Expense management tool supplier Etap-On-Line this week announced an agreement with online booking tool supplier GetThere to build an integrated booking and expense tool targeted toward European and multinational companies.
The Etap agreement is GetThere's first primarily European-focused move into the online booking-expense integration, according to a GetThere spokesperson. The two technology companies will have some joint technology development, but there will be no joint selling at this time, as GetThere has with other expense partners including IBM and SAP.
"The global recession has served as a tipping point for many corporations, with an increasing number of firms across Europe taking steps to implement automation across the entire travel chain," Etap managing director Pierre-Emmanuel Tetaz said in a statement.
Paris-based Etap's Ulysse Travel & Expenses tool has about 900,000 users, largely European or pan-European clients, and the company recently opened subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Canada as such companies as specialty chemical company Rhodia use the tool for global expense programs
(BTNonline, March 16). GetThere, part of Sabre Travel Network, provides service in about 60 countries.
GetThere and Etap's online booking and expense integration comes as competitors KDS and Concur already provide joint products. During Concur's second-quarter earnings call last month, chairman and CEO Steve Singh said, "We continue to focus on expanding our footprint in the European Union and in Asia-Pacific markets. With an emphasis on expanding distribution, marketing programs to support our sales initiatives, and investment in local product development and deployment resources. Over the past several quarters, the EU and Asia-Pacific markets had become meaningful contributors to new customer growth. Look for us to continue spending on investments in these markets."