Solution aims to address challenges in facilitating travel for non-employees
American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) announced the launch of a new platform to manage end-to-end guest travel and expense (T&E).
The new platform addresses challenges faced by businesses across multiple industries when facilitating travel and managing trip expenses on behalf of an individual who is not an employee of the organization. It is scalable and flexible to adapt to guest-specific needs as guest travel covers a wide range of use-cases — from recruitment and intern programs to independent contractors and business advisors. In an internal survey of 100 Amex GBT client managers, 87% responded that their customers do not have a streamlined or standard way across their business to manage non-employee travel and expense.
Evan Konwiser, chief product and strategy officer, said that for many companies the guest travel and expense experience is complex and messy for the people that manage it and an overlooked opportunity to make a good first impression for the people using it. The new platform, he said, solves for this by seamlessly integrating to simplify budgets and booking, expenses incurred on the trip and then reconciling it all on the back end with secure, flexible tech that can be used once or multiple times depending on need.
Key platform features include:
- Easy guest traveler booking and ability to seamlessly create events and invite guests
- Allows travelers to securely complete their own profiles and self-book through Amex GBT’s business travel marketplace
- 24/7 travel support
- AI powered technology that supports automatic receipt scanning and smart expense justification
- Near real time expense workflow with accrual and posting data to finance systems
- Option of a virtual card being issued to travelers to use as a payment method for travel booking and for on-trip expenses using the pre-defined budget set by the person requesting the travel
The platform is currently available to customers using Amex GBT’s Neo and Egencia solutions and is supported at the US point of sale.
