Neo’s Move In Mobile, Corporate T&E Management

The days of corporate cards used in the field as company denizens travel the globe in search of new business (and maintaining current relationships), along with shoeboxes of receipts, may be waning. With technology making strides in real-time expense management, mobile travel and expense management has done much to help save time and money.

But in the move toward tracking expenses and planning trips up to the minute, ever-increasing mobility counts. And what is quite as mobile as wearable tech, which is, quite literally, attached to a user as they move through their days?

To that end, global provider of corporate travel and expense management software KDS recently announced the availability of Neo Move, an app geared toward iPhones, tablets and smartwatches that seeks to streamline T&E management even further.

Through the mobile app, which includes all of the functionalities of the KDS flagship app, Neo (which has just been announced to be compliant with the latest iteration of PCI DSS), the company has classified itinerary management as being “door to door,” with real-time tracking of all the particulars of a trip from transportation to hotel check-in to flight information.

In an interview with PYMNTS, Mike Concannon, general manager of the Americas for KDS, said that the trend has been for individuals and companies to “manage life not just offline but on the road,” especially when it comes to travel and expense management.

For KDS, which Concannon said offers an end-to-end suite of technology geared toward travel expenses, the introduction of Neo Move means that a few pain points in T&E management are eliminated.

In the first case, said the executive, there is the need for travel perspective, where “you have to know where you need to be and want to be at any point in time during a trip … and through Neo Move,” he added, “all aspects of the trip can be tracked through the app.” The watch, or other wearable device, alerts users to timing factors, such as time left to catch a cab, the countdown to an airline’s gate closing and itineraries even adjust in real time should, say, a connecting flight be missed. The interface with users is done through a timeline.

The second pain point salved by the app, said Concannon, rests with the actual expense management. The key advantage of using the KDS Neo Expense program, in tandem with the new mobile app, is that travelling executives can photograph receipts and send them through the system, where the data is reconciled into the back-office functions. In addition, the app has an auto-expense function through which credit card statements can be reconciled with receipts and populated into an expense report.

“This is not just a trip solution,” said Concannon. “We are every bit as concerned with expenses and managing them, with Neo Move, as we are with travel.” Concannon said that expense management in the field is also made easier by alerts that can be used to keep travelers within corporate policy, allowing for a certain limit on spending, according to the type of activity, such as meals or transportation. And, continued Concannon, corporate card feeds between the individual traveler and the back office can be done through the Neo app as well.

In terms of transportation and local information, Concannon continued, the app also connects to Uber and Yelp by means of icons, and travelers can call for Uber drivers to pick them up at a given location upon arrival.