The Global Business Travel Association’s GBTA Convention 2017 is now taking place at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center through July 19. Here’s a look at the latest product updates from the event.
Travelport’s New Trip Assist
Travelport has announced the launch of a new mobile product for TMCs and travel agencies, Travelport Trip Assist. The new product aims to help agencies by providing mobile travel capabilities like flexible itinerary management, real-time communications and day of travel assistance. TripAssist provides:
- Personal digital travel concierge service
- Smart itinerary management
- Day of travel assistance
- Push-notification reminders
- Real-time alters
- The ability to call an agent from within the app
Trip Assist also incorporates Travelport Engage, a flexible mobile messaging tool which delivers personalized travel updates during and after every trip.
Egencia Launches Egencia Expense
At the event Egencia, the business travel arm of the Expedia group, launched its new Egencia Expense expense management suite.
Developed in partnership with expense software provider Chrome River, Egencia Expense uses one log-in and data source for all expense-related tasks. The solution is built around the Egencia Open Connect Platform, which Egencia said it designed to open up the market to any expense provider by simplifying data transfers between partners. Along with Chrome River, 29 partners have signed up, including Microsoft, Coupa, MobileXpense and Expensify.
New Features From Concur
Concur Travel also announced a number of new features for booking and managing travel, including new TripLink supplier connections, virtual cards and increased branded fare content.
Most recently, Concur signed agreements with British Airways, Iberia and WestJet to enable mutual customers to capture business travel bookings made directly on their websites. The virtual cards will be powered by Conferma for users booking hotel accommodations via GDS. By providing a unique payment number for each hotel transaction, virtual cards give travel managers more immediate visibility and control of hotel spend, and reduce the chance of credit card fraud, Concur said. Concur said it plans to offer the ability to pay for other expenses and establish additional virtual card partnership to more customers over time. The new branded fares include content from American Airlines, Delta, Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand (within New Zealand) and more.
Concur also announced the new Concur Locate and Active Monitoring services, which aim to help businesses monitor risks and quickly identify where all their travelers are in times of crisis. Real-time reporting makes it possible for travel managers to share comprehensive snapshots with business leaders within minutes, Concur said.
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