THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE I 39 The Review ➔ Conferma plays its cards right


IN THE poker game of virtual card technology, travel and expense reconciliation and settlement technology provider Conferma is playing for a full house, writes Mike Swindell. As the leading enabler of virtual


cards within the travel industry, Conferma has already stacked Barclaycard, MasterCard, AirPlus and American Express in its healthy-looking hand. The last big card it is playing


for is Visa – and according to Conferma's head of strategic partnerships, Paul Raymond, there has been good progress. "We are already working with


some of the Visa banks including HSBC and Barclaycard, and we are talking to partners in the Middle East and the US and anticipate making progress there in the not too distant future." MasterCard was the latest deal


to be put in place, with the Conferma T&E settlement and reconciliation technology available to banks utilising MasterCard's virtual card inControl solution from January. The importance of this agreement for MasterCard and others such as Barclaycard, AirPlus and American Express, is that Conferma offers them a route into the business travel buying process – for the moment, that's the hotel sector. By incorporating the major card companies' virtual card technology into Conferma's reconciliation solution, users are able to


THE TECHNOLOGY


generate a unique card number to track individual travel bookings, irrespective of the booking platform used. Each travel booking is charged


back to the virtual card by the travel supplier, triggering an automated payment and reconciliation process that accurately matches traveller and transaction activity to produce a transparent view of travel spend. For the travel industry, the benefit is a streamlined settlement and reconciliation process that


delivers a clear audit trail and, most importantly, automates the bill-back procedure. ATPI is a user of Conferma's technology that enables the use of virtual cards for the payment and reconciliation of hotel bookings and group finance director Ian Sinderson says it brings enormous efficacies and cost savings to the bill-back process. "Bill-back means that we, as the travel management


company, book and


“The benefit is a streamlined settlement and reconciliation process that delivers a clear audit trail”


pay for the hotel room before claiming that back from the client," says Sinderson. "This is becoming the preferred system for clients with a major hotel spend because it avoids the problem of travellers having to pay for their rooms and


then claiming back on expenses. Bill-back gives clients a far greater degree of control over the cost of hotel travel," he explains. The only problem with bill-back


is the administration a TMC needs to undertake to claim back the cost of hotels booked and paid for on behalf of clients. "Unless you have an automated system such as Conferma Virtual Card you have to do everything manually, which means having to 'resource-up' a lot and, given the


competitive nature of the business travel management industry, that means bill-back is a very difficult model to make profitable for your own business." Conferma's Raymond points


out further benefits that virtual card technology solutions offer TMCs and their clients. "One of the key things is security," he says. "Ours is a PCI compliant process so from a security point of view it is the highest level you can get. "We are also able to restrict the


type of spend that goes on a particular virtual card, making it available only for accommo- dation, for example." Raymond continues, "Further down the line, we will be able to restrict the amount of credit available on the card and make that card available for only a certain period of time – elements that will further enhance security." For the moment, Conferma's virtual card technology is available only for accommodation, but Raymond says it could apply equally well to other sectors such as low-cost flights. The technology is embedded


in Conferma's own-brand self- booking tool but can be used behind the scenes with other systems. The company has also just finished a successful UK pilot scheme as integrated technology in Sabre Red.


50 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE


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