NuTravel, a provider of B2B and B2C booking technology for airlines, sold its corporate online booking technology to Certify, an expense management firm.
Certify will use the technology to form the basis of a new offering called Certify Enterprise Travel, which will incorporate services for large companies and mount a direct challenge to Concur.
"We've had gaps in our services, and we've tried to fill those gap with various partnerships," Bob Neveu, chief executive officer of Certify, said. "We are really happy to have our own corporate booking tool now."
Certify said it now offers a complete in-house solution for travel and expense management, complementing its standard Certify Travel booking application for small businesses with features designed for large and midsize companies and their travel management partners.
The combination provides a “smart alternative” to Concur, the company said.
Certify Enterprise Travel will also allow customers to work with any corporate travel agency as the ticketing provider of choice.
Product features include advanced travel policy enforcement, extended workflow routing, direct connections to vendors, duty of care functionality and select supplier inventory for employee use.
The nuTravel technology acquisition includes a team of Dallas-based developers and sales professionals. Separately, nuTravel will continue to operate in the airline services business and will not compete with Certify.
Meanwhile, Concur is creating a new travel and expense solution for small businesses.
Dubbed Concur Hipmunk, a reference to the search company that Concur acquired last fall, the solution is aimed at businesses that are too small for a fully managed travel program but that would eventually grow into the need for one of Concur’s travel management company partners.
Concur Hipmunk is a lightweight T&E solution built on top of Hipmunk technology, Concur Expense and TripLink, giving small businesses the basic tools, access and visibility they need today.
The company said it will serve as an incubator to prepare them for the future when they’ll be ready for a managed travel program with one of its TMC partners and Concur Travel.
Concur Hipmunk enables:
- Employee discounts on air, hotel and car rental bookings.
- Self-writing expense reports.
- TripIt Pro integration and itinerary capture.
- Visibility into employee travel plans to facilitate duty of care.
- The ability to monitor bookings as they occur and be alerted to bookings above a certain dollar threshold.