American Express Global Business Travel Announces Traveller Care Solution in Canada

-- AX CONNECT Helps Companies Locate, Communicate with, and Assist Travellers during Disruptions --

TORONTO, April 21, 2015 /CNW/ - American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) today announced that AX CONNECT, its dynamic and intuitive visual traveller tracking and integrated two-way messaging solution, will be available to clients in Canada.  This precision tool enables companies to locate, communicate with, and prioritize aid to travellers with the greatest need impacted by a travel disruption. With numerous events each year ranging from small delays to large natural disasters, it is crucial to have accurate and timely tracking of travellers and dependable tools with which to communicate with them and help guide them safely to their next destination.

"As business becomes increasingly global and the need for corporate travel continues to grow, employee care continues to be a top priority for our customers worldwide," said Colin Temple, Vice President and General Manager, American Express Global Business Travel Canada.  "Our aim is to provide an end-to-end solution that makes fulfilling this duty of care obligation as simple as possible.  AX CONNECT's single interface for information-gathering and analysis saves precious time and enables proactive communication when employees are in need, providing both the company and the traveller peace of mind.  We are very pleased to be bringing this capability to our customers in Canada."

Before AX CONNECT, travel managers, company security officers or other teams that needed to locate travellers during a disruption had to go through the cumbersome and time-consuming process of manually pulling and analyzing reports, often working across multiple teams in different geographies.  Intuitive, interactive and easy to use, AX CONNECT helps companies visualize the location of their travellers by using itinerary information to populate a map at the street level.  This map is then updated in near real time to reflect GBT's data for when employee itineraries are created, changed, or added.  Moreover, built-in collaboration capabilities enable intra-team connection to advise and coordinate traveller support from within the system.

Key Features

Risk Alerts: In addition to pinpointing traveller locations, AX CONNECT integrates customizable risk and country alerts about locations that may be impacted by a major disruption.  This allows companies to assess how many travellers are potentially affected and better handle situation management.  Travellers can also receive automatic travel alerts prior to and during their trip that provide information about their current location or destination. 

Communication: Companies can use the platform's interface to communicate with employees through SMS text, email, or the AX CONNECT mobile app. Travel managers can send travellers customized messages and provide response options for travellers to select with the tap of a finger.  Traveller responses can then be color-coded on the map in order to help enable rapid prioritization of traveller needs. Travellers also have the option to approve a travel manager's request for a one-time share of their GPS-based location during a time of disruption. The mobile app also has click-to-call functionality that enables the traveller to reach a member of their company's security team with one press of a button.

Near Real-Time Flight Status Tracking: When it comes to tracking flights, travel managers have historically had to resort to manually searching for status updates using a variety of external resources.  By layering flight status and tracking information into the AX CONNECT platform and integrating it with traveller itinerary data, travel managers now have the information at their fingertips to be truly proactive in managing disruptions, by being made aware of them as they occur, using the tool to visualize all travellers on delayed or canceled flights.

Asset Management: Incidents such as hurricanes, power outages, and water main breaks do not limit their effects to employees traveling on business.  The asset management feature enables travel managers and company security and human resources teams to view corporate assets such as company facilities, corporate housing, and supply centers on the platform's map and in the case of a disruption impacting that location can send communications to employees stationed there.

For more information about AX CONNECT, please contact your American Express Global Business Travel representative.

GBT invites attendees of the GBTA Conference 2015 | Toronto, visit Booth #201 to learn more about AX CONNECT.  Colin Temple, Vice President and General Manager, American Express Global Business Travel, Canada will be leading an education session entitled "End-to-End Expense Management" on Tuesday, April 21 at 11:30 am in Room 104A.  Please attend this informative session to learn from industry experts as they discuss Best in Class expense management, taking a holistic approach to managing your company's T&E spend and identifying the tools and processes to get you the best results.  In addition, Patrick Doyle, Regional Vice President, Strategic Account Management, American Express Global Business Travel, Canada will moderate a panel entitled "The Evolution of the Travel Policy – Understanding What Matters Most" on Tuesday, April 21 at 4 pm in Room 104A. Join industry experts as they discuss policy-related issues such as the blurring of lines between economy and business class, new industry entrants, and the true impact of last minute booking.

About American Express Global Business Travel
American Express Global Business Travel enables corporations and empowers business travellers with insights, connections and exceptional customer service on a global scale. Through technology and information, American Express Global Business Travel provides leading travel solutions, integrated consulting services, proprietary research, and end-to-end meetings and events capabilities. These innovative offerings enable clients to optimize the return on their travel and meetings investments.

American Express Global Business Travel has operations and network partners in nearly 140 countries worldwide with approximately 14,000 employees. American Express Global Business Travel ranked first among corporate travel providers in the 2014 Corporate Travel 100 ("CT100"), an annual listing compiled by Business Travel News which ranks companies with the largest volume of U.S. air bookings. Learn more about how American Express Global Business Travel connects the world at www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com.

American Express Global Business Travel ("GBT") is a joint venture that is not wholly-owned by American Express Company or any of its subsidiaries ("American Express"). "American Express Global Business Travel", "American Express" and the American Express logo are trademarks of American Express, and are used under limited license.

SOURCE American Express Global Business Travel

Image with caption: "Intuitive, interactive and easy to use, AX CONNECT helps companies visualize the location of their travellers by using itinerary information to populate a map at the street level. (CNW Group/American Express Global Business Travel)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150421_C1327_PHOTO_EN_14512.jpg

For further information: Media Contacts: Tess Alberts, American Express Global Business Travel, [phone], [email protected]; Kim Gibson, Kwittken Canada, [phone], [email protected]