There’s no question that the realm of complex spend management has evolved in recent years, with categories such as business travel (and expense management) and corporate meetings and events not only drawing more financial attention due to increasing budget, but also the “reach” of these categories across the contemporary enterprise. The world of business travel and expense management is one that has consistently undergone a strategic evolution from less of a back-office mentality to one that is at front and center with other key corporate initiatives.
The contemporary enterprise is now focused on “maximum spend capture,” a concept that entails a collaborative, strategic link between finance and procurement. This notion was developed to ensure that every dollar going out the door is not only captured (via automated spend management or category-specific technology), but accounted for in financial planning, budgeting and forecasting.
Yes, the role of “Big Data” is clearly apparent here. And Concur (Nasdaq: CNQR), provider of travel-booking, expense management, invoice automation and spend management technology, realizes that the modern business traveler has myriad booking options. The solution provider has just announced a partnership with Airbnb and another one with Uber, two non-traditional booking platforms that give users cost-effective options for lodging and ground transportation, to effectively help its users gain visibility and access to data regarding spend that occurs outside of a preferred supplier network.
This announcement means two things:
- The travel / expense management industry has truly reached a point where the advancements made in the consumer marketplace (i.e., direct access to cost-effective bookings) are now reflected in the business world, and;
- From a financial management perspective, Concur understands that in order to capture the totality of enterprise spend, it must leverage its technology to address the avenues of that spend…including the fresh, new options that are available to business travelers.
The travel/expense management technology market has certainly undergone a progression over the past few years, as providers in this space seek to extend the “reach” of their platforms to capture spend outside of “classic” business travel areas (airfare, meals, lodging, transportation, etc.). In fact, at Concur’s Fusion event in New Orleans (which Ardent’s analyst team attended), it was said that one of the solution’s focal areas was to be a provider that could effectively capture all enterprise spend…not just that in the traditional T&E realm.
Airbnb and Uber represent two new options for all travelers (not just business travelers), each presenting a mobile-based option to book lodging and ground transportation. These new partnerships with Concur prove that the modern financial management executive just doesn’t want to have visibility into spend that occurs outside of the program…he or she requires that visibility to paint a vivid picture of total corporate spend. Every executive that holds responsibility into managing T&E spend understands that it is nearly impossible to drive 100% policy compliance across the organization. This announcement is a true reflection of the idea that while it may be impossible to influence all business traveler behavior, it is not impossible to capture spend around booking options that have traditionally fallen outside of the program.
Both Airbnb and Uber will be extentions of Concur’s cloud-based platform, and it was also announced that a three-way integration will be released in the fall with American Express (NYSE: AXP), which will allow users of its corporate card to capture Uber receipts within the Concur tool for real-time spend visibility.
