SAP Concur Doubles Down on Keeping Travelers Safe with Expanded Concur Locate Capabilities, Including Uber for Business Partnership, TripLink Expansion, and New TripIt Pro Features

Traveler safety is a growing concern in light of incidents like the shooting at a prominent Silicon Valley headquarters just down the road from my office. At the time, a faculty member with a U.S. research institution received a Concur Locate alert with information advising him to avoid traveling near the San Bruno campus. The organization’s travel manager quickly got in touch with the faculty member to ensure his safety and notify him of available resources, and he was fortunate to be kept safe. 

In this case, the organization’s travel risk management program worked exactly as it should, but not all organizations and travelers are so prepared. According to new GBTA Foundation research, more than one-third of travel managers don’t know how long it would take to locate employees during a crisis.

Here at SAP Concur, traveler safety is a priority, and we’re committed to empowering businesses and travelers to monitor risks and stay safe during times of crisis and uncertainty. Concur Locate with Active Monitoring uses SAP Concur data to help businesses quickly identify and locate employees who may be in the vicinity of an incident, and then communicate with them to determine if they need assistance. Today we’re pleased to announce several updates to our traveler safety suite of solutions that reinforce SAP Concur’s status as the industry’s most comprehensive traveler safety solution provider.

• Expanded employee location dataset, including Uber for Business. Concur Locate is adding API support, which allows SAP Concur ecosystem partners like Uber for Business to share information that can help quickly identify the location of travelers. Uber for Business is one of the first partners to utilize this integration and make business traveler coordinates available to Concur Locate. During an incident, the ability to pinpoint employee locations makes businesses that much more effective in helping them stay safe.
• More visibility into out-of-channel bookings as TripLink continues to grow. It used to be that all business travel was booked through a corporate booking tool, but the GBTA Foundation report found 15 fifteen percent of air travel and 37 percent of hotels are booked outside corporate booking channels. Without the ability to capture this information, businesses lack visibility, and their ability to ensure traveler safety is impacted. With TripLink, we help businesses protect travelers by giving visibility even if travelers book outside corporate booking channels. TripLink currently has 6.9 million registered users and 28 airlines, hotels, ground transportation providers, and more.
• New messaging capabilities with SAP Concur mobile app integration. Concur Locate messaging support is now available in the SAP Concur mobile app, the most deployed T&E app globally with millions of monthly users, making it possible for employees to receive and respond to Concur Locate security messages from within the app. Similarly, when an employee needs assistance or wants to communicate their location to their employer, they can check in via the SAP Concur mobile app. This expands the number of ways Concur Locate can communicate with employees to include SMS, e-mail, and the SAP Concur mobile app, which is important considering connectivity can vary based on location and incident.
• New TripIt Pro features arm travelers with important safety information. TripIt Pro, part of our TripLink offering, has new safety scores for neighborhoods around the world. The scores help travelers assess risks across a variety of categories such as physical harm, women’s safety, health and medical, political freedoms, and theft. In addition, TripIt Pro now offers important international information including embassy information, currency conversions, vaccinations, and more for 180 countries.  

The need for comprehensive traveler safety is growing: in the first half of this year, our Concur Locate customer base grew 122 percent year over year. Hearing stories where we’ve helped keep travelers safe – like the faculty member traveling near San Bruno – is what inspires us to continue innovating and expanding our capabilities.

If you’re at the GBTA Convention in San Diego this week, we hope you will swing by the SAP Concur booth to discuss traveler safety and the steps we’re taking to empower both businesses and travelers. You can also visit Uber’s blog to learn more about our expanded Uber for Business partnership.