Concur Dominates in Travel Self-Booking and Expense Reporting

Providing front-end travel services for trip reservations and the back-end processing of completed expense reports is an increasingly common responsibility of Shared Services.  Not surprisingly, because frequent travelers include senior-level employees, investing in improvement solutions for the travel process can be a high priority, even if the actual dollar savings are difficult to quantify.  With so many solution provider options and a rapidly changing mix of features and functionality available, combined with a large number of marketing resources promoting the different alternatives, it can be difficult to identify key requirements and confidently make the right vendor selection.

Fortunately for members of Peeriosity, it is easy to get objective and unbiased feedback from peers who are interested in sharing their views and helping a colleague, with the option for participants to see the identity of others, with the ability to easily contact peers using Peer Mail^TM, an e-mail tool that is integrated into the Peeriosity solution.  For travel system providers, while there are subtleties to explore, research results ^[1] for both self-booking of travel and the processing of expense reports indicate that Concur Technologies (acquired by SAP in late 2014) is the dominant player.

Recently, the Global Travel Manager ^[2] at a member company used Peeriosity’s iPolling^TM to understand what systems other companies were using for online self-booking (i.e., travel reservations for airfare, hotels, and car rentals) and also for submitting and processing travel expenses.  The Peeriosity member used iPolling^TM to draft two questions that examined this issue.  Responses were posted in real-time, with visibility to company responses available to all Peeriosity members, allowing for direct communication with peers using Peeriosity’s integrated Peer Mail^TM capabilities.

The first poll question asked about the system used for reservations that were self-booked, where the traveler completed the reservation online without assistance from a travel professional.  To work, self-booking processes need to be simple and easy to navigate, with discounted fee options, company travel policies, and exception reporting capabilities seamlessly integrated as a part of the online solution.  Properly implemented, the process can be more efficient, less costly, and easier for the traveler compared to other approaches.

The iPolling^TM results indicate that 54% of member companies use Concur Travel, followed by American Express and Carson Wagonlit both at 21%, with Egencia (formerly Expedia Corporate Travel) at 4%.

The second poll question looked at the system used for processing the traveler’s expense report, with results indicating that at 67% of member companies the primary system is Concur.  Here are the details:

Unlike traditional benchmarking, Peeriosity’s iPolling^TM capabilities allow members to very quickly examine this issue in detail, providing a range of experiences and viewpoints that can be reviewed to develop an appropriate and workable answer.  Tapping into the experience of peers eliminates guesswork and allows members to quickly access the collective experiences of a large community of users who are facing the same challenges.

Here are a couple of the comments from responding companies:

• Concur Travel is currently used only by US and Canadian employees. Globally, each country has their own local procedures in place for travel booking, but as we wrap up our global implementation of Concur Expense, something we will look at is an expansion of Concur Travel.

• Concur Travel is the booking tool used in the U.S. and Mexico. In Europe, we use Egencia to book travel. We are in the process of expanding the footprint of Concur Expense and currently live in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Russia, Dubai, India, China, Thailand, Taiwan, France, and Italy.
  

What are the primary systems your company uses to for travel self-booking and for reporting travel expenses?

Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?

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 “iPolling^TM” is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from participating or accessing content. Members have full visibility to all respondents and their comments. Using Peeriosity’s integrated e-mail system, Peer Mail^TM, members can easily communicate at any time with others who participate in iPolling.