Expense reporting provider DataBasics is partnering with online reservation tool developer NuTravel Technology Solutions to offer an integrated end-to-end expense reporting tool, the third such major offering put on the market this year, the companies announced last month.
The partnership combines DataBasics' ExpenSite reporting service with NuTravel's CTS booking tool to assist travel managers with budget control and corporate travelers by cutting down on required data entry. "The fit was really a nice one," said NuTravel president and CEO Carmine Carpanzano. "We both have the same ambitions in terms of growing our businesses and providing a robust, low-cost solution.
Integrating booking and expense tools has been a major trend in the industry this year, beginning with Concur Technologies' acquisition of Outtask's Cliqbook tool
(BTN, Feb. 6). French booking and expense reporting tool provider KDS launched a similar product this autumn
(BTN, Oct. 4).Demand for such a tool also is on the rise, as a recent Aberdeen Group study of 290 travel-related executives—sponsored by Concur, ExpensAble, Gelco Expense Management and Visa Commercial—showed 26 percent plan to adopt an end-to-end tool in the next two years.
DataBasics CEO Alan Tyson, however, said he intends to make his product stand out by continuing integration beyond booking. He wants the tool to be a tightly interwoven application that can take a unified approach to travel and expense management, allowing everyone's module to talk to everyone else's.
"We're not just having the prepopulation of forms, which is a fairly basic approach," Tyson said. "What we're talking about is integration at the level of data repositories and integration at the level of workflow, fully integrating travel so there aren't any more of these blind spots."
Tyson said he expects to have further integration abilities for DataBasics available by the end of the first quarter of 2007.
"This is a huge breakout opportunity for us," Tyson said. "We are great designers and great engineers, and those values are going to once more be at the forefront of what the market is looking for."