MasterCard Worldwide today announced the launch of the MasterCard Optimiser for Travel & Entertainment and Purchasing.
This interactive online tool enables companies of all sizes, including multinational and public sector organisations, to improve their travel and entertainment (T&E) and Purchasing programmes and identify savings opportunities by benchmarking and analysing them against best-in-class industry practices. The European launch follows the roll-out of the MasterCard Optimiser in North America and the Asia-Pacific-Middle-East region, where the tool has helped companies improve their T & E and Purchasing programmes.
Besides salaries and data processing, T& E and Purchasing spend represent a significant portion of companies' controllable expenses. According to latest research by Aberdeen Group(Aberdeen Global Commercial Payments Cards 2007), T& E spend per company is expected to see an increase of 24 % in 2008 compared to the previous year, while spending on Purchasing cards will grow by 27 % at the same time. Research also shows that spend reduction and control are the top priorities for businesses across all segments. By leveraging the MasterCard Optimiser, companies can increase the effectiveness of their T & E and Purchasing card programmes and improve their performance.
"The MasterCard Optimiser for Travel & Entertainment and Purchasing is an intuitive and powerful solution for organisations across the Europe region. This launch demonstrates our commitment to support organisations of all kind in realising savings and optimising opportunities in their spending programmes. The optimiser tool ideally complements our portfolio of payment and reporting solutions providing efficiency and control for businesses and public sector organisations", said Brian Lang, Vice President, Commercial Products, MasterCard Europe.
How it works:
To access the MasterCard Optimiser, a company representative, whether a Card Program Administrator, C-Level Executive, Business Manager or Travel and Procurement Manager, logs on to the application website and answers a series of quantitative and qualitative questions. Users can choose to analyse T&E spend, indirect spend, or both and can complete the interactive survey regardless of whether or not they currently have a corporate or Purchasing card programme.
The country-specific survey includes benchmarks and currencies from 14 countries in Europe and takes about 20 minutes to complete. The MasterCard Optimiser then analyzes the information against best practices from hundreds of companies to generate a downloadable report which offers a tailored roadmap, industry insights and recommendations on how an organisation can:
- Improve overall T&E and Purchasing process efficiency
- Benchmark against best in class organisations in the region
- Identify and quantify potential savings
"With increasing outbound travel and corporate purchases, European businesses need to continuously monitor and streamline both types of expenses," added Lang. "The MasterCard Optimiser for Travel & Entertainment and Purchasing can help them customise their programmes to be in line with the company's operational and financial requirements while providing employees with efficient and transparent guidelines on spending and expense management."