June 2020 Travel Professional Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Release Note Summaries
Administration
Approve Then Book User PermissionThe Profile User permission is used in Concur Travel for two purposes. First, in a setup using only Concur Travel, Concur Travel integrated with Concur Expense or Concur Travel integrated with Concur Request and a Book then Approve workflow, it allows customers to assign this permission to users that should not have access to the Travel Wizard to book travel (yet), but should already have access to all travel-related fields in their user profile to fill in (for example, preferences for seats and meals, frequent traveller numbers, etc.).
This change provides a clearer separation between users who are not able to book travel under any circumstance (the Profile User permission) and users who are only allowed to book travel from an approved request (the Approve then Book permission).
XML Profile Sync Configuration PasswordSAP Concur solutions has changed the behaviour of the Password field, located on the XML Sync Authorisation page. XML Sync Authorisation is used by TMCs with the Profile Sync Administrator permission to configure XML synchronisation for their individual customer sites.
This change is part of a security upgrade to Concur Travel.
Flight
**Ongoing** Airline Information Regarding COVID-19Information regarding COVID-19-related reassurances provided by certain airlines is now displayed in Concur Travel. The information will be available in the More Details section of the Benefits/Services link for each itinerary option.
**Ongoing** Southwest Ticket Credit Expiry Date UpdateBecause of the COVID-19 pandemic, Southwest Airlines has extended the validity of unused ticket credits multiple times. SAP follows these changes and ensures that travellers do not lose their ticket credits. Due to system limitations, these updates in Concur Travel will happen in multiple iterations and, in certain cases, the expiry date in Concur Travel may not reflect what was communicated by Southwest Airlines. However, the ticket credits affected will not expire and will be available to use until the extended expiry date.
The latest expiry date update occurred on 5 June 2020; all entries created before this date have the expiry date set to 7 September 2022. Manual unused ticket credit entries created after 5 June 2020 will not be updated before September 2020. Please make sure that the expiry date of any new entries is in accordance with the latest official communication of Southwest Airlines.
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 solutions, based on ticket and coupon data from GDS and some TripLink transactions, has a new look.
The new e-receipt format is being released in stages throughout June/July 2020.
This change brings air e-receipts up to SAP Concur’s standard e-receipt format, providing users with a more consistent experience in SAP Concur products. This change also eliminates a performance issue for end users who would sometimes experience a delay in new air e-receipts delivery.
Travelfusion Refundability InformationWhen Travelfusion Direct Connect was made available to SAP Concur solutions customers, the flights offered through this channel were mostly non-refundable. When booking any Travelfusion flight in Concur Travel, users were informed during the booking flow that their booking was non-refundable. More traditional airlines have been offered through Travelfusion and, with the evolution of the airline industry and the introduction of the NDC standard, more refundable fares have become available for booking through Travelfusion. The message shown to customers that any booked flight was non-refundable is no longer accurate.
This change will provide users with accurate information about the refundability of a flight when booking in Travelfusion.
Hotel
Custom Hotel SourcingWith this update, Supplier Partners are now considered a single Custom Hotel Sourcing provider that can manage all hotel content in the Concur Travel online booking tool for a given Concur Travel configuration.
Customers will have access to curated content with hotel rate discounts from many sources, including suppliers, third-party aggregators and GDSs.
Travellers will be able to shop and book hotel inventory and access supplemental services, such as virtual payments.
Miscellaneous
Country Code Now Obfuscated When User Data Is RemovedAs of 2 June 2020, when user data is removed in accordance with a data retention policy, the country code associated with removed users is obfuscated by setting the country code to XX (Inactive).
Previously, the country code for removed users was set to US by default.
This improves reporting by consistently setting the country code data for removed users to a code designated for that purpose.
**Ongoing** Deprecation of HMAC Initiates Migration to SSO Self-ServiceSAP Concur solutions will soon begin the deprecation process of removing Hash-Based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) as an SSO option. The replacement service for HMAC is SAML SSO, a self-service method of setup whereby client admins have access within SAP Concur solutions to complete their SAML connections.
Clients currently using HMAC are encouraged to migrate to the SSO self-service tool as soon as it is released (targeted for Q2 2020). The new SSO self-service tool allows multiple portals (Identity Providers) to be added.
This change provides better security and improved support for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.
**Ongoing** New URL for US Data Centre us1.concursolutions.comBeginning in May, users can connect to the US Data Centre through www.concursolutions.com or through a new URL, us1.concursolutions.com. In addition, targeted for Q3, users connecting to the US Data Centre through www.concursolutions.com will be redirected to us1.concursolutions.com.
The us1.concursolutions.com URL is consistent with the URL for other data centres. For example, users connecting to the EMEA data centre are redirected to eu1.concursolutions.com.
**Ongoing** SAP Concur Legacy File Move MigrationThis release note is intended for the technical staff responsible for file migrations with SAP Concur solutions. For our customers and suppliers participating in data exchange, SAP Concur solutions is maintaining our file transfer subsystem to provide greater security for those file transfers.
SAP Concur solutions will begin migrating entities that currently use a legacy process for moving files to a more efficient and secure file routing process that relies on APIs.
These changes provide greater security and efficiency for file transfers.
SAMLv2 SSO Certificate ExpirationThe certificate provided by the SAP Concur SAMLv2 service, which is used to establish a Single-Sign On (SSO) connection with an IdP, will expire on 25 June 2020. Unless the certificate is renewed before the 25 June 2020 expiration date, the certificate expiration might prevent users from being able to successfully sign in to SAP Concur products.
