Administration

SAP Concur is currently migrating TMCs to new Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres, a process which affects TMC workflows. SAP will first move TMCs to the new data centres, followed over time by their customers. TMCs will therefore experience a period of time where their customer base is split over the current data centres and the new AWS data centres.

We are migrating from a private platform, where all equipment is owned by SAP Concur solutions, to a third-party cloud platform. This will provide stronger security, improved performance and stability, and faster innovation for our customers.

Flight

Airlines are increasingly utilising the IATA New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard to offer products that may not currently be available in Global Distribution Systems (GDS).

To ensure clients have access to all relevant content, including NDC-sourced content, we are pleased to announce the Select Access programme will now include an option for sourcing NDC content via Travelfusion.

As part of our continuous effort to add NDC content, as of 25 January, American Airlines will become available via Travelfusion in Concur Travel.

Industry-wide efforts to develop NDC at-scale for use with business travel are in the early stages. As a result, TMC and corporate flexibility are required to use NDC content in its current state via Travelfusion, while airline and GDS development efforts with NDC remain ongoing to fully meet end-to-end business travel needs.

In some markets, airlines provide new content (for example, brands, bundles, ancillaries) that is not available in the GDS.

Customers can now access the relevant content using Select Access to ensure users can book the right type of product depending on the travel scenario. For example, American Airlines’ Main Plus fares are normally only available through the NDC channel. Select Access allows clients to book those fares when it meets their needs, such as short-haul day trips or within strict cost management programmes.

Ground

Concur Travel currently provides travellers the ability to book ground transportation via SummitQwest. SummitQwest is focused on ground transport solutions for New York City but also provides global ground transport solutions (www.hqtravel.com).

Due to its pre-pandemic reduced usage and associated costs of maintenance, SAP Concur decided to decommission the support of SummitQwest in Concur Travel with the January 2022 release.

SAP Concur recognises that some users may still require ground transportation booking capabilities; it is recommended that users switch to the remaining supplier Groundspan.

Periodically, under-utilised features or pages must be removed to improve usability. This is a rarely used feature and no longer supports Concur Travel users.

Concur Travel currently provides travellers the ability to book ground transportation via Talixo. Talixo is an online platform for booking taxis, minicabs and limousines in Germany (www.talixo.de).

Due to its pre-pandemic reduced usage and associated costs of maintenance, SAP Concur decided to decommission the support of Talixo in Concur Travel with the January 2022 release.

SAP Concur recognises that some users may still require ground transportation booking capabilities; it is recommended that users switch to the remaining supplier Groundspan.

Periodically, under-supported third-party features may be removed to ensure usability standards are maintained.

Release Notes

Beginning with the January 2022 draft release notes, shared (SAP Concur cross-product) changes, shared planned changes and changes to SAP Concur core technologies are published in a new document, Shared Changes Release Notes. This document replaces the current Shared Planned Changes Release Notes.

Shared and core technology features and changes include, but are not limited to:

• Security-related changes—for example, annual security certificate renewals, changes to support for security ciphers, changes in support for security protocols and changes to username and password requirements.
• UI design changes that impact all products—for example, changes to the functionality or appearance of the SAP Concur home page, the addition or removal of links from the site header or footer, changes to the user profile page and theme changes that impact the overall look and feel of the SAP Concur site.
• Sign-in process changes – for example, the addition or removal of sign-in features, URL changes, domain-name changes and changes to verified email.
• Changes to production or test environments.
• Changes that impact site-wide settings, changes to global settings and changes to pages for configuring site-wide or global settings – for example, changes to the User Administration page, changes to Product Settings for Standard Edition and the introduction of new administration tools.

This change reduces duplication of information, ensures that the product-specific release notes contain product-specific information, and provides a single source for SAP Concur shared changes and changes to core technologies.

Miscellaneous

This feature is now documented in the Shared Changes Release Notes (English Only).

For more information, refer to Shared Planned Changes Moving to New Shared Changes Release Notes in this document.

This feature is now documented in the Shared Changes Release Notes (English Only).

For more information, refer to Shared Planned Changes Moving to New Shared Changes Release Notes in this document.

This feature is now documented in the Shared Changes Release Notes (English Only).

For more information, refer to Shared Planned Changes Moving to New Shared Changes Release Notes in this document.

This feature is now documented in the Shared Changes Release Notes (English Only).

For more information, refer to Shared Planned Changes Moving to New Shared Changes Release Notes in this document.

Flight

Currently, users are not able to make flight changes via Travelport Galileo after a ticket has been issued. As of this release, post-ticket exchange functionality will be available for Travelport Galileo customers with the Post Ticket Change feature enabled.

This change will allow users to change Travelport Galileo airline flights through Concur Travel after a ticket has been issued.

Hotel

Targeted for February 2022, by mutual agreement, Airbnb and Concur Travel will disable the Airbnb Direct Connect as a source of content in Concur Travel and decommission the unique punch-out booking experience within the Concur Online Booking Tool. Existing connections will be removed; no new connections to Airbnb will be made.

Affected clients may work with Airbnb, their TMC and their administrator to arrange Airbnb bookings via alternate channels, and/or to enable alternative hotel content connectors in Concur Travel.

Existing Airbnb itineraries will remain visible in Concur Travel under My Trips.

Periodically, under-supported third party features may be removed to ensure usability standards are maintained. This feature is not fully supported and will therefore be removed.

Profile

SAP Concur will remove the Connected Apps page, https://www.concursolutions.com/profile/ProfileUserOauth.asp, from the Concur Travel and Expense user interface.

Periodically, under-utilised features or pages must be removed to improve usability. This is a rarely used page; it no longer meets its purpose of driving partner application usage.

The XML Profile Sync, which is used to synchronise Concur Travel user profile data with TMC partners, will no longer be available, targeted for Q1 2022. We advise all partners to engage with SAP Concur representatives to adopt the Travel Profile v2 API for managing Concur Travel user profiles.

The XML Profile Sync was officially decommissioned in 2016 due to instability and other issues. The Travel Profile v2 API was built to replace this legacy synchronisation process. It has now reached such a level of stability and maturity that there is no longer any reason to maintain multiple profile sync options.