There is a big word that today’s modern traveler dreads to hear when embarking on a journey: breakdown. From a breakdown in a vehicle to a breakdown in communication, this word can put a wrench in an important corporate trip or a well-planned and well-earned vacation. However, in the current world of travel services, a good, hard breakdown is vital when it comes to connectivity barriers.
There are two companies in particular that are paying special attention to breaking down connectivity barriers by creating easier access to transportation and accommodation: Airbnb and Uber. In unique ways, they cut out the middle man and allow individuals to directly offer their own space and transport to travelers, creating a peer-to-peer network and eliminating booking companies, reservation fees, and the miscommunication that can come through multiple channels of travel arrangement. Airbnb is an online marketplace for accommodations that allows homeowners to rent out their rooms to travelers. Uber, a transport network company, operates as an alternative to a taxi service— mobile apps connect passengers to drivers of vehicles for hire and ridesharing services.
In a recent webinar focusing on supplier connectivity, PayStream’s Henry Ijams spoke about P2P trends, the biggest of which he said are coming in the form of an innovative use of collaborative paradigms. “P2P managers want to narrow the gap that comes from failed connection and communication between buyers and suppliers,” said Henry. “…They realize the only way to streamline their process is to streamline their connectivity.”
Henry used Uber as an example of a company that was placing 
importance on a connective strategy. By quickly and easily putting people who need rides in contact with people who have cars, Uber is displacing regular taxi services and transforming the transportation services industry. In the same way, Airbnb creates a peer-to-peer network through their booking service, diminishing the need for hotel rooms, and bringing diversity and personalization to a sometimes lonely travel necessity.
The innovation of these two companies is inspiring, and it comes to no surprise for PayStream to hear of a recent partnership between 
Uber, Airbnb, and the leading travel and expense management solutions provider, Concur. With this collaboration, business travelers can use these alternative services to book their trips and complete their expenses without sacrificing accuracy, visibility and manageability. For Airnbn, integration through Concur TripLink will enable employers to gain full visibility into each booking to ensure Duty of Care requirements are met. Uber’s integration with the Concur platform will provide Concur business travelers with the ability to request, ride, pay, and automatically expense their transportation– all from their mobile phone. According to Concur, both of these partnerships will make the benefits of collaborative consumption available to the business world.
Concur’s primary focus in travel and expense management has always been to create the “Perfect Trip”, and they do this by looking for the most innovative ways of streamlining business activity and business spend from anywhere in the world. As the market for travelling services expands and changes, it is only natural that Concur uses their own pioneering drive to follow these changes.
“This new generation of platform partners reflects the transformation taking place for today’s business customer,” said Tim MacDonald, executive vice president at Concur. “By partnering with these innovative companies, we are building a connected platform that radically improves the experience for the business traveler.” Not only is Concur acting as a P2P innovator by embracing and cultivating a peer-to-peer network for business travelers, they are helping to legitimize and strengthen Uber and Airbnb’s alternative services in the corporate travel market as much as in the leisure travel market. “With Airbnb and Uber, we are enabling, in business travel, what consumers already enjoy about collaborative consumption in their leisure. Capturing this spend then gives companies greater real-time transparency into traveler expenditure and itineraries.”
Through these partnerships, Concur is breaking down connectivity barriers between the buyer and supplier and between corporate strategy and modern innovation. This story is inspiring for PayStream and hopefully for any financial professional or business leader looking to take their own organization to the next level in connective collaboration. For more stories of innovative companies like Uber, Airbnb, and 
Concur, register for this year’s PayStream Summit conference and take your own journey to San Antonio, Texas. Held on the city’s beautiful and famous Riverwalk, Innovate 2014 will feature two days of insightful and educational sessions with key business leaders who have been pioneers in the field of AP and P2P Innovation.
Network, an eInvoicing platform provider. The study focuses on their recent success in transforming the eInvoicing process of Alpscontrols.com, an online-only source of control products for HVAC, building automation, and lighting control. CloudTrade’s techniques were so efficient in automating the web-company’s procedure, the major backlog of invoices was eliminated only three weeks after implementation.
