CONCUR OBT DIRECT or RESELLER through TMC ?

[Gauravnarula]

Need your thoughts on preference for Online booking tool, which is better and why ?

Do we go with Reseller agreement through Travel Management Company ?

Do we go direct with CONCUR on Online booking tool deployment ?

Or a Hybrid model is beneficial ?

Kindly explain your thoughts.

[TSmalley]

We are indirect on the Travel side  - purchased through our TMC in 2010 and that has it's pros and cons.  Pro's - cases are opened with your TMC and mangaged etc through them; We then adopted the Expense platform in 2013/2014 and we went direct with Concur on the Expense platform so I worked with Implementation directly (along with an internal team at my organization) on our configuration, set-up, testing, rolling out, training etc. The good thing being direct is that I have the abilty to create cases with Support and work with them directly when it is Expense specific.  The disconnect or Con is that when there is an issue that impacts Travel and Expense, I find that the Concur Support team plays ping-pong and bounces the case back and forth between which team is responsible and it is frustrating as I can't speak on the Travel pieces directly to Concur.  I often have to provide alot of detail to prove it is one way or the other and that causes the case to take quite a bit of time of get attention. We have contemplated going direct with Travel to avoid those issues in the future, but at the present time it is not an issue since Travel is not happening very much due to the pandemic.  So depending on if your organization has a dedicated resource to handle set-up, configurations, testing, support cases in the future, that might help you make your decision.  Hope this helps.  

Tracy Smalley

SITE Centers Corp.

[tvarner]

We are direct for both Travel and Expense. Pro – your TMC still loads contracts for the airline. Con – you have to do the hotels, messaging etc. The con isn’t that bad if you have a dedicated person to handle it. When we renegotiated our TMC contract we asked them to manage our Travel platform. They handle everything associated to travel now including providing help to our travelers. I did have to provide information to Concur that our TMC could open and work cases on our behalf. Occasionally the TMC has come to us asking us to open a case due to a specific circumstance but it is rare.

[knaimoli]

Hi,

I have experience with both direct and reseller (working for different companies). Both definitely have their pros and cons.

For the direct experience, I was technically on the Expense side of things, but our Travel Manger retired and I inherited a lot of his responsibilities. I also had taken the 4 day course to earn the full-unlocked version of my company's site configuration. So it was nice to be able to go in and make changes as needed for things like policy updates/preferred rate updates/BTA card changes. However, some of these things could be time consuming and another process that I had to maintain. I did also like being able to open a case with Concur directly for any Travel related questions. 

For the reseller experience, I am on the Travel side of things now, and at first it was hard not having the direct access to make changes for simple things like updating some language and opening tickets. However, the reseller option saves a ton of time in the maintaining and updating of the site. It also comes with the ability to work with very knowledgeable people at the TMC who are dedicated to working with Concur. This option has really grown on me now and saves a lot of time. I've been with this company for about 18 months and we have not had any significant issues with depending on the TMC to open tickets with Concur and waiting for a resolution. 

[F_Ignat]

Quick question - for the reseller option are you using 2 different instances (log on details) in Concur? or is it a single landing page?