Introducing Travel and Expense Solutions
Connecting Concur Travel & Expense to End-to-End Business Process
Exploring the Key Products of Concur Travel & Expense
Extending the Value of SAP Cross-portfolio Components with Concur Travel & Expense
Connecting Concur Travel & Expense to Industries

Unlocking Synergies by Combining Concur Travel & Expense with SAP Business Al

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to combine Concur Travel and Expense with SAP Business AI to maximize the value of the integrated solutions.

SAP Concur and AI Solutions

The recent wave of advances in generative AI (GenAI) has stoked enthusiasm, raised debate, and sparked bold thinking about the power of this revolutionary technology to reshape our world. SAP Concur is pairing these GenAI breakthroughs with our unrivaled access to travel and expense (T&E) data and long track record working with AI to create enhanced, personalized experiences that no other T&E company can provide.

AI is essential to achieving our vision of a world where travel and expenses practically manage themselves.

Learn more about how AI supercharges all SAP Concur solutions in the next video.

Note

This video mentions solutions like Concur Invoice which aren't covered in this learning journey. For more information on these solutions, please visit our website.

Summary

  • SAP Concur integrates advanced AI, including generative AI and machine learning, to revolutionize travel and expense management, aiming to create systems where travel and expenses manage themselves.
  • AI-powered features such as ExpenseIt for automated receipt data capture and categorization, Intelligent Audit for enhanced compliance and fraud detection, Verify for accurate expense reporting, and Concur Invoice and Concur Request for streamlined invoice and spend request processes.
  • AI solutions not only boost efficiency by reducing manual effort but also provide deeper insights, enhancing decision-making and ensuring policy compliance across organizations.
  • New features like Request Assistant use generative AI to provide pretrip budget estimates, simplifying the process for business travelers by predicting costs based on travel details, and AI flight recommendations offer personalized, policy-compliant flight options based on user preferences and booking patterns.

Joule and SAP Business Technology Platform

Joule is SAP's AI copilot, designed to understand business context and provide a seamless user experience across the SAP landscape. When activated within SAP Concur solutions, Joule simplifies travel booking, expense submissions, and provides quick access to help and information. This integration presents a significant opportunity for presales professionals to showcase the power of AI in streamlining business processes.

Joule chat box asking How can I help you?.

SAP Business Technology Platform

To enhance Joule's capabilities beyond just one application, Joule uses the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). This means that a user working in SAP SuccessFactors who has a question about their expense report in SAP Concur can access Joule from within SAP SuccessFactors and ask a Travel & Expense-related question and vice versa.

SAP diagram of the Business Technology Platform: Cloud ERP with Business Data Cloud at the center, surrounded by finance, spend, supply chain, human capital, and customer experience management; outer layers show ecosystem/industry and transformation, with Joule agents across finance, spend, supply chain, HR, and CX orchestrating end-to-end processes.

Note

  • For Joule to work across all SAP systems, customers must have an SAP BTP licence.
  • If a customer is using SAP BTP only with SAP Concur, then there is no extra charge. Note that this may not apply to SAP BTP usage for other lines of business or use cases.

Many customers who have SAP Concur as their only SAP product may ask why they have to use another SAP tool to access Joule. Here is a full answer:

  • Joule is built on SAP BTP, which provides a central architecture for integrating applications.
  • One of the core services of SAP BTP is SAP Cloud Identity Services, including Identity Authentication service and Identity Provisioning service.
  • When enabling Joule with BTP, customers must configure Identity Authentication service with SAP Concur solutions and other systems used with Joule.
  • Identity Authentication service allows Joule to identify users across all applications. This enables cross-application functionality (for example, a user in SAP SuccessFactors can interact with Joule about Concur Travel & Expense and get personalized answers or updates).
  • SAP BTP and Identity Authentication service together ensure Joule can track users/employees across different SAP applications, supporting seamless user experiences, and data consistency.

The Business Value of Joule with SAP Concur Solutions

Watch the following video to learn more about Joule.

