May 2019 Travel Professional Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Release Note Summaries
Administration
Retire Amadeus ReportingConcur Travel once offered support for the Amadeus Interface Record (AIR) process for Amadeus customers. Many years ago, SAP Concur advised customers that this was no longer a recommended method for synchronising PNRs between Concur Travel and Amadeus but did not officially retire the integration.
Based on Amadeus and SAP Concur monitoring, there have been no records transmitted using AIR in recent months. With this release, SAP Concur will retire this integration.
Employee and User Import Column (Amadeus User Permission) DeprecatedThe Amadeus user permission column has been deprecated from the Travel Addendum Import (Record Type 350) Format for user imports and for employee imports. This column remains in the flat file and Excel import file, however it is no longer active and any values it contains will be ignored by the system.
**Reminder** No Personal or Sensitive Data in Custom FieldsAll companies must take all reasonable steps to protect the personal and sensitive information of their employees. As per recommended security-related best practices, remember that custom fields should not contain personal and sensitive data.
If your company is currently using custom fields to store personal or sensitive data (for example, Social Security numbers, family member names or any other personally identifying information), you should plan to remove this information from your existing fields within the service and modify your current configuration.
Refer to the FAQ (English Only) for additional information.
Form of Payment Update: Expiration Date – Last Day of the MonthSAP Concur has updated the logic around day of the month when adding a credit card (ghost/personal). The last day of the month is now assumed to be the expiration date.
Flight
Updates for Flex Faring Airline – Scandinavian Airlines (SK)SAP Concur has “refreshed” the flex faring buckets and descriptions for Scandinavian.
Miscellaneous
No Future Bulk Password Resets or Updates via Import File (Concur Travel & Expense)With this release, SAP Concur is implementing changes that provide greater security for user passwords.
The password field in the 100, 300, 305 and 310 record sets is no longer used to update or bulk reset user passwords. The functionality in imports has changed such that the password field is used only when a user account is created. The field is no longer used to update or bulk reset user passwords. The update and replace password features on the 100 record will no longer be used.
This change impacts the employee import and the user import features.
Forgot Password Feature, Security Questions and Password Custom TextWith this release, SAP Concur will add a new Forgot Password feature to the SAP Concur Sign In page, providing an updated experience for users who log in with user name and password credentials.
Calendar Integration (Exchange and Google): Add Watermark to Calendar EntriesWhen configured, Concur Travel creates calendar entries on end users’ calendars to better allow them to organise their work days. Many other productivity suites and third-party applications also populate calendars. It has become difficult for end users to differentiate entries created by Concur from those created by other applications. With this release, a watermark will be added to all calendar entries, Exchange or Google, to identify events created by Concur through the Calendar Integration. This will allow users, admins and Concur Support to better troubleshoot issues with Calendar Integration.
Deprecation of Composite LoginsWith this release, composite login functionality allows users to use a login ID that does not include a domain to log in to SAP Concur products.
All users who use only their username (ex: johndoe) to log in will need to use their CTE Login Name rather than their login ID to log in to SAP Concur products.
**Ongoing** Email Infrastructure Change - Add IP Addresses to Safe Sender ListSAP Concur is transitioning to a new email infrastructure for outbound email from our services to SAP Concur users. Because of this, companies who filter inbound email based on the sending IP address must add new IP addresses to their Safe Sender list to ensure that their users receive email from SAP Concur.
Planned Change Summaries
Administration
**Planned Innovations/Changes** SAP Concur Product Access ChangesCustomers will need to access SAP Concur products and services via the following domains:
*.concursolutions.com
*.concurcdc.cn
This change is targeted for 8 June 2019.
SAP Concur recommends clients migrate to one of the domains at their earliest convenience, if they are not already using one of them.
Meetings
**Planned Innovations/Changes** Authentication Changes for Third-Party Meeting RegistrationIn a future release, as part of SAP Concur’s ongoing commitment to keeping customer data secure, meeting attendees arriving from third-party registration tools will be required to authenticate before booking their travel to the event.
Miscellaneous
**Planned Innovations/Changes** New Look for Air E-ReceiptsAs part of our ongoing commitment to e-receipts and the effortless expense claim, air e-receipts generated by SAP Concur based on ticket and coupon data from GDS and some TripLink transactions are getting a new look.
**Planned Innovations/Changes** Single Sign-On (SSO) Self-Service Option Coming to SAP ConcurSingle Sign-On allows users to access multiple applications using one set of login credentials. Currently, SAP Concur has two methods for signing in: with a user name and password or using SSO with identity provider (IdP) credentials, such as a user's login credentials for their organisation.
SAP Concur is planning to add a Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature that provides clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO for their organisation. SSO is currently supported for Concur Expense, Invoice, Request and Travel.
**Planned Innovations/Changes** New SAP Concur Sign In PageSAP Concur is planning to add a new Sign In page, providing an updated login experience for users who log in with a user name and password credentials. Current Single Sign-On (SSO) users will be able to start the SSO login process at www.concursolutions.com. This feature is planned for 2019.
Client Notifications
SAP Concur Non-Affiliated Subprocessors
The list of non-affiliated subprocessors is available here: SAP Concur list of Subprocessors (English Only)
Monthly Browser Certifications
Monthly browser certifications, both current and planned, are available with the other SAP Concur monthly release notes, accessible from What's New - Professional Edition