Kahler Slater is an architecture firm headquartered in Milwaukee, WI. With four key office locations and around 120 employees, the firm uses a performance-based design process grounded in research to make sure it achieves powerful results for its clients. The Kahler Slater team incorporates experts in the sports, wellness, hospitality, healthcare, higher education, corporate and residential arenas.

Evaluating the Challenges

As the firm was expanding its footprint with more offices and people working remotely, it needed an easy way for its employees to seek reimbursement. Previously, the firm was using an Excel spreadsheet to track expenses. The firm was trying to find a more sophisticated way to capture employee expenses, and in order to get a new method accepted, there needed to be buy-in across the company. The ultimate goal was to save time for everyone, including the accounting staff.

With the outdated system of using an Excel spreadsheet, the firm needed a better solution. The well-known and simple to use SAP Concur product provided the means to capture expenses with back-up images which could be available during the invoicing process. The next piece of the puzzle was to be able to seamlessly transfer the captured images from SAP Concur into the firm’s ERP system, Deltek Vision.

Resolving the Problems with Implementation and Integration

The first step in providing a more sophisticated capturing of expenses was the implementation and configuration of SAP Concur to work with Deltek Vision, the ERP used by the firm. Full Sail Partners served as a much-needed facilitator between the firm and the SAP Concur Implementation Manager during the implementation. With extensive knowledge of the Deltek Vision system and project-based firms, the Full Sail Partners’ team was able to keep the project on track by acting as a translator between the firm and the SAP Concur Implementation Manager interpreting the specific requirements needed for a project-based firm.

Once the SAP Concur software was configured properly with the assistance of the Full Sail Partners’ team, the integration of the Blackbox Connector for Concur and Deltek Vision was begun. The Blackbox Connector for SAP Concur and Deltek Vision allowed for the seamless transfer of the image expenses and details directly into Vision. So, now the more modern means of capturing expenses offered with SAP Concur had the ability to communicate directly with Vision.

Integration Using Blackbox Connector Saves Firm Time

No longer using an Excel spreadsheet for expenses, the menial task of double entry - once when the employee would enter the expense on the Excel spreadsheet, and then when accounting would enter it in Vision - became a thing of the past. The SAP Concur product provided an easy way for employees to enter their expenses with images attached. The Blackbox Connector for SAP Concur and Deltek Vision seamlessly transferred the data from SAP Concur directly to Vision.

The implementation of SAP Concur and the integration using the Blackbox Connector has saved this firm the most important resource of all, time. Utilizing the SAP Concur product and the Blackbox Connector, the accounting department now has gained back 10 hours per week. Both solutions also allow the firm to be more efficient and consistent with less errors.

Doubly Successful Outcome for this Professional Services Firm

Not only was Full Sail Partners able to help successfully implement and configure SAP Concur for Kahler Slater, the Blackbox Connector for SAP Concur and Deltek Vision provided the last piece to the puzzle of efficiently and effectively capturing expenses for Kahler Slater.

“I expected that the Blackbox Connector would save us time and tedious tasks. What surprised me was how helpful the Full Sail team was at moving our SAP Concur implementation forward. It’s unlikely that we would have had a successful execution if they were not part of the team,” noted Rhiannon Blawat.