technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP Concur. For our customers and suppliers participating in data exchange, SAP Concur is maintaining our file transfer subsystem to provide greater security for those file transfers.
SAP Concur will begin migrating entities that currently use a legacy process for moving files to a more efficient and secure file routing process that relies on APIs.
Clients whose entities are currently configured to use the legacy process will be migrated to the more efficient process sometime between now and the end of 2020. After they are migrated to the more efficient process, clients will see the following improvement:
With the legacy process, clients had to wait for the file move schedule to run at a specified time. With the more efficient and secure API-based process, extracts and other outbound files from SAP Concur will be available within the existing overnight processing period shortly after the files are created.
This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:
st.concursolutions.com
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes provide greater security and efficiency for file transfers.
Language Support
Support for New Language (Thai)With this release, SAP Concur now supports the following language:
Thai
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables users to configure the SAP Concur solutions UI text to display in Thai.
Mileage
Concur FAVR by Motus Generally Available (US Only, 14 May, 2020)SAP Concur has partnered with Motus to create a new integration to connect Concur Expense with the Concur FAVR service by Motus. FAVR (fixed and variable rate) is a mileage reimbursement solution for employees who drive over 5,000 miles a year using their personal cars for business. This mileage reimbursement programme takes into account local information and vehicle details to accurately account for mileage expenses.
Concur FAVR by Motus is an integration between the Motus application and Concur Expense (Professional and Standard editions).
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: FAVR provides organisations with an accurate way to reimburse employees driving their vehicles for business use (over 5k miles per year). This prevents legal risk from underpaying employees, while also ensures organisations do not overpay employees via cents per mile or fixed monthly reimbursements. The FAVR reimbursement programme can also result in substantial cost savings due to tax calculations, particularly when drivers exceed 10k miles/year. Concur FAVR by Motus also includes automatic mileage tracking via the Motus app, which saves time and increases accuracy and compliance.
Miscellaneous
Modified Home Page Appears When Some Products and Services Are Unavailable (20 Mar)When a user signs into SAP Concur, if some products or services are unavailable while other products and services are up and running, a modified version of the user’s Home page appears, providing access to the products and services that are up and running.
Prior to implementing this improvement, if a user attempted to sign in to SAP Concur when one or more products or services was not available, a 503 (service unavailable) message appeared, the user’s Home page could not be accessed, and the user had to wait until all services and products were available before signing in to SAP Concur.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement enables users to complete tasks that rely on the products and services that are up and running even when other products and services might be unavailable.
New SSL Certificate for concursolutions.comIn an effort to ensure the ongoing security of our products and services, SAP Concur has issued a new concursolutions.com SSL certificate. The previous certificate expired on 14 April, 2020.
Any customer who has pinned this expiring certificate needs to update to the new certificate.
Customers who have not pinned the certificate do not need to take any action as the new certificate is updated automatically. Most customers do not pin the certificate.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This update provides ongoing security for our products and services.
Users Connecting to the US Data Centre Are Redirected to us1.concursolutions.comBeginning in May, users who connect to the US Data Centre through www.concursolutions.com will be redirected to us1.concursolutions.com.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change makes the format of the URL for SAP Concur data centres consistent from one data centre to another. For example, users connecting to the EMEA data centre are redirected to eu1.concursolutions.com.
NextGen Expense User Interface
**Ongoing** New User Interface for Concur Expense End UsersUpdate: 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 NextGen 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 and will continue to be informed by what we learn from both user research and behavioural data.
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 Concur Expense user interface designed to provide a modern, consistent and streamlined user experience. This technology not only provides an enhanced user interface (UI), but also allows SAP Concur to react more quickly to customer requests to meet changing needs as they happen.
Quick Expense
**Ongoing** Quick Expense v1 and Quick Expense v3 Retired and DecommissionedEffective 31 March, 2020, the Quick Expense v1 and Quick Expense v3 APIs was retired and decommissioned. We encourage all current users to migrate to Quick Expense v4 as soon as possible.
Please refer to the deprecation policy for definitions and additional information.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This update removes two outdated APIs.
Workflow
Retirement of Email Confirmation for Faxed Receipt ImagesSAP Concur retired the email message confirming that Concur Expense received a faxed receipt image.
This release note is specifically about the retirement of the email message. SAP Concur continues to support faxed receipt images.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change allows SAP Concur to focus resources on alternate methods for receiving information using contemporary communication tools.
Planned Change Summaries
The items in this section are summaries of the changes targeted for future releases. SAP Concur reserves the right to postpone implementation of – or completely remove – any enhancement/change mentioned here.
IMPORTANT: These Planned Changes may not be all of the upcoming enhancements and modifications that affect this SAP Concur product or service. The Planned Changes that apply to multiple SAP Concur products and/or services are in a consolidated document. Please review the additional Planned Changes admin summaries available in the May 2020 Shared Planned Changes Professional Edition Admin Summary.
There are no planned changes this month.
Client Notifications
SAP Concur Non-Affiliated Subprocessors
The list of non-affiliated subprocessors is available here: SAP Concur list of Subprocessors (English Only)
Monthly Browser Certifications
Monthly browser certifications, both current and planned, are available with the other SAP Concur monthly release notes, accessible from What's New - Professional Edition