Products and innovations ■


Amon Cohen


What’s new?


Innovations are helping travel managers meet vital strategic ambitions


N 30


ot everything in life can be sexy. Sewage farms, shovels and the Lord Chief Justice are just three examples that spring to mind. And yet,


unglamorous as this trio may be, one wouldn’t wish to be without them. Much the same may be said for commercial payments, though even in this important but staid sector some products set the pulse racing faster than others. Virtual and mobile pay- ments currently command the most attention, and they receive special coverage elsewhere in this supplement (p14). But payment providers are investing in plenty of other enhance- ments and innovations which, though not life-changing in their own right, cumulatively help travel managers to meet vital strategic ambitions such as driving administrative efficiencies, improving visibility of spend and exert- ing greater (though less heavy-handed) control over their travellers.


BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2017


New services from payment providers


have focused on three main areas of improvement: digitisation of services, better management information and making corporate payment more acces- sible. Here is a look at each of them.


DIGITISATION We may be well into the 21st century, but a surprising number of commercial card services still involve reams of paper or, at best, emailed requests instead of on-demand computer, let alone mobile, access. Recent innova- tions by issuers aim to change all that. Digital service starts with issuing


cards to new cardholders – or ‘onboard- ing’, to use the regrettable jargon favoured by suppliers in this sector. This supplement reported last year that Airplus International had introduced an online card application and ap- proval process in the UK. “It has been a phenomenal success and now we are looking to roll it out in Germany,


too,” says UK managing director Carrie Haywood. “You need to look at how you can improve the minutiae of people’s everyday lives.” Haywood adds that recent tweaks made by Airplus include the ability for managers to upload card applications in bulk. Barclaycard has also introduced


online ‘onboarding’ and later this year will commence online issuance of card personal identification numbers, something already launched by both Airplus and Citi. Online PINs allow cardholders to start spending straight


“New digital services from issuers include ‘onboarding’ cards, transaction alerts and smart statements”


In association with


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