FCM & AirPlus Integrate Data for Reporting

For mutual U.S. clients of travel management company FCM Travel Solutions and card provider AirPlus International, AirPlus data now flows into FCM's ClientBank reporting platform. That allows mutual clients to reconcile TMC bookings and payments in one place. Previously, travel managers had to reconcile data from each source manually.

American Express Global Business Travel and American Express similarly share data for reporting. Carlson Wagonlit Travel rolled out Travel Consolidator in August, card and expense with travel data for consolidated reporting.

Data flows between FCM and AirPlus via SFTP, which stands for SSH File Transfer Protocol, according to an FCM spokesperson. SSH refers to Secure Shell, a protocol for a cryptographic network. All that science means that any travel booked through FCM and purchased via AirPlus, including flight origin and destination and traveler name, appear on a separate dashboard in ClientBank. A client's broader ClientBank platform could be customized to access some of the dashboard data.

The reporting is free and focuses on inconsistencies, such as travel booked on FCM and paid for with another form of payment than AirPlus or bookings made elsewhere and paid for via AirPlus.

"In addition to reconciling spending with greater speed, this also puts a greater spotlight on people booking outside of policy, being able to identify and address issues with greater accuracy and faster reaction time," said FCM senior commercial director Nicholas Kropelin. Spotting fraud also is faster.

FCM and AirPlus plan to expand the capabilities to Canada and Mexico in 2019.