Embryon Drastically Improves Financial Operating Efficiency with J.P. Morgan's Single-Use Accounts

The competition in the medical communications field is fierce. Embryon, an independently owned company, is not immune to the ever-increasing pressure to deliver enhanced, cost-effective solutions to its clients. In response to this ongoing challenge, Embryon has created proprietary platforms to streamline its products and services, most notably its Speakers Bureau offering. These innovations resulted in sales levels that grew in excess of 75% in the 2004-2005 time frame. However, along with this success came yet another challenge. Embryon now needed to manage the Speakers Bureau credit card activity, a growing administrative and financial burden, with greater efficiency. They evaluated several solutions, ultimately selecting Single-Use Accounts from J.P. Morgan.

Eliminating Manual Processes

Embryon has complete financial responsibility over the Speakers Bureau programs for the majority of its clients. This includes honorarium, expense reimbursement, travel, audio/visual equipment rental, food and beverage, and payment for the hotels and restaurants where Speakers Bureau events are held.

Prior to deploying Single-Use Accounts, Embryon program coordinators would review their monthly credit card statements, which contained charges for multiple meetings, and manually enter all costs into EMMA, an internal Speakers Bureau database. This information would then be used to generate final client billings and meeting expense reports. The process was quickly becoming inefficient as Embryon began executing in excess of 70,000 programs annually.

"We needed a system that would eliminate our data-entry efforts, so we approached a number of large credit card providers", said Brian Clancey, Embryon's CFO. "Our partnership with J.P. Morgan not only achieved this objective, but provided what I consider to be a technical marvel in our industry: a unique credit card for each meeting expense!"

Single-Use Accounts — How It Works

J.P. Morgan developed Single-Use Accounts, a single-use credit card system, to meet Embryon's needs. Single-Use Accounts works by generating a new credit card number for each meeting expense (e.g., venue, travel, food and beverage) incurred by Embryon for a particular meeting.

When Embryon's program coordinators need to secure a venue, audiovisual equipment or other requirements for a meeting, they simply log onto EMMA, select the merchant and click on the Request Credit Card button. After the program coordinator enters the required credit limit and expiration date, EMMA sends a secure credit card request to J.P. Morgan, which instantly returns a unique credit card number.

This credit card number is automatically loaded into EMMA, and the program coordinator is empowered to use the virtual card to procure the goods or services. On the day of the program, the merchant charges the card for its services, and the following business day the transaction arrives at Embryon through a daily feed from J.P. Morgan. EMMA instantly imports the transactions from the feed, thereby eliminating the need for manual entry of individual transactions. When the Speakers Bureau meeting is finished and ready for financial reconciliation, EMMA interfaces with the J.P. Morgan system, and all open credit card numbers for the meeting are deactivated, minimizing opportunities for fraud.

The Winner — Embryon's Clients

• Significantly reduced management fees by maximizing operating efficiencies
• Speedy, automated project reconciliation and billing
• Greater program control and accurate and timely reporting
• Additional savings from increased credit card rebates due to faster payments

Contact your J.P. Morgan representative to learn more, or visit us at www.jpmorgan.com/commercialcard

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