For mutual U.S. clients of travel management company FCM
Travel Solutions and card provider AirPlus International, AirPlus data now flows
into FCM's ClientBank reporting platform. That allows mutual clients to
reconcile TMC bookings and payments in one place. Previously, travel managers
had to reconcile data from each source manually.
American Express Global Business Travel and American Express
similarly share data for reporting. Carlson Wagonlit Travel rolled out Travel
Consolidator in August, card and expense with travel data for consolidated reporting.
RELATED: AirPlus Now Feeds Central Billing Data into FCM's Reporting Tool
Data flows between FCM and AirPlus via SFTP, which stands
for SSH File Transfer Protocol, according to an FCM spokesperson. SSH refers to
Secure Shell, a protocol for a cryptographic network. All that science means
that any travel booked through FCM and purchased via AirPlus, including flight
origin and destination and traveler name, appear on a separate dashboard in
ClientBank. A client's broader ClientBank platform could be customized to
access some of the dashboard data.
The reporting is free and focuses on inconsistencies, such
as travel booked on FCM and paid for with another form of payment than AirPlus
or bookings made elsewhere and paid for via AirPlus.
"In addition to reconciling spending with greater
speed, this also puts a greater spotlight on people booking outside of policy,
being able to identify and address issues with greater accuracy and faster
reaction time," said FCM senior commercial director Nicholas Kropelin.
Spotting fraud also is faster.
FCM and AirPlus plan to expand the capabilities to Canada
and Mexico in 2019.