CASE STUDY · INNOVEL PULSE
How Advanz Pharma rebuilt their Concur platform
After two acquisitions and global expansion, Concur had drifted away from how Advanz Pharma actually operated. A Pulse engagement uncovered what was broken – and unlocked over £100,000 in immediate value.
- Industry
- Pharmaceuticals
- Operations
- 22 countries
- End users
- ~750
- Concur since
- 2017
- Engagement
- Innovel Pulse (full assessment)
THE CHALLENGE
The drift problem
After two major acquisitions in 2020 and 2022, Advanz Pharma had grown from a UK-and-India deployment to a global operation across 22 countries and ~750 end users. Concur had been running since 2017 – but the platform hadn't kept pace with the business's transformation.
Country audits were surfacing non-compliance issues. Financial postings into S/4HANA were failing. The end-user experience had grown overcomplicated, with multiple expense types for everyday categories like lunch. Manual workarounds had quietly become routine. The treasury team had no strong framework to reference when questioning employees' claims.
Cracks were appearing in our system for a number of years before I joined the company in 2023. By 2024, I started leading the project to do a deep dive into what was happening – it was evident at that point that we needed to understand what was going on.
THE ENGAGEMENT
Starting with the business, not the system
Amy engaged Innovel for a Pulse initiative – the company's structured assessment service for organisations whose Concur platform may have drifted from how the business now operates.
The engagement opened with business discovery across stakeholders in finance, treasury, tax, HR, and healthcare compliance – not with system audit. Innovel then mapped findings against six core areas (compliance, user experience, growth, integration, reporting, and ROI), using a traffic-light RAG scorecard.
The result: a clear picture of where the platform was performing well, where the risk sat, and what to do about it.
I don't think I'll ever forget the day when I saw the scorecard. It was far worse than I ever thought it would be. I immediately shared that report with my CFO and he read it from cover to cover that night.
THE FINDINGS
What the scorecard surfaced
0
active expense types
The team believed they had 81. The scorecard surfaced the true number – an operational drift no one had previously visualised.
0%
VAT configuration activated
A standard Concur capability that had simply never been switched on, costing the business reclaim opportunities across multiple jurisdictions.
S/4HANA
postings failing, masked by workarounds
Financial postings into the company's S/4HANA finance system had been failing, hidden by manual workarounds that had become normalised over time.
QUICK WIN
£100,000+
unlocked in VAT reclaims alone
“The value of our reclaims was upwards of £100,000. That really helped offset the cost of the project and strengthen our business case with the leadership team.”
Once the scorecard surfaced that VAT configuration had never been activated, Advanz engaged a VAT specialist to begin historical reclaim. The figure recovered more than offset the Pulse engagement cost – a tangible early win that strengthened the case for the wider rebuild.
THE OUTCOME
Rebuilding rather than replacing
Rather than re-implement Concur from scratch, Advanz rebuilt their existing platform – modernising it to match how the business actually operates today. Simplified expense workflow. Activated VAT configuration. Connected SAP Concur to SAP SuccessFactors so HR data flows automatically. A renewed expense policy with the previous loopholes closed.
A six-week reconfiguration window managed through a global communications plan. The system was offline for that period only, while the new configuration deployed into production.
It's really given everybody renewed confidence in the system. My only regret? I would have done it sooner.
WONDERING IF YOUR CONCUR HAS DRIFTED?
Talk to us about a Pulse engagement
If your business has evolved since your original Concur implementation – through acquisition, market expansion, policy change, or operational change – a Pulse engagement is the structured way to assess whether your platform is still fit for purpose. Most engagements complete in 6–8 weeks; a focused Pulse Light option completes in 3–4.