SutiSoft, Inc

Thursday, September 10. 2009

Has Turbulence Got You Grounded ?

As part of the FAA’s safety standards for commercial airliner certification, aircraft wings must withstand loads up to 1.5 times, or 150 percent, of the highest aerodynamic load that the jet could ever be expected to encounter. Anyone who has ever seen a television documentary or YouTube video of wing stress testing will know that it will take extreme or unrealistic turbulence before the wings are bound to snap into splintering pieces.

I spent almost a third of my life at United Airlines where I quickly learned that no amount of turbulence would refrain me from taking flight. I was there on the morning of September 11^th when I was called as an Emergency Responder to the scene of UA flight 93. I faced challenges with pilot slowdowns, flight attendant Union threats, Avian Influenza, Mad Cow Disease, $143 fuel barrel costs, you name it.

Despite the hassles and fears associated with air travel, business travel never seemed to cease. During the summer of 2007, I met Global Services customer and VP of Worldwide Sales at SutiSoft, Scott Zielinski, on a flight from SFO to NRT. This first encounter would prove to be an integral element toward the future state of my employment.

I am currently the Regional Sales Manager for SutiSoft, where my primary focus is placed on establishing a strong customer base and building business relationships across the marketplace. This responsibility comes naturally for me, having practiced for many years at United Airlines. However, I admit that I came with no prior experience or knowledge of IT. My only ties with the airlines and my current position are an understanding of how to talk to people and an understanding that simple solutions make happy customers. That includes internal customers.

As one of the U.S. legacy carriers, United Airlines is known for its strong network and route structure. I have always been entertained at how antiquated its system network was. There were many manual processes and paperwork involved, and makeshift Excel spreadsheets used for local scheduling purposes. Speaking of Excel, we were still using Excel to capture expense reports at United!

Of the suite of business solutions at SutiSoft, we are beginning to launch a name for ourselves in the travel marketplace with our online expense reporting software, SutiExpense™. The core of our value model is to be a trusted provider of Simple, Scalable, Seamless, and Secured enterprise/web-based solutions. Our low-cost expense solution will help drive a company toward attaining measurable ROI while reducing time-consuming redundancies and improving productivity. It’s all about cost-effectiveness and productivity these days.

While it may take several years to reach levels of pre-recession business travel, many companies predict to increase travel spend in 2010 from this year’s dismal lows. Getting a handle on T&E expenses is an inevitable objective. Research has shown that automating your T&E spend management will drive down costs and increase policy compliance. SutiSoft’s partnerships with Rearden Commerce, Egencia, and TripIt have enabled business travelers to leverage online technology and helped companies streamline their expense reporting processes by establishing an end-to-end architecture. One feature of SutiExpense™ is its open-source application, which allows direct integration with a booking tool of your choice as well as an interface with your existing financial system for easy reconciliation and timely payment of expenses.

Perhaps one of the most daunting tasks of travel is not the flight itself, but the completing and processing of expense reports. No matter the amount of challenges you face in the office or on the road, turbulence will eventually subside. SutiSoft is here for you to make your ride a little smoother.

Yasushi Kajita
SutiSoft, Inc

Posted by sutiman at 12:26

Last modified on 2010-03-01 19:58

Thursday, June 25. 2009

Looking In On The New TARP Regulations

After reading this week that the U.S. Treasury Department was publishing rules regarding meeting, event, incentive and travel expenses for companies that received TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funding, I waited to read the details before determining the efficacy of the policies when applied to the realities of business practices.

http://www.btnonline.com/businesstravelnews/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003984365

While I certainly wish to see taxpayer funds allocated and utilized wisely, I worry about bureaucratically imposed restrictions putting a crimp in the ability of organizations to accomplish their goals in the real world of doing business. There have undoubtedly been many instances of waste and excess by TARP recipients (as well as numerous organizations outside of the TARP realm), but travel and meeting expenses can provide opportunities which are crucial to accompishing goals, and are not to be lumped together as waste. The issue here is using wisdom in the allocation of funds within a budgetary and ROI framework, and the wisdom needs to be supported by a structure of policies. This gets complicated in large and complex organizational hierarchies, but the management of these myriad data flows can be handled with modern electronic expense reporting tools, such as SutiExpense offered by Sutisoft. I have heard of many very large organizations who are still approving expenses manually or through rudimentary and awkward spreadsheet or other formats. This not only introduces cost and time wasting in processing, but does not allow for seamless integration of expense policy compliance. If an employee is focusing on doing his job, and tries to book an expense which is questionable or an outright policy breach, SutiExpense can flag the problem in real-time and the activity can be brought into compliance before approval. The employee and the organization remain focused on achieving their goals, rather than wading through paperwork or playing phone tag while waiting to procede. Streamlining and assuring compliance to sensible expense policies using simple-to-use electronic tools is a cost-effective way of assuring that scarce funds are directed properly and can be easily tracked and analyzed for maximum efficiency.

Regardless of whether an organization is operating under duress-imposed conditions such as in the case of the TARP rules, or is practically printing money in their offices due to great business fortune, the need for T&E expenses continues as a fact of life. The human factor in conducting business will always necessitate travel and other person-to-person meetings and events. The human factor, when supported by (and not hindered by) well thought-out policies and well-designed technologies is a winning combination that will show up on the bottom line.

Posted by sutiman at 16:28

Last modified on 2010-03-01 19:59

Monday, September 8. 2008

Thoughts of Travel Today...

Thoughts of Travel Today…. Business Travel is becoming more and more a part of everyday life. We are armed with our Blackberry (www.rim.com) in one hand and our frequent flyers cards (www.united.com) in other hand ready to attack the lines, delay’s, snack boxes and the upgrade list.

I recently travel back to Chicago on United Airlines.. I booked my tickets with Trips and Travel (www.tripsandtravel.com) instead of going through the web… I still think the travel agent works better for me and they always find the cheapest airfare… That’s me….Some of the online tools are becoming to difficult to manage unlike our (www.sutisoft.com/sutiexpense.htm) expense tool which is simple and easy to use.

You know your trip is going to go bad as soon as you get to the airport and they have had a change of aircraft and your seat is no longer a good seat… What a mess!! I was in first class but now in the back of the bus even though I have Global Services Status with United (www.united.com). Oh Well, the snack box was at least good.

I recently saw a memo from United Airlines about how they wanted to start charging customers for food in coach on International flights from the US to Europe… They have decided to change that due to VOC/VOP from their Frequent Flyers. Who is coming up with these ideas? Someone who does not travel?

Also, starting October 1, 2008 they will (www.United.com) begin to only serve sandwiches and drinks in First Class on domestic travel except on PS designate flights. What is next on the list to go?

The only nice thing about traveling today is not traveling.