KDS launches KDS Express, the first travel expense management service designed for mid sized companies

Pre-configured for setup in less than four weeks without IT deployment, KDS Express is a “pure Internet” solution that generates savings of up to 30% of the cost and processing of expense reports and travel bookings.

London, September 29, 2008 – During the Business Travel Conference, The Park Inn, London Heathrow 29 – 30 Sept.; KDS, the European leader in on-demand travel and expense management, unveiled KDS Express, its Mid-Market online solution for expense report automation and travel management.

KDS Express is a hosted solution, SaaS (Software as a Service) available from any Internet browser. Preconfigured to meet the specific requirements of small and medium sized companies, KDS Express can be deployed in less than four weeks. Requiring no IT skills, clients automatically benefit from ongoing product enhancement without any additional cost.

To illustrate the advantages of a SaaS expenses and travel solution, KDS has produced a comic strip that can be viewed at http://www.kds.com/en/comic_episode1

Extremely easy and intuitive to use, with a few clicks KDS Express makes available the full operating power of the latest generation of KDS software (see description further down in this press release).
“The mid-market is still largely under-equipped although we note a strong demand. It was essential for us to design a product for this segment that benefits from our large account know-how. Now enterprises of all sizes will have access to the full power of a unified travel and expense solution," said Stéphane Donders, KDS General Manager.
“While companies have a lot to gain by automating their travel expense management processes, a study we conducted on the subject last July shows that, in Great-Britain, expense reports are still entered on a spreadsheet in 68 percent of cases.”

Deploying a dedicated Travel & Expense solution makes it possible to save up to 30% of T&E budgets by streamlining processes, eliminating multiple entries and errors, focusing travel on preferred suppliers and increasing policy compliance.
 
Advantages of a unified solution for travel and expense management.

During implementation:

• Users only need to learn one new system...
• Adoption of the travel booking interface is increased by the fact that users are naturally using the expenses entry interface.
  

The software solution is automatically updated by KDS.

KDS Express will:

• Provide a holistic view of your companies T&E spend
• Reduce costs via standard application of company policies.
• Decrease non-compliancy via automated business rules.
• Eliminate manual tasks by automating accounting processes.
• Control business travel-related expenses efficiently in real time.
• Reduce expense report filling time for users by means of an intelligent reconciliation engine.
• Simplify trip booking (flight, train, hotel, car, etc.).

KDS Express unifies business trip booking, expense reporting and invoicing within a single service. An intuitive user interface guides users through making a trip booking and then makes sure that they do not need to re-enter the same details on their expense claim.

Key features are:

• Management of expenses and travel reimbursement policies.
• Offline entry of expense reports.
• Configuration of accounting processes and assignments (accounting, costs, etc.).
• Reporting
• Tracking of taxable benefit data for legal declarations e.g. DADS, P11D etc.
• Expense-account, invoice and trip approval engine.
• Powerful fare engine comparing the various travel option in order to selects the best fares according to the organization's policy.
• Data import/export: integration of corporate card, lodge card, supplier invoices HR data and export of expense and invoice to the accounting system.

Online Travel & Expense Management
The travel and expenses policies are easy to administrate: the rules governing payment of expenses are integrated and applied automatically. Similarly, the trip purchasing rules guide users to preferred suppliers and ensure compliance with negotiated rates.

• Supplier and corporate card data integration.
• Management of the different accounting and analytical segments.
• Calculation of deductible VAT.
• Automatic conversion of currency.
• Continuous monitoring of costs through predefined accounting reports.

Online travel & expense management
The travel and expenses policies are easy to administrate: the rules governing payment of expenses are integrated and applied automatically. Similarly, the trip purchasing rules guide users to preferred suppliers and ensure compliance with negotiated rates. Similarly, an intuitive user interface guides users through making a trip booking and then makes sure that they do not need to re-enter the same details on their expense claim.

The software is designed to integrate data from suppliers (e.g. lodged cards, etc.) and corporate cards. With this function, any expense paid for on a corporate card is sent to KDS Express as an expense-line thus saving time and providing 100% accurate data.

KDS Express manages different accounting and analytical segments, calculate deductible VAT and convert currencies. KDS Express's fare engine searches for the best offers according to the travel-policy and negotiated rates.

KDS Express is available immediately. KDS Express can also be easily interfaced with the portals of travel agencies and KDS partners.

Note: The KDS Express comic strip is available at: http://www.kds.com/en/comic_episode1