EIU: Robust processes help US organizations growing out of the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic plunged the United States into recession, with national economic output falling by 3.4% in 2020, according to the IMF. Growth is now returning aided by a vaccination program that is picking up speed after a stumbling start. IMF projects the US economy will bounce back strongly to 4.3% growth in 2021 and 3.2% in 2022.

While the pandemic has hit US economy hard, the majority of US executives surveyed are upbeat about the financial outlook for their own organizations. According to a recent survey conducted by SAP Concur and The Economist Group in December 2020 and January, 72% of executives report positive financial expectations for the coming 12 months, although they are less optimistic about US and the global economy.

One explanation for this organization-specific optimism is that US executives have successfully risen to the challenges posed by the pandemic. These organizations specifically report strong performance in areas such as speed of business decision-making, use of data and analytics, operational agility, and visibility into employee and business spend. 78% of US executives say the pandemic has forced their organization to become more open to experimentation and quick shifts in strategy.

Moving toward growth is the number one overarching objective for US respondents. They believe further investments in efficient business processes will likely give a boost.

Robust travel, expense, and invoice solutions can help US organizations manage process-related costs – and risk and compliance- efficiently and so move more quickly toward growth. Some examples include: Enable near real-time visibility into spending to proactively track budgets and manage expenses Allow pre-authorization of proposed expenses before they happen, which give organizations greater visibility into future spend and reduce the unexpected costs Leverage AI and ML to minimize the processing time, increase spend compliance, and improve audit accuracy and efficiency Identify valuable cost-savings opportunities by optimizing tax efficiency

Download the report to learn more about how robust travel, expense, and invoice solutions can help US organizations grow out of the pandemic and back to the growth.