Egencia Extends Open Ecosystem Strategy with End-to-End Travel & Expense Platform Integration

Integration with IBM, Data Basics, ExpenseWatch.com, ExpenseWire and SutiSoft Helps Companies Actively Manage and Control T&E Spend

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ — Egencia™ today announced expansion of its open T&E management platform integration. Supported by travel data integration with IBM’s Global Expense Reporting Solutions (GERS), Databasics, ExpenseWatch.com, ExpenseWire and SutiSoft, the new linkages will help organizations more actively manage and process expenses, identify leakage and detect and prevent fraud. It also allows businesses to work within a T&E framework that best fits their individual needs. This release builds on T&E integration capabilities first announced in Europe in November 2008.

“Now more than ever, it’s incredibly important for companies to be able to mine their travel program for additional efficiencies and savings,” said Simon Tam, Egencia Senior Vice President of Product and Technology. “The expansion of our global T&E platform means that businesses will be able to choose from a range of powerful solutions to manage and control spend. We’re pleased to collaborate with companies such as IBM, Databasics, ExpenseWatch.com, ExpenseWire and SutiSoft.”

IBM GERS, Databasics, ExpenseWatch, ExpenseWire and SutiSoft will complete their integration in the near term, making their solutions available to Egencia clients. Companies in Europe are already realizing the benefits of Egencia’s open T&E platform through partners ETAP-ON-LINE and DIMO Gestion.

Though specific features depend on the individual expense management partner and client needs, the platform allows companies to:

• Pre-populate expense reports with booking data, enhancing accuracy and saving the traveler significant time when filing expenses.
• Easily view what is booked versus what is expensed, to help travel buyers better prevent and detect fraud. Expense-related fraud is the second largest category of cash fraud after billing schemes, with a median loss caused from T&E fraud of $25,000.*
• Review T&E expenses based on travel policy. While approving expense reports, managers can monitor if a traveler books out of policy and the associated reason code for doing so.

Egencia’s open T&E integration further reinforces the company’s open ecosystem strategy, which aims to allow easy integration into any corporate network or enterprise system. The company already offers an automated data management tool for profile synchronization with data from HR and ERP systems and single sign-on integration for a seamless link between Egencia and any corporate network.

NOTE: Partners IBM (www.ibm.com), DataBasics (www.data-basics.com), ExpenseWatch.com (www.expensewatch.com), ExpenseWire (www.expensewire.com), and SutiSoft (www.sutisoft.com) are available for comment.

About Egencia, an Expedia, Inc. Company

Egencia is the fifth largest travel management company in the world. As part of Expedia, Inc., , the world’s largest travel marketplace, Egencia helps business get ahead by offering the only truly integrated corporate travel service. Egencia’s industry expertise helps drive results that matter, delivering meaningful advancements that have a real impact. By combining a powerful offline and online service, Egencia delivers a complete corporate travel offering supported by global market expertise and a best-in-class technology platform.

For more information, go to Egencia.com

Egencia and the Egencia logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

© 2009 Egencia, LLC. All rights reserved. CST # : Egencia 2083922-50 / Expedia Inc. 2029030-40

*ACFE 2006 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud & Abuse. This study is based on data compiled from 1,134 cases of occupational fraud that were investigated between January 2004 and January 2006. Information from each case was reported by a Certified Fraud Examiner who investigated the case.

SOURCE: Egencia, an Expedia, Inc. Company

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