The demand for consumer-grade
products in expenses reflects the growth in traveller-centric policies and with that, increased adoption of the shared economy. “Clients who previ- ously restricted employees to choosing from a limited number of T&E sup- pliers are now enabling them to book an Airbnb apartment or an Uber car, as long as the conditions of their T&E policy are met,” says Melissa Gargaglia- no, head of EMEA commercial cards at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “Bank of America has incorporated a number of such suppliers within its T&E policy. Employees are satisfied with the flexibility this brings and it reduces the travel cost for the firm.”
MOBILE WALLETS According to the GBTA Business Traveller Sentiment Index Global Report, published in January 2017 in partner- ship with American Express, the use of mobile wallets tied to a corporate card rose from 12 per cent in June 2016 to 14 per cent in January 2017, and 49 per cent of travellers employ mobile devices daily to check expenses. “As business travellers increasingly look to use the same technology for business as they are accus- tomed to in their personal lives, we have introduced products and services to align with their expecta- tions,” says American Express vice-president Mike Larocque. Amex Pay enables corporate card- holders to use their Android mobile phones to make a contactless payment in two steps via the Amex app, which lets people manage their account on the move. “We also offer access to TripCase, which gathers travel itineraries into one place, enabling travellers to manage everything from their phone,” he says. Amex also introduced Apple Pay for UK corporate customers last year. Following the retail model, when in doubt about how something should be implemented, Traveldoo has initiated ‘A/B testing’ – comparing tests with two variants – with control groups, to see which way works best. “We used to benchmark against the business tool competition, and now we look at what consumers and Airbnbs and Ubers are doing,” says Traveldoo chief product officer Daniel Fitzgerald.
In association with
A further example is the use of pop-up boxes to gauge customer satisfaction at the end of the experi- ence, when consumers tap on a smiley (or gloomy) face or a number of stars. “That’s powerful for the company because they can see which ap- plications worked and which didn’t. And we’re introduc- ing that into our business application,” he says. “The Holy Grail in expenses is the ‘nothing to do’ expense claim,” says Fitzgerald. “Airbnb and Uber try to work out what you are wanting to do and give you that immediately. That’s the direction we’re going and we are rebuilding our mobile app to orien- tate it around the user on their trip.” But expense management tools are
reminiscent of Excel spreadsheets. “You used to fill up rows in Excel, print it out and staple receipts to it,” says Egencia senior director Jean Noel Lau Keng Lun. “Now, you fill in rows on a website, scan in your receipts and attach them to your expense claims.” To address this paradox, Egencia is
or publish it to their expense system,” says Lau Keng Lun. The system automatically links charges to receipts photographed on the Egencia app. Eventually, Egencia Integrated Travel and Expense will create an end-to- end service that captures booking, fulfilment and expense, initially with sister company Traveldoo and then with other expense management systems. As Lau Keng Lun points out, Uber and Lyft did not
create a new product, they revo- lutionised the whole experience, making it easier to book, knowing when the car will arrive, removing the need to say where you are going and the hassle of paying afterwards. “That explains what we are solving in our new expense offering. We are piloting it with a few customers, but it is still early days,” he says.
A leader in the EMS field for grasp- ing the consumer nettle is Concur, which has acquired travel search engine Hipmunk, booking tool Tripit, developed Expenseit, invested in Cleartrip, extended its partnership
“This technology is available in our personal lives so why can’t we have it in business? An expense tool allows the traveller to get reimbursed quickly and for finance to know what the balance sheet position is”
launching a consumer-style expense management system, Egencia Open Sync. “Most people are using their personal or corporate credit cards to pay for out-of-pocket expenses, and you can get the details from a card transaction list,” he says. Travellers will link their personal or corporate card to the Egencia system to capture spend, regardless of where it is booked. He adds that travellers usually think about expense claims in terms of their actions: ‘I bought a meal at the airport on my way to London’. “So we will allow them while travelling to download automatically the items they have incurred during that trip and select those they will claim. That data is already flagged as their trip to London and they can either print it out in Excel
with Rocketrip and launched an App Centre. Integrate your calendar into Hipmunk technology and it responds to entries with suggestions for flights, hotels and car rental in the destina- tions you are visiting. “Its technol- ogy strengthens our ability to apply consumer-style tools to the business world and we will start seeing that kind of technology within the Concur booking tool,” says managing director of UK enterprise Chris Baker. ExpenseIt allows travellers to hover their phone over a receipt to capture and read the data, which pre-populates their expense form; TripIt is an online booking tool and travel organiser with services that include updates on flight status direct to a mobile; Rocketrip
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