General Motors and Perkin Elmer Implement Employee Portal and Travel Expense Automation Solutions

Strategic Insights -

General Motors recently launched an employee portal, dubbed "mySocrates," which provides a secure website for GM employees to access services, communications, and learning tools. The portal is part of an agreement between GM, United Auto Workers, and America Online to provide workers with discount Internet access. This new portal is designed to be available to all of GM's U.S. employees at work and at home, a significant expansion from the original "Socrates" portal available only to salaried employees in 1996.

The employee portal is expected to reduce GM's costs for traditional one-to-one and paper-based transactions, with the cost of obtaining the same information and making the same transactions through the portal being less than 5 cents per minute. This is a significant reduction from the cost of a telephone call to a GM call center, which is between $1.50 and $2 per minute. The portal also aims to cut down on the time spent getting information, with Tom Wickham, GM spokesman, stating that it will reduce the time spent on transactions.

Perkin Elmer, Inc. has also implemented a solution to automate its T&E expense management process using the application service provider (ASP) option of Concur Expense. This solution provides secure 24/7 access to employee desktops via a Web browser, eliminating the need for costly implementation, IT infrastructure, and maintenance requirements. Concur Expense has been particularly effective for Perkin Elmer, generating productivity efficiencies for both travelers and the company, and allowing for enterprisewide travel expense data capture for cost analysis and supplier negotiations.

Key Takeaways:

  • General Motors has launched an employee portal, "mySocrates," to provide access to services, communications, and learning tools to all U.S. employees.
  • The employee portal is part of an agreement between GM, United Auto Workers, and America Online to provide workers with discount Internet access.
  • The employee portal is expected to reduce GM's costs for traditional one-to-one and paper-based transactions, with a cost reduction of less than 5 cents per minute compared to $1.50 to $2 per minute for telephone calls to a GM call center.
  • Perkin Elmer, Inc. has implemented Concur Expense, an ASP-based app for employee reimbursements, which provides secure 24/7 access to employee desktops via a Web browser and eliminates the need for costly implementation and IT infrastructure.
  • Concur Expense has been effective for Perkin Elmer, generating productivity efficiencies for both travelers and the company, and allowing for enterprisewide travel expense data capture for cost analysis and supplier negotiations.

Statistics:

  • Over 12,000 employees in more than 100 locations are covered by Perkin Elmer's Concur Expense solution.
  • The cost of obtaining the same information and making the same transactions through the General Motors employee portal is less than 5 cents per minute.
  • The cost of a telephone call to a General Motors call center is between $1.50 and $2 per minute.

Sources:

  • "General Motors revs up employee portal and slashes costs."
  • Perkin Elmer, Inc. Press Release