Concur Technologies Introduces Enhanced Web-Based Travel Expense Management Solution; Employee Facing Application Includes New Web Components for Enhanced Control and Compatibility.

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 1998--Concur Technologies, a leading provider of employee facing business applications, today announced general availability of XMS/4, the latest version of Concur's market leading Xpense Management Solution(tm).

XMS/4 features XMS/Audit Administrator, the industry's first Web-based tool that enables customers to create and maintain rules to enforce their corporate travel policies. Additionally, XMS/4 is now optimized for multiple platforms. Other enhancements to XMS/4 include features designed specifically for American Express corporate charge card and travel booking customers, and implementation of Web-based data analysis functionality.

"The new features in XMS/4 benefit everyone involved in the expense management process, from the business traveler to accounting," said Rajeev Singh, Concur's vice president of products. "The greater ease-of-use and increased functionality in XMS/4 enables our customers to gain even tighter control of their expense management process."

XMS/Audit Administrator

As the first Web-based tool of its kind, XMS/Audit Administrator allows XMS/4 customers to create and maintain their own travel and entertainment expense audit rules and to enforce their corporate policies through an easy-to-use, wizard-style interface. The XMS/Audit Administrator function gives companies maximum control over which reports are audited, how often they are audited, and the rules that trigger expense audits.

"The XMS Audit Administrator function will eliminate the process of an employee in accounting manually querying expense reports that don't meet the necessary criteria. As a result, expense reports that pass all of the audit rules don't have to be touched by the accounting department," said Jeff Atchison, manager of accounts payable for Nine West. "By automating this tedious process we're saving employee time and company money."

XMS and American Express

The enhanced integration of American Express card and travel features into XMS/4, featured under the exclusive name: XMS/AX, provides the first end-to-end travel management solution. This integration greatly reduces the time an employee spends on both travel booking and expense reporting. XMS/4 automatically creates an expense report based on a travel itinerary created through American Express' AXI travel booking product and travel services, and links each expense report to the corresponding itinerary. With the integrated data feeds from American Express, XMS/4 can prepopulate those expense reports with both travel reservations and corporate charge card data.

HTML Optimization

XMS/4 includes a client application which is HTML-only, creating an easy integration process with every major operating platform in multiple configurations -- providing the only Web-based travel expense management solution that delivers support on all 16-bit operating platforms. XMS/4 also provides enhanced operation on Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers across Windows and Macintosh operating systems. When combined with the rich Java/HTML version already available from Concur, the solution now automatically determines the operating system and bandwidth of the user's connection and delivers the appropriate version for optimal usage.

Cognos PowerPlay Web Analysis

The integration of Cognos' PowerPlay for the Web increases the power of XMS by enabling managers and decision-makers to easily drill down into expense data to determine expense patterns, trends, and relationships via their browser. This data can then be used in effective decision-making and vendor rate negotiations. In XMS/4, access to PowerPlay is now as simple as opening a browser and entering a URL. Additionally, management reports can be published on the Web as an HTML document and viewed from any browser-equipped desktop in the organization.

About Concur Technologies

Concur Technologies was founded in 1993 to automate costly, inefficient business processes that otherwise deplete corporate resources and undermine employee productivity. Concur was the first software company to offer an enterprise software product for managing travel expense processes within an open technology framework. Concur now develops and supports a suite of Web-based employee facing solutions for automating key administrative tasks across the corporate enterprise.

Concur's new product, Employee Desktop(tm), will serve as the access portal and activity manager for all employee facing applications, including Concur's Xpense Management Solution (XMS) and CompanyStore applications. XMS is the world's most widely used enterprise software for travel expense management, automating processes across hundreds of thousands of desktops in more than 160 companies worldwide. CompanyStore, Concur's procurement solution for both employees and purchasing staff, reduces the time and resources required to research and order supplies, equipment and other non-production office goods.

Formerly Portable Software Corporation, Concur is based in Redmond, Washington.

For sales or marketing information:

Concur Technologies, 6222 185th Avenue N.E., Redmond, WA 98052 Tel: [phone], Toll free: 800/478-7411, Fax: [phone] Concur Technologies in the UK, 44-171-329-2981 URL: www.concur.com.

Employee Desktop, Xpense Management Solution, XMS, and CompanyStore are trademarks of Concur Technologies. All other company or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.