SAP acquires Concur to build cloud-based expense management

SAP has agreed to acquire online travel and expense management software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider Concur Technologies for $8bn, in a move which will boost its cloud portfolio.

SAP said the acquisition will make it the second largest cloud company by measure of revenue.

The acquisition will also expand SAP’s business network into the US's $1.2tn corporate travel spectrum.

But, with 23,000 active Concur users, SAP appears to have paid $322 per user, according to analyst Berenberg.

SAP CEO Bill McDermott said with Ariba, Fieldglass and Concur, SAP is the undisputed business network company. 

"We are redefining how businesses conduct commerce across goods and services, contingent workforces, travel and entertainment," he said.

"With the SAP Hana platform, the possibilities to innovate new business models around Concur and the network are limitless," said McDermott.

SAP believes there will be an opportunity to cross-sell to the two companies' respective customers. The majority of SAP customers do not run Concur, while only 30% of Concur customers currently run SAP.

SAP plans to migrate all its corporate travel and expense management to Concur’s integrated products. It also plans to integrate Hana with Concur to apply big data analytics to expense management and travel.

The Aberdeen Group's Travel and Expense Management Guide 2014 noted that mobile applications and technology will help business travellers and executives enact key expense management processes via smartphones and tablets. 

Mobile access is one of the focus areas for the Concur application, which supports expense submission and approval via an iPhone and Android smartphone app.

Following completion of the acquisition, SAP said it would work with Concur to build network-based, context-aware mobile applications.

In 2013, Concur opened its European datacentre to customers, offering an option to host their data locally.