Managing expenses is one of the major challenges that medium scale enterprises face and this obstacle can be overcome with the assistance of effective payment instruments that helps maximize business savings and reduce costs, said Manoj Adlakha, General Manager and Vice President, Global Corporate Payments, American Express India, in an e-mail interview with SME Times.

When did you introduce the corporate card program in India?

Manoj Adlakha: The corporate card program for mid-market corporations was set up in 1998.

What are the features of the corporate card program and how does it help SMEs? Do companies and employees both draw benefits?

Manoj Adlakha: American Express helps mid-sized and large companies manage purchases of travel and entertainment ( T&E) and other business expenses such as office supplies and professional services. American Express defines

mid-size corporation as using a combination of number of travelers (2-100), business turn over (>5 -600 crore) and of course, size of Travel & Entertainment expense (upto Rs 10 crore)

 One of the challenges mid-size corporations face is managing expenses effectively and this obstacle can be overcome with the assistance of a payment instrument that consolidates all purchases onto one card, thereby cutting down multiple payment transactions and associated administrative time and cost. A mid- size corporation with an effective use of corporate card program can save  upto  9% on T&E expense, which has a direct impact on their bottom line.

A Corporate card program offers unique benefits specially designed to serving the needs of mid-size organizations and their employees:

Maximize business savings, reduce cost - Many mid-size corporations do not, on their own enjoy volume discounts for everyday business expenses and business travel and entertainment. Companies like American Express can leverage their brand, service capability and partnerships with vendors can help drive substantial savings for these mid-size corporations. This can be done by consolidating spends with select partners (hotel, airlines, car rentals etc) and using business-to-business suite of online expense management solutions that enable them to drive effective supplier strategies, monitor compliance and streamline business processes.

Liability options -The Corporate Card program provides various liability options as well as user defined spend controls and limits, that helps companies control their expenses and protect them against potential misuse of the card by their employees.

Insurance and Rewards- With the Corporate Card program, Card-members get comprehensive protection including Business Travel Accident Insurance and Travel inconvenience Insurance. This is not only a great benefit for employees but also is a great saving for corporations.

• With the Corporate Membership Rewards Programme Mid size corporations can convert regular expenses like airline tickets, hotel stays, purchasing office supplies and making vendor payments into rewards to drive tangible business benefits and savings. Companies can consolidate points from multiple Corporate Cards into a central account that allows them to redeem points from a variety of reward options.
• Through the membership reward program individual Cardmembers can not only earn reward points but also enjoy host of benefits like loyalty memberships, domestic and international airport lounge access etc.
  

Convenience for employees -Through the Corporate Card program, Cardmembers have the ease to manage their account online and get access to 24 hour emergency card replacement, Foreign currency exchange, Cash access and access to doctors and lawyers, basis their needs.

How can SMEs save costs by adopting a corporate card program?

Manoj Adlakha: As mentioned above, the corporate card program gives access to India's mid-size corporations to the kind of buying power that is usually only available to much larger corporations. Mid-size corporations by consolidating their spends with a few selected partners like hotels, airlines, car rentals can avail a range of  discounts that can work as direct savings on the company bottom line. For e.g. with the American Express Corporate Card a mid- size company can avail corporate rebate of up to 15% on total annual spends across all business properties of Taj Group of Hotels, discounted rate of 12.5% on car rentals with CarzonRent apart from other benefits.

What is the number of SMEs that have adopted this programme so far?

Manoj Adlakha We will like to point out that as a leading issues of corporate payment solutions, we serve more than 70% of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies globally, and tens of thousands of mid-size companies, across sectors worldwide.