Expense management ■
Catherine Chetwynd
motivates users to take a cheaper option on accommodation and split the saving with their company; and TripLingo is a cultural concierge that gives destination insights and useful phrases in the local lingo. “Airbnb is one of our fastest growing partners in bookings,” says Baker. “We are seeing groups of executives travel- ling together who book apartments on Airbnb. It saves their companies money and they are in a building with security, concierge etc, so there is perceived to be minimal risk.” In addition, “Uber and Starbucks connectivity are good examples of people’s use of our technology,” he says. “Starbucks is the most prolific business meeting place; it is the most popular line item on expense claims and cus- tomers get e-receipts automatically.”
INSTANT EXPENSES Meanwhile, Concur Expense for Outlook is being tested in the US and Canada, and allows users to send a business receipt from their inbox to Concur in one click – instant expensing. Airplus is developing a booking, billing and payment platform with Airbnb. “When we look for a partner, we want to be able to reduce cost and risk for the corporate or drive ad- ditional value. Airbnb gives both,” says Airplus UK managing director Caroline Haywood. Coming later this year is Airplus Connect, a transaction manage- ment mobile app giving an overview of Airplus card transactions. When it is integrated into expense management software, travellers can select transac- tions and transfer them into expenses in real-time, allowing them to do their expenses on the road. “We are working to enable our products on mobile devices, to give our customers more seamless, multi-channel payments,” says Haywood. “We have a mobile app but we are not integrated into any wallet. That is the next move.” Barclaycard is also examining digital innova- tion in payments. “Payment is the common thread as it brings everything together,” says head of product Maria Parpou. “We have invested heavily in the last two or three
34 BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2017
years in the ability to connect, either through APIs or by embedding corpo- rate cards into apps to capture spend, so that client administrators can look at spending reports or increase travellers’ limits on our online platforms. Our strategy is to embrace apps and offer the right tools to work with them. “The future of virtual cards is to be embedded in mobile wallets. This will allow companies to take up the prolif- eration of consumer apps in a controlled way. It will be very useful for transient workers or freelancers,” adds Parpou. Barclaycard will also link with
PAY NOW
wearable payment devices, which will increase the take-up of card payments; and is talking to many providers about integrating Barclaycard into their apps. Surcharges on credit card payments
“Consumer-style mobile apps
are completely revolutionising
expense management” The future
“We are beginning to see the emergence of bots or chatbots in other areas. The next wave is having embedded chatbots, so rather than speaking or typing requirements into a pre-defined window, it is a case of a text message application, using a collaboration platform such as Slack, and typing in a conversational style, ‘I want to go to LAX, give me flights on Tuesday’,” says Gartner’s Chris Pang. Meanwhile, Concur’s Chris Baker sees the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. “AI in booking tools will be looking for clues that I am about to do a business trip, knowing all my preferences, my company’s policies, and the best deals or itineraries to match what is in my diary. Over time, we will start seeing this technology emerge within the main Concur booking tool.” Traveldoo’s Daniel Fitzgerald forecasts potential in mobile, geo-location and pay technology: “We can reimagine these areas, not just improve them,” he says. There is also the unknown: “I few years ago, Airbnb, Uber, mytaxi, TripLingo, etc didn’t exist,” he says. “We will see companies that started in the consumer space offering products to business, perhaps through our app centre, and which we didn’t know about even a year before.”
In association with
are also catered for and Barclaycard’s lodge and virtual cards both offer a debit bin. Even given the forthcoming changes in legislation that remove these tariffs, Parpou thinks that where customers spend Ð400 or Ð500, suppliers will charge. “We have not seen the end of this yet,” she says. Not only is the customer king, but these days suppliers allow him to design his corporate throne and pay for it with ease.●
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