Ramp, the Corporate Card Startup, Integrates Seamlessly with Microsoft Teams and 365 Copilot for Enhanced Productivity

Ramp, the innovative corporate credit card and expense management software startup with major clients like Shopify, is enhancing the experience for customers using Microsoft products.

At Microsoft's Ignite 2023 event, Ramp introduced its integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot, the AI assistant featured in the Windows 11 operating system. Ramp proudly claims the title of the "first financial software partner for Copilot."

The Ramp integration is designed for Microsoft Teams, functioning as a bot labeled "Ramp," akin to another user but powered by AI.

“It brings your expense workflows and finance-related conversations directly into Teams,” stated Ramp co-founder and CEO Eric Glyman during a media interview.

This integration primarily benefits users in expense and accounting departments, although any employee authorized by Ramp account administrators can pose questions to the Ramp bot within Teams. For instance, Glyman mentioned that an accountant can prompt Teams to notify all Ramp users who have yet to submit their receipts or expenses by month-end.

“With a simple command, they can manage this process through Microsoft Teams,” Glyman added.

If all employees have access to Ramp, they can also ask more general questions about the company's expense policy. Glyman noted that employees can easily inquire whether a specific purchase complies with policy rather than sifting through a lengthy document.

The motivation behind this integration stemmed from the realization that "so much work happens through chat, and through Teams.” Now, employees using Microsoft Teams, even on mobile, can effortlessly access expense-related information and receive instant answers from a knowledgeable AI assistant.

Glyman emphasized that the Ramp integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot is available to all users, including those on the free plan. Ramp generates revenue through merchant fees on its corporate credit cards.

The integration is expected to alleviate the burden on expense and accounting departments by providing immediate responses to employee queries, thereby improving response times compared to traditional email communication.

Additionally, the Ramp bot within Teams supports interactive actions like approvals, which can be set up by Ramp customer administrators. If an employee requests expense approval, the bot verifies compliance with company policy and can authorize it directly in Teams. All interactions are seamlessly recorded in Ramp’s expense management software.

“It integrates back into Ramp’s interface and reflects changes there,” Glyman explained.

The bot also accommodates multi-user chats, allowing multiple employees to engage with it simultaneously.

Glyman shared that the decision to pursue this AI-enabled integration stemmed from a previous successful collaboration that allowed receipt forwarding from Microsoft Outlook to Ramp’s platform, which was well-received by joint customers.

“When the opportunity arose to integrate with the Copilot ecosystem, we were thrilled because it presents a seamless way to extend Ramp’s capabilities into users’ daily workflows,” Glyman mentioned.

This new Microsoft 365 Copilot integration is now live for all existing Ramp customers.