Our Travel Evolution: Building the Travel Platform of the Future

At SAP Concur, we’ve been the leader in travel and expense (T&E) technology for a long time. We have the only truly integrated global T&E platform and Concur Travel is the largest online booking tool (OBT) for enterprise customers who need flexibility and help with compliance requirements. We give our customers unparalleled options: we are multi-TMC, multi-GDS, and multinational with the only integration to the world’s leading expense solution, Concur Expense. No one else can address the unmatched complexity of SAP Concur’s 50,000+ customers at global scale nor deliver the level of integration we do—including with over 700 partners in the SAP Concur partner ecosystem—which enables customers to maximize the value of their SAP Concur solutions.

A key priority for us is ensuring we are frequently meeting with customers, TMCs, suppliers, partners, and others in the industry to understand what their needs are and what we should be delivering. We’ve heard from customers and business travelers alike that change is in order, and we recognize that SAP Concur needs to continue to evolve. Those conversations, in addition to SAP’s ongoing commitment to innovation, led us to re-platform Concur Travel.

We are modernizing our entire platform and building in a way that's as flexible as possible so in the future, we can deliver the best experiences and accommodate evolving requirements of customers, travel managers, sustainability leaders, and procurement professionals. Over the past two years, we hired more than 200 incremental engineers and product managers to rebuild the global platform that will support future travel innovation and offer a completely new look and feel for a seamless travel booking experience. This endeavor is one of the most significant development investments ever made in the history of SAP Concur.

Car rental, hotel, and air booking experiences

SAP Concur will begin rolling out a new car rental experience by the end of 2022. We’re upgrading the user experience (UX) and driving process efficiencies through improved error avoidance while adding new ways to explore car rental options across suppliers both on-airport and off-airport. Our fourth annual SAP Concur Global Business Travel Survey of 3,850 global business travelers across 25 markets found that almost all business travelers (94%) plan to take steps over the next 12 months to reduce the environmental impact of their business travel. We agree – and we are committed to building solutions for more sustainable travel. In addition to hybrid and electric search filter capabilities, we’re also providing guidance on vehicle emissions to give business travelers more control over the environmental impact of their trip.

Our brand new, end-to-end hotel booking experience for Concur Travel will start rolling out in early 2023. SAP Concur users will enjoy an enhanced UX with features including better imagery and upgraded filtering and sorting capabilities.

By next year’s GBTA Convention 2023, we expect to begin introducing a new air experience, which will offer a revamped UX, enhanced content, and a better ability for travelers to compare amenities across products.

We will continue to build on the new rail experience that was launched last year, with plans to bring additional rail carriers across Europe and the US.

The travel platform of the future

Business travel needs to be more adaptable than ever. With the evolution of Concur Travel, we’re not just redesigning our corporate booking tool. We are building the travel platform of the future, across all travel products and partners.

It’s built from scratch using the latest in microservices technology, which allows Concur Travel to be even more scalable, reliable, and flexible. It enables us to efficiently deploy innovative features, launch the SAP Concur suite of travel products into the next generation, and deliver a streamlined ecosystem and platform that will enable an integrated, end-to-end travel experience regardless of whether users are on desktop or mobile.

These enhancements reflect SAP Concur’s commitment to making continuous investments in the future of travel that proactively anticipate customers’ needs. The evolution of Concur Travel will lead to a consumer-grade, intuitive and modern UX; even more relevant content; improved policy compliance capabilities; sustainable travel options; and intelligent integrations across SAP products.  

We are building a platform that meets the business travel needs of employees, customers, partners, and suppliers and we are incredibly proud of the work our team has accomplished to date. We look forward to showcasing examples of some of the new experiences at the SAP Concur booth #1929 at GBTA Convention 2022.

Charlie Sultan is President of Concur Travel