SAP Concur solutions offer SSO to help make the user sign-in process easier and more secure. SSO requires that trust be established between the Identity Provider (IdP) and the Service Provider (SP). This trust is established in part by cryptographic use of certificates provided by the service provider; in this case, SAP Concur solutions.
To ensure that the SSO certificate adheres to the latest security standards and processes, the certificate is configured to expire and be renewed periodically.
Some TLSv1.2 Ciphers No Longer SupportedTo ensure the ongoing security of our products and services, beginning on 22 June, 2020, SAP Concur solutions will no longer support connections to *.concursolutions.com and *api.concursolutions.com that use the following TLSv1.2 ciphers:
AES256-GCM-SHA384
AES128-GCM-SHA256
This update provides ongoing security for our products and services.
Support for New Language (Thai)With the 16 May release, SAP Concur added support for the following language:
Thai
This change enables users to configure Thai as the default language for the UI text in SAP Concur solutions. Selecting Thai as the default language might also change some regional settings.
Travel Operations / Technical Essentials
Amadeus: Support for Amadeus Ticket Changer (ATC)Historically, Concur Travel has offered post-ticket change capabilities for Sabre (via Sabre Automated Exchanges), Worldspan (via Rapid Reprice) and Apollo (via Worldspan cross-GDS Rapid Reprice).
SAP Concur teams are pleased to announce support for exchange capabilities for Amadeus via Amadeus Ticket Changer (ATC) for Professional edition.
Amadeus customers will be able to make changes to their ticketed reservations online, eliminating the need to call their agency.
Apollo/Galileo: Migrate Legacy Web Services to Galileo Web ServicesTo retire legacy connectivity with Travelport, Concur Travel is migrating from the XML Select connectivity platform to the Galileo Web Services connectivity platform. This change benefits SAP Concur customers as follows:
Allows better scalability and stability of Concur Travel’s Apollo/Galileo services.
Enables SAP Concur teams to remove legacy code used for connectivity to Apollo/Galileo, which simplifies internal operations.
May improve performance, since a more simplified connectivity approach will be used.
May improve stability.
While this connectivity change should be seamless for end users, it does require an access-related change that will affect agency fulfilment partners (TMCs). With this change, Concur Travel will require the Host Access Profile (HAP) for the booking pseudo city code.
Travelport Branded Fares – Full SupportIn 2017, SAP Concur solutions announced limited support for branded fares for all Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan customers.
SAP Concur solutions has been in development, in partnership with Travelport, to deliver true branded fares support for all Travelport customers. Specifically, this development changes the way Concur Travel stores fares in GDS PNRs; fare stores will include brand modifier(s) for branded fare airlines. This new fare store functionality was made available via pilot starting the evening of 24 February.
Planned Change Summaries
The items in this section are summaries of the changes targeted for future releases. SAP Concur reserves the right to postpone implementation of – or completely remove – any enhancement/change mentioned here.
IMPORTANT: These Planned Changes may not be all of the upcoming enhancements and modifications that affect this SAP Concur product or service. The Planned Changes that apply to multiple SAP Concur products and/or services are in a consolidated document. Please review the additional Planned Changes admin summaries available in the June 2020 Shared Planned Changes Professional Edition Admin Summary.
Administration
**Planned Changes** Retire Legacy Credit Card FeedThe legacy Credit Card Feed is used by fewer than five Concur Travel clients to import credit card information. However, this method of transferring sensitive information does not reflect SAP Concur’s security best practices. Due to the small number of clients still using this feature, and given that there are more secure alternatives, we are deprecating the Credit Card Feed. Targeted for 1 July 2020, existing credit card feeds will no longer be operable.
Reducing the number of supported mechanisms for exchanging data allows SAP Concur solutions to focus on providing better security and ease-of-use for our clients.
**Planned Changes** Retire Legacy HR Feed EditorThe legacy HR Feed Editor is an outdated method for importing user information into Concur Travel and is used by less than five Travel-only clients. Due to the very small number of clients still using this feature, and given that there are superior alternatives, we are deprecating the HR Feed Editor. Targeted for 1 July 2020, feeds coming via the HR Feed Editor will no longer be operable. If you think you will be affected, please contact SAP Concur support or your TMC to identify a solution that’s best for you.
Reducing the number of supported mechanisms for exchanging data allows SAP Concur solutions to focus on providing better security and ease-of-use for our clients.
**Planned Changes** Retire Legacy Travel Assistant FeedThe Legacy Travel Assistant Feed is an outdated method for importing user information into Concur Travel and is used by fewer than five Travel-only clients. Due to the very small number of clients still using this feature, we are deprecating the Travel Assistant Feed. Targeted for 1 July, 2020, data coming via the Travel Assistant Feed will not be imported. If you think you are affected, please work with Support or your TMC to identify a solution that is best for you.
Reducing the number of supported mechanisms for exchanging data allows SAP Concur solutions to provide better security and improve ease-of-use for our customers.
Miscellaneous
**Planned Changes** Travel Profile API LastModifiedDate ParameterIn the current Travel Profile 2.0 API, the request to get travel profile summaries has one required parameter: LastModifiedDate. This allows users to get profile summaries of other users whose profiles have changed since that date. SAP Concur development discovered a defect where this required parameter is not enforced. So today, if a user omits the parameter LastModifiedDate, they receive profile summaries for all of their users.
Beginning with the July release, SAP Concur development will enforce the inclusion of the LastModifiedDate parameter, as documented. Users who omit LastModifiedDate will receive an error.
Fixing this defect to match current documentation ensures a consistent and improved experience for all users.
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