Concur Unveils New Innovations to Its Corporate Travel Booking Tool
GBTA Convention attendees will see new Open Booking options and global travel features designed to delight travelers
REDMOND, Wash. - Concur®, a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions (NASDAQ: CNQR), will preview Concur Open Booking, as well as a number of new features for its popular corporate booking solution at GBTA 2012 Convention in Boston. As business travelers book outside a corporate travel tool due to convenience or cheaper travel options, companies face a growing issue of capturing spend that happens outside of the corporate travel program. The new innovations from Concur give business travelers more choice and flexibility while helping their organizations to better ensure that policies are being followed, deliver enhanced duty of care and provide better visibility into travel spend. GBTA Convention attendees can check out these latest Concur innovations at booth # 1724.
Concur Open Booking Balances Compliance and Choice Concur Open Booking is the corporate travel option that extends the innovations previously available through Concur's connection with TripIt, and addresses the existing problem of hotel and rental car program leakage. With Open Booking, business travelers can book hotels and rental cars outside Concur and the TMC, obtain their corporate negotiated rates and still bring all travel transaction data back into Concur for a complete itinerary and total visibility by the traveler, travel manager, and TMC. With Concur Open Booking and Concur Locate & Alert, companies can ensure that wherever travelers book travel, their locations are tracked and assistance can be provided if needed. New innovations to support Concur Open Booking include:
- Direct Supplier Integration - Business travelers will be able to link
their Concur profile with their loyalty accounts from participating
hotels and car rental companies, automatically access their corporate
discount and book directly on participating supplier websites and still
have all their travel details easily accessible from Concur's mobile app
or online with two-way itinerary exchange between the suppliers and
Concur. E-receipts will automatically pre-populate the expense report
eliminating work for the traveler. Travelers with linked Concur and
TripIt profiles will also have all itinerary details plus maps,
directions and more in TripIt. Avis Car Rental, Best Western
International, Choice Hotels International, Inc., Hertz,
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), La Quinta Inns & Suites, Marriott
International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. plan to
participate in Concur Open Booking.
- Itinerary Integration - Concur has included the email parsing technology
from TripIt inside the Concur application, so that travelers and
arrangers can build a single consolidated itinerary combining
traditional GDS and Direct Connect bookings with travel booked outside
of Concur. Travelers can now forward travel confirmation emails from
travel suppliers to plans@concur.com. Concur will create an expense
report based on the consolidated itinerary with click of a button.
- Other New Tools to View Travelers' Trips - Concur will release Concur
Open Agent for the web to empower clients and TMCs to view the full
content of an itinerary and traveler profiles from within Concur Travel
or Concur Travel & Expense. In addition, TMCs and Concur partners can
access an itinerary web service through Concur's T&E Cloud to
programmatically access and update full itinerary content.
New Innovations Improve Traveler Experiences Concur continues to enhance its corporate travel booking tool to improve the travel booking experience and to offer more global content. New features and capabilities to Concur Travel include:
- New Hotel Recommendations - Leveraging big data from travel transactions
of over 18 million travelers, Concur now provides personalized hotel
recommendations for travelers based on the traveler's past trips and
preferences in accordance with their company's travel policy.
- Concur Connect Platform Access to Hotel Content - Through the Concur
Connect platform, Concur now provides suppliers with an API based on the
Open Travel Alliance hotel specification to allow them to make their
content available to Concur clients. Cleartrip, India's leading online
travel portal, has announced its intent to support the Concur Connect
Platform and make its market-leading Indian hotel content available to
Concur clients directly through Concur Travel.
- Better Rail Experience for Deutsche Bahn Users - Travelers in Germany
can now compare air and rail pricing side-by-side, while still
completing their purchase on the Bahn.de web site. Travelers can view
prices within Concur and travel managers can set policies about when air
and rail are each appropriate, while still retaining the convenience of
booking directly on the familiar Deutsche Bahn website.
About Concur
Concur is a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions. Concur's easy-to-use Web-based and mobile solutions help companies and their employees control costs and save time. Concur Connect is the platform that enables the entire travel and expense ecosystem of customers, suppliers, and solution partners to access and extend Concur's T&E cloud. Concur's systems adapt to individual employee preferences and scale to meet the needs of companies from small to large. Learn more at www.concur.com.
SOURCE
Concur
Web Site: www.concur.com
