REDMOND, Wash. -- Concur Technologies said it entered an alliance
with GetThere.com to offer on-line travel reservations for
corporate clients.
Concur will offer GetThere.com software to customers of its
eWorkplace.com portal, which is designed to help corporations
automate travel and entertainment as well as corporate purchasing
expenses.
"The partnership of Concur and GetThere.com has tremendous
benefits for our ConcureWorkplace.com customers," according to Steve
Singh, president and chief executive officer of Concur.
"Not only are we serving the demand for a robust
business-to-business on-line travel service for the small and
middle markets, we have pioneered a new step in conducting
business-to-business commerce through Concur eWorkplace.com and the
Concur Travel Network."
GetThere.com, formerly known as Internet Travel Network, offers
a travel reservations service that competes with several corporate
self-booking programs like American Express Interactive, Sabre
Business Travel Solutions and Worldspan's Oracle E-Travel, among
others.
GetThere.com enables corporations to book negotiated air, car
and hotel rates on line, thus saving the cost of agency commissions
and, in some cases, resulting in lower average ticket prices.
The deal with Concur exposes GetThere.com to an audience of
smaller to medium-size firms, that traditionally do not have access
to negotiated discounts from airlines, hotels and rental car
firms.
Concur said it has about 25 customers signed up for Concur
eWorkplace.com, which was officially unveiled in New York earlier
this month. The 25 customers translate into 6,000 corporate
employees.
Bruce Chatterly, executive vice president of eServices for
Concur, said the company will share income with GetThere.com based
on the number of bookings made over the site.
Existing Concur customers will not be charged any type of fees
to gain access to GetThere.com.
Concur officials said the GetThere.com deal is the first of
several planned alliances to bring new partners to contribute to
the Concur eWorkplace.com portal. Concur eWorkplace is the new name
of Employee Desktop, the portal that combined automated expense
management and corporate purchasing.
Concur is one of several software developers with products to
automate the way companies file expenses.