Amex, FCm Relaunching Small, Midsize Offerings

American Express Business Travel and FCm Travel Solutions coincidentally are relaunching separate service offerings to small and medium enterprises this week under unified multinational branding. Amex is repackaging its SME services starting Tuesday under the name AXcentis in the United States, Canada and Australia and AXcent in the United Kingdom, France and Nordic region. FCm's SME business has been rebranded under the name Corporate Traveller, launching today in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, with the United Kingdom to follow next week.

Amex has run dedicated small and medium enterprises divisions in various markets for a decade or more, most notably under the name American Express One in the United States and United Kingdom. Kaveh Atrak, who assumed the role of U.K. general manager for Amex last month, said the AXcentis and AXcent brands will be replace American Express One.

Atrak said all AXcentis and AXcent customers would be served from call centers in their own countries by teams of no more than eight reservations personnel to ensure the service is "localized and personalized." He also claimed that Amex has succeeded in securing more and deeper discounts from suppliers to pass on to its SME clients.

Perhaps most distinctively, Amex will make many technology tools used regularly by its larger clients available to customers of AXcentis and AXcent. These include automated pre-trip authorization and auditing, meetings management and security-related traveler tracking.

"SMEs are the market which will really spearhead the economic revival," said Atrak. "This is a really big thing for us. We are putting a lot into this."

Atrak confirmed that Amex is recruiting additional staff for AXcentis and AXcent, but declined to reveal numbers. Andrew McGraw, senior vice president for global sales, is leading the sales effort worldwide, but account management will be handled locally.

FCm, meanwhile, is hiving off its SME clients under the name Corporate Traveller, the brand used by Australian parent company Flight Centre for business travel activities until it expanded into the multinational market in 2004. Corporate Traveller will offer a generic booking tool and standardized reporting for a set transaction fee with no fixed contracts.

As is the case with AXcentis, it will serve both existing and new clients. In the United Kingdom, Corporate Traveller will handle all clients up to £1.5 million in spending. FCm said that clients below that level accounted for £150 million of its U.K. business last year, of which it claimed £60 million was signed in 2009. The company also said it hopes to launch Corporate Traveller in the United States in the next six to eight months.