Concur has partnered with Uber to expand their reach as the world’s leading provider of integrated travel ad expense management solutions. This first of its kind partnership would see Concur’s customer base the ability to realise significant cost savings on their ground transportation and gain visibility into their Uber usage while at the same time increasing travel productivity. The customers will have access to the Uber for Business feature for free, along with automated employee onboarding, policy controls, saving performance, and trip summary dashboards only available through the powerful combination of the two companies.

Concur focuses on cloud-based services that make it simple to manage travel and expenses. The services are individually scalable to meet the needs of companies from small to large as well as individual employees. This partnership would enable companies to reduce ground transportation spend by facilitating them to more easily use affordable ridesharing options like UberX.

“Our average enterprise customer expenses almost $1 million in ground transportation annually and about 7 percent of that is with Uber today. By shifting more spend to Uber, these companies stand to save hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Elena Donio, president of Concur. “We’ve seen almost 230 percent growth in Uber transactions in the past year, and with this integration, we expect to see that growth accelerate as we help companies leverage the benefits of Uber as part of their travel program.”

When the rider clicks to enrol, the user’s Concur employee roster will sync to Uber for Business for automatic setup and ongoing management, and their Uber ride data will flow directly into Concur for streamlined reporting and expensing.

“This strategic partnership will offer enterprise clients seamless access and enhanced reporting for Uber for Business through Concur, providing companies an innovative travel solution that offers unprecedented control, visibility and cost savings in global ground travel,” said Emil Michael, Chief Business Officer, Uber. “We are excited to build towards the future of business travel management in partnership with SAP/Concur and to continue to revolutionise the ways people move.”

The product integration is due to launch in fourth quarter of 2016 through the Concur App Center.

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With WIT Singapore, 2015 taking place at Marina Bay, Singapore, we managed to pull out a few interesting key points from Chan Park’s Key address. Chan Park is the General Manager (Southeast Asia) of Uber. He is actively involved in the expansion the car-rental brand through numerous operations linked to government relations.

Chan Park sharing the Uber story

During his session, he highlighted many interesting elements of Uber and its story over the years. Here are a few of them:

#1- Uber’s presence in the Asian market

Chan Park stated that the growth of Uber in the Asian market has been ‘incredible’. The brand has observed phenomenal increase in the number of cabs and the demand for them. For this car-rental service, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are the fastest growing markets in Asia. Marketing in India was altogether a different experience. For example, the average pick-up time for cabs in other countries is mostly 3-4 minutes but in India it turns out to be 35-40 minutes. Over the last few years the company has reduced the average fare of its cabs by 15-20% of the original cost. With the increase in demand of Uber cabs, there will be more trips daily. This will turn into an opportunity for Uber drivers to earn more per day.

#2- The roles of the Governments and locals

Governments of different countries have their own set of goals and agenda. Uber attempts to align its goals with the goals of these governments. For example, with the plans of creating a mobile environment that is safe and smart, Uber has observed that Singapore focuses on lesser cars and reduction of car parking space in its area. Interestingly, 12% of the real estate of Singapore is allotted to car parks. In the same manner, they have also noticed that different countries have their own set of rules and regulations for car-pooling. In order to expand globally, Uber will be required to adhere to the laws of the land.

Persuading the governments in the right manner is essential too. Uber makes it clear to them that they are for safety, customer protection, formalizing and regulating appropriately within the transport industry of the country. Fortunately, things have been mostly favourable for the brand till date.

#3- Uber for Business

Understanding the difference between regular travellers and business travellers, the brand has extended its service. ‘Uber For Business’ provides reliable rides for employees with rides up to 40% cheaper than regular taxis.

After enrolling through its website, businesses can set rules and policies mentioning where and when their employees can take the ride. For later reference, trip info for every ride will be available. The feature makes the management of business rides much easier.

#4- Goals of Uber

During his speech, Chan Park stated that Uber attempts to reach the following goals: Bringing down the pick-up time and fulfil the customer requests. As mentioned earlier, the pick-up time in most countries is 3-4 minutes but for India it reaches 35-40 minutes. In India, they might face a big challenge in reducing pick-up time.

#5- A glimpse into the life of Chan Park and his link with Uber

Chan Park has been an avid Mathematician. For a short period of time, he worked as a currency trader. He claims that his analytical, creative and quick problem solving skills have helped him become an important part of Uber culture. He elaborates that the company does not really take cultural background into consideration for accepting employees. Most of the present employees of Uber are bankers and consultants. People just need to have strong analytical skills and they can be a part of this global brand.

You can find more stories from TravelRave here.

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