This summer, Concur Risk Messaging will integrate with
Concur's T&E platform and add more data feeds. So do these changes undercut
travel management companies' full-service angle, or do they enhance TMCs'
offerings?
"The travel security space ... is yet another
client-service platform or technology that [Concur] can deliver," said
Partnership Travel Consulting CEO Andy Menkes. "Other than being able to
issue a ticket, [this] brings [Concur] closer to being a direct competitor of
the TMCs."
TMCs, however, may see Concur's offering as another tool
they can offer their clients. Fox World Travel, a Concur preferred TMC partner,
has resold Concur Risk Messaging for the past two years, but it also resells
other tools. It partners with iJet, International ISOS and translation app
TripLingo, said Fox World Travel chief information officer Beth Marino. Fox
also has a Global Watch Team of 125 employees that's on call 24/7 to help
contact clients and travelers when emergencies happen. "[Concur Risk
Messaging] will be a good fit for a lot of customers, but there will be other
products that will be good fits for customers, as well," she said. "In
some scenarios, [Concur Risk Messaging] will be used in addition to other
providers."
TMCs Versus Concur
Through partnerships with iJet, ISOS and the like, TMCs can
offer travel risk management solutions with incident alerts, mobile check-in,
mobile messaging, traveler tracking and monitoring for events that can disrupt
trips.
The existing Concur Risk Messaging tool enables corporations
to manage communication directly with travelers. When the enhancements launch,
it will offer integrated tools and services similar to a TMC's risk management
suite if you include Concur Active Monitoring, in which HX Global will reach
out to travelers during on-the-ground incidents. That service comes at an
additional fee for the corporate client, and a corporation's TMC must be
involved, according to HX Global VP of security for the Americas Tim Crockett.
So with this offering, Concur hosts the travel manager's user interface but
does not replace the TMC's or HX Global's services.
Gant Travel resells Concur Risk Messaging and is working on
a partnership with HX Global so mutual clients can take advantage of the HX
Global aspect. Gant Travel CEO Patrick Linnihan said, Concur is "using
multiple data [feeds] … to tell HX
Global and the call center, 'Here's who replied to Concur Risk Messaging and
who hasn't.' ... When that [travel manager] wakes up and sees [there's been a]
bombing or earthquake, HX Global has a way to tell the travel manager 'I've
reached all except for this one.'" For clients that don't use Concur Risk
Messaging, Gant uses booking data to tell them who is in a danger area,
Linnihan said, "but we don't have the resources to reach every single one
of them." A partnership with HX Global will fill that gap, he said.
Concur's Advantage
Technically, Marino said, "Concur Risk Messaging is
unique in that you don't have to be a Concur user to utilize it, as all of
Concur's products stand on their own feet." Not being a Concur user,
however, significantly reduces the value that lies in the number of Concur data
streams that Risk Messaging brings together.
Even without the HX Global Active Monitoring, there's value
in Concur Risk Messaging's data feeds from TripLink, TripIt, expense and credit
cards—data feeds that TMCs don't typically get. "TMCs do have solutions
for risk messaging … but you're not going to get 100 percent of travel
bookings," said Gartner research director Chris Pang. "From that
perspective, [Concur's tool] is slightly more competitive."
Most companies aim to gain spend visibility by increasing
hotel attachment through their TMCs, but that's not the answer to duty of care,
said Travel Tech Consulting's Norm Rose. One of Concur's missions is to capture
off-channel bookings. Through Concur's TripLink, direct connections to 10
suppliers record off-channel bookings. Fourteen more suppliers are connecting
to TripLink this year. Concur's partnership with Rocketrip also can bring in
off-channel bookings.
Other providers also are attempting to capture off-channel
bookings. Travelers can forward travel confirmations to iJet's Trip Sync for
upload to their iJet profiles. And Traxo Connect gathers on- and off-channel
bookings from confirmations forwarded by travelers and from TMC and booking
tool data feeds. Traxo also connects with Lufthansa, and more suppliers are to
come, according to chief commercial officer Cara Whitehill. But again, without
an established platform to connect them, one-off solutions start to look like a
lot of integration work.
Rose said Concur Risk Messaging provides the three legs of
the travel risk management stool: security information, traveler location and a
communication method. "It doesn't mean there are no other alternatives
that a TMC can work with to try to do that," Rose said.
And there are limits to the service. For example, credit
card transactions usually feed into the expense system on a lag, according to
Pang. The frequency of that feed depends on the service level agreement between
the third party and the credit card company, he said, though he is not familiar
with Concur's card company agreements. "To be fair to Concur," he
said, "it's a good idea in concept—this is the first time any expense
management vendor has ventured into that space and used data for that
purpose—but in terms of making it completely real time, I don't think we're
quite there yet."
Perfection, however, need not be Concur's avenue
to market domination with travel risk management. Pragmatism with the quickly
expanding concept of end-to-end travel management is a more likely
route—leveraging previously dark data to advance its march. In an increasingly
fragmented market and an increasingly volatile world, Concur provides a salve
for a lot of pain points. Is it imperfect? A lot of clients will say it is.
Will it be good enough to solve a lot of problems for a lot of programs? The
market won't lie.