EYC provides analytical insight and web-based solutions for the retail industry based on customer loyalty card databases. Frontline retail managers use EYC’s customer insights every day to help them make customer-driven decisions on assortment, pricing, promotion, store layout, store services and supply chain.

EYC has 35 staff in the UK and Europe, and 18 in the US.  Its travel spend is around £20,000 per month, mainly on air travel between the UK and US.

EYC were constrained by a paper-based expense system and began the search for a solution in late 2006. “We’re a high-tech company so we needed something other than paper,” said Financial Director, Nick Dunn, “Claims sit in in-boxes and don’t get done, whereas, with online, it’s quicker. It’s easy for staff to submit a claim and you can see where everything goes and how each claim is progressing.”

Fully Featured, Quick to Implement Expenses Solution

The company decided to use the standard ‘off-the-shelf’ product from WebExpenses who were the only supplier able to give EYC a solution then and there. “WebExpenses stood out for its simplicity rather than its functionality, and that’s the way to win over users,” explained Dunn, “We could turn it on very quickly as there was no training for staff needed; you learn the system by doing it. There was never a question in my mind that it wouldn’t work,” said Dunn. “The cost of implementation was just people’s time.”

How WebExpenses Worked for EYC

The implementation was painless, except for one glitch.  EYC runs four different credit cards in different currencies, but EYC’s bank was unable to provide an upload file with all the transactional data from the company’s four credit cards on it. Instead, EYC created its own uplink with the data based on a template file WebExpenses provided. “It took a couple of weeks to get it up and running,” said Dunn. “The interface with EYC’s back office system, Sage, worked seamlessly.”

Dunn promoted the software internally as a time saving benefit to staff. “This system brings expenses back to the user. I sold it to staff on the basis that they can do their expenses quicker and that we would pay expenses more frequently than once a month.”

The Payback

EYC’s expense claims now require a third of the effort. “Our Accounts Team is still the same size but they now have time to do other things and can add more value instead, and that was a key reason for doing it. We’ve got rid of an overburdened paper-based system. We’ve basically re-deployed resource and added value to the organisation.”