[UPDATE, Aug. 21, 2017: Concur plans in September to run virtual payment pilots with travel management companies that have gone through a “readiness” program. In an update for TMCs, Concur indicated that they must have a relationship with Conferma and support virtual payment for both Concur Travel and offline reservations. Concur also indicated that the next type of… Read More »
Much work is needed for email authorizations to supplant old-fangled faxes as the de facto standard for virtual card authorizations. That is, if the industry cannot first dispense with both. Conferma last month described its new encrypted email solution as a PCI-compliant “breakthrough.” The company says it is cheaper than sending faxes and approved by such banking partners… Read More »
[UPDATE, Oct. 9: Amadeus statement included. An Oct. 12 BCD Travel statement is here.] Travel and expense management providers don’t expect drastic changes in response to the European Court of Justice’s annulment of a key EU-U.S. data privacy accord. The data will still flow. But they’re attentive to these and similar developments, and thinking about where they may . . . For… Read More »
Hotel data normalization. Sounds deadly boring, right? Mention the concept to corporate travel people, and the feeling is more like frustration. Grasp Technologies is testing a remedy that executives claim could actually make the process a snap. They’re not the only ones. Cornerstone Information Systems also has something up its sleeve. Hotel booking data tends to be a… Read More »
Lufthansa Group on Tuesday said corporate clients could avoid its 16 euro surcharge for GDS bookings after September by using its websites. That’s not a genuine alternative. Without workarounds, direct airline booking requires users to jettison price comparisons and complex bookings. Companies would forego data reporting for policy and spend management, duty of care and CO2 tracking. For many, it means they’re not using their… Read More »
There are fewer big U.S. airlines, they negotiate with fewer companies, and their generosity on discounts has diminished. But airline contracting is still complicated. The market offers several tools to help buyers at large travel programs optimize airline combinations. Sabre last month revealed plans to refresh the Prism Avion corporate data platform in use by a handful of… Read More »
It seems that some corporate travel decision-makers are endlessly dissatisfied with data. It’s imperfect, dumped on them in buckets and hard to present to executives. Nowadays they want insights at the trip level. They want to identify policy violations before it’s too late. They want to take more immediate action on predicted outcomes. Using travel data for predictive… Read More »