“Thanks to Lanes & Planes, we have taken another step towards digitalization and fundamentally modernized our travel management.”
SCHARR Group
The SCHARR Group supplies around 250,000 customers with energy products in the B2B and B2C sectors. In addition, the technical, personnel-intensive area has been growing very strongly for years. The number of internal business travelers is correspondingly high. The booking and final travel expense report used to be done manually and was time-consuming and error-prone.
For years, management assistant Julia Steimle was jointly responsible for the company’s travel management and had set herself the goal of combining the cumbersome travel booking and accounting processes and bundling them in a centralized and modern end-to-end solution.
In our interview, she explains how the medium-sized company uses Lanes & Planes and the advantages it offers.
Lanes & Planes explained - in just 10 minutes. Take a look at our demo video and see for yourself.
Before: Complicated and time-consuming processes
The SCHARR Group employs around 800 people and divides business travelers into three categories. The first group includes executives, sales managers and employees who are traveling in Germany and Europe and make many travel bookings for this purpose.
The company’s fitters form the second category. In the construction industry, their business trips consist of day trips and must be settled via the meals allowance. There are also sales representatives who visit customers every day, do not stay overnight, but submit many expenses. All three groups used to use different payment methods. This resulted in a large number of forms and Excel tables for each individual document type.
Billing and auditing took a lot of time and was extremely complicated and error-prone due to the high volume of documents submitted by post. The medium-sized company was growing and inefficient processes were making workflows increasingly difficult.
A modern solution to replace endless spreadsheets and lengthy postal routes was now urgently needed. There had also been plans for some time to combine the previously separate areas of booking and accounting into one digital travel and receipt management tool. In the course of intensive research, Lanes & Planes ultimately prevailed against numerous competitors and was successfully implemented.
“Previously, expense and travel expense accounting was a complicated and time-consuming process, which we were able to greatly simplify with the introduction of Lanes & Planes and thus reduce the time required in all departments.”
Simple and personal implementation – a plus in Corona times
Julia Steimle praises the timing of the implementation in particular. Due to the reduced travel volume during the pandemic, the few travelers were always kept in view and the newly introduced processes could therefore be easily controlled.
Overall, the implementation of Lanes & Planes was very successful and was implemented much faster than other digitization projects. After the pilot phase, the added value of the solution was immediately noticeable thanks to its simple and fast operation. This was also the reason for the rapid acceptance of the new tool within the workforce.
With Lanes & Planes, the medium-sized company has gained a regional partner who is always at its side. As a family business, we like to work with companies that have a similar structure and are located nearby.
“With Lanes & Planes, we have a professional and experienced service provider at our side that offers us a comprehensive service. We therefore benefit from both the provider's expertise and the efficiency of the new tool.”
After: Time savings and reduction in document volume
The result for the medium-sized company is impressive – convenient and simple handling for all departments as well as other advantages:
No annoying paperwork on the go: Employees save themselves a trip to the post office and time searching for and collecting receipts, as these can be scanned and archived at any time and from anywhere via the mobile app.
Fully digitized document management: paper invoices are completely eliminated and the volume of documents is automatically reduced.
Better overview thanks to automated processes in accounting: The finance department also saves time-consuming manual processing of statements and now has a better overview from an accounting perspective.
Efficient processes without errors: The HR department also benefits from the legally compliant recording of entries.
“The time savings, convenience and comprehensive service for all departments offer a lot of added value in everyday working life. Added value can also be measured by how users feel. It was very important for us to convey a new feeling of modernity, progressiveness and convenience. Since the introduction, we have gained in every line...”
Structured guidelines & simple approval procedures
Julia Steimle sees a further advantage of Lanes & Planes in the fact that current travel policies can be stored directly in the travel management tool. This structures internal processes and provides all employees with a constant overview of current requirements. The approval of all business trips and expenses is massively accelerated thanks to the digital approval process.
Smart interfaces and standardized payment methods
Thanks to the integration of Lanes & Planes with the existing ERP system, data import now also runs automatically and minimizes the effort involved in collecting and transmitting invoices. This has reduced the billing work to just two main users, which has a positive impact on work efficiency.
This allows you to focus more on other tasks.
The result: modern document management and added value for all departments
The result is impressive – a combination of time savings through digital processes, intuitive operation in the modern, user-friendly app and fast approval procedures. All of this simplifies the day-to-day work of the medium-sized company and offers enormous advantages in travel and receipt management.
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