Joule streamlines various business functions across SAP Concur solutions, offering advantages for different user groups:

  • · For Business Travelers: Joule assists in preparing and submitting expenses for reimbursement, searching and booking policy-compliant business travel, and answering questions related to travel and expenses. This translates to less time spent on administrative tasks and more focus on core responsibilities.
  • · For Travel & Expense Administrators: Joule helps optimize user efficiency by providing a self-service tool for users to find answers, reducing the time spent answering repetitive questions. This frees up administrators to focus on strategic program initiatives.
  • · For Finance Leaders or CIOs: Joule enhances team productivity by implementing modern technologies, ensuring AI tools adhere to the highest level of ethics, privacy, and data security. This leads to increased efficiency, improved compliance, and maximized technology investments.

Joule Base and Joule Premium

There are two tiers of Joule with SAP Concur solutions: Joule Base and Joule Premium.

  • Joule Base: A no-cost solution for SAP Concur customers. It allows users to effortlessly navigate SAP systems, find information quickly, and complete everyday tasks. This version provides foundational AI capabilities to enhance the user experience.
  • Joule Premium: An advanced subscription tier that provides businesses with high-value AI capabilities, planned for release in 2026. Customers must activate Joule Base before purchasing Joule Premium. This version offers more advanced features and functionalities.

Key Features of Joule Base

Joule Base offers several key features:

  • · Conversational Help Search: Users can look up information using conversational text, making it easier to find the details they are looking for.
  • · Basic Transactions for Expense: Users can search for, view, create, update, and delete expense reports, expense items, allocations, and attendees.
  • · Booking Agent: Streamlines the booking process directly through Concur Travel, enhancing efficiency and ensuring a seamless experience. Watch the following video to learn more about Booking Agent.

Joule Premium

At launch, Joule Premium for Concur Travel & Expense gives customers access to two premium use cases and will include access to premium use cases being launched throughout 2026 and beyond.

Meeting Location Planner Agent
The Meeting Location Planner Agent empowers users to solve the "Where should we meet?" problem without the spreadsheets.
  • Autonomously analyzes attendee locations, flight options, cost, travel time, and sustainability to recommend the most efficient meeting city.
  • Applies company-specific travel policies to ensure that hotel and flight recommendations meet budget, class of service, and preferred supplier rules.
  • Instantly compares multiple city options, presenting tradeoffs in cost and time, so planners can make fast, informed decisions.
  • Accepts custom inputs (for example, airline preference, max travel time) and adjusts recommendations accordingly, no need for manual filtering.
  • Goes beyond location suggestion to recommend compliant hotels and generate budget estimates, empowering faster approvals and bookings.
Expense Report Validation
The Expense Report Validation Agent helps employees to submit accurate, compliant expense reports, without back-and-forth with approvers.
  • Walks users through the final steps of expense report submission, flagging missing or incomplete entries and prompting for quick resolution.
  • Explains alerts and compliance issues in plain language and helps users resolve them directly within the report, eliminating guesswork and delays.
  • Proactively detects common errors and missing data, prompting users to confirm or correct entries, boosting first-pass approval rates, and reducing rework.
  • Streamlines the reporting process, saving time and effort for employees while reducing the burden on finance teams.

Note

This agent does not modify custom fields, create missing objects (for example, requests), or validate receipt accuracy and authenticity.

Activating Joule

SAP Concur customers can activate Joule in two ways:

Option One: SAP Concur App Center
Customers navigate to the SAP Concur App Center and choose Joule Base as shown in the following image. Customers then follow the onscreen instructions.Screenshot of a page titled “Joule Base for SAP Concur” showing the purple Joule icon, a tagline about streamlining expense management with AI, a brief description, and resource links including Read More, Website, Onboard Guide, What’s New, Integration, AI Terms, and Support.
Option Two: Joule Base Activation Page on sap.com
Customers navigate to sap.comand follow the instructions on the page. Screenshot of an SAP webpage promoting Joule Base, with the headline “Activate Joule across your SAP cloud products for free,” a “View pricing options” button, and a mockup of the SAP interface showing task cards and the Joule assistant chat.
Learning

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