The business unit of SAP that includes the software giant's Concur expense management system saw revenue tick down to €707 million in the first quarter of 2021, a 2 per cent year-over-year drop from Q1 2020, on a constant currency basis.
SAP's Intelligent Spend division houses Concur, along with the SAP Ariba procurement platform and the SAP Fieldglass workforce management system. Until the end of 2020, SAP reported financial results for Concur as a standalone segment but no longer does so as of the beginning of 2021. In Q4 2020—the final quarter for which Concur earnings were broken out separately—the segment saw a 15 per cent year-over-year decline.
During the company's quarterly earnings call Thursday, SAP CEO Christian Klein said Intelligent Spend performance was "still muted" by the downturn in corporate travel amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, but expressed confidence that "once travel returns, we expect Concur to rebound significantly."
The downward pressure on Concur-related earnings was counteracted by strong growth in SAP's other business areas, including enterprise resource planning, digital supply chain and broader cloud solutions services, the company said. Total first-quarter revenue jumped 2 per cent year over year on a constant-currency basis, to €6.35 billion