Woolmark: Implementing WebExpenses Across Europe

Introduction
Woolmark was founded in Australia in 1937, and has since grown to become a truly global organisation. Woolmark is the world's leading wool textile marketing organisation and operates across 65 countries delivering high quality services, consultancy and other specialist wool industry support.

Overview
Woolmark Europe rolled out the WebExpenses service to its pan-European sales team in early 2001.

The team is distributed across Europe, from Ireland to Turkey, with expense items incurred in local currency and converted to Euro as the reporting currency.

The finance team is based in the UK and previously rekeyed the expense information from paper claim forms to Excel before entry into SAP financials.

Universally positive feedback
The implementation of WebExpenses has been a success; the sales staff appreciate the speed and ease-of-use, the accounting staff find it user-friendly and time-saving, and the project sponsor experienced a problem-free rollout.

Johann Mittermayr, the Sales Manager for Europe, commented:

"It’s a fantastic product, data input is very easy and its much faster than using Excel. My manager approves expense reports within hours, no matter where in the world he is."

The staff member responsible for processing expense reports in the accounts department commented:

"It’s a lot quicker than the paper based system, and eliminates previous double data entry. Everyone likes it; claimants, approvers and the accounts staff, and the email notification of claim status is good since claimants like the immediate feedback. Everyone got the hang of it quickly."

Summary
Jonathan McKay, Woolmark’s Financial Controller for Europe, would have no hesitation in recommending WebExpenses:

"It’s easy to administer, very reliable and we’ve had no problems rolling it out. We started in Germany and then rolled it out to Switzerland and Holland. We then added our teams in France, Portugal, Italy and Spain. Our people also travel to Eastern Europe and it also works well for them over there."

"With staff based in so many countries, reporting to managers based in different countries who also travel extensively, and with all of the administration done centrally in the UK, we needed a system that was simple, robust and reliable. And that’s exactly what WebExpenses has delivered."

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