Their names are Mooncard, Qonto, Spendesk and many others. Their aim is to duplicate in the professional world the success of "neobanks N26, Nickel and Revolut, and are leveraging digital technology to offer businesses, mainly SMEs, services that are in step with the times: ultra-simple management of bank accounts and payment methods, a smooth process for issuing corporate cards, and pre-filled expense reports to simplify the daily lives of mobile managers.
In short, a customer experience in tune with the times, but one that seasoned business travellers were not used to. not really used to. "When passengers pay with their card, they immediately receive a notification on their smartphone, explains Alexandre Prot, founder of Qonto. With one click, it opens the phone's camera to scan the receipt, with an algorithm taking care of all the supporting documentation, including automatic extraction of the VAT amount. In this way, the mobile executive can finish filling in his expense claim in his taxi without the risk of losing the receipt, while the accounting department has a real-time statement of the company's finances."
Other examples of functions include the ability to change spending limits at will - "if a sales representative based in Paris takes on broader responsibilities, it only takes a few minutes to authorise payments abroad or raise the ceiling to allow him to pay for hotels, train or plane tickets, etc."We're also able to create a virtual card in a matter of seconds for online purchases, and offer customer support that can be reached day and night within an average of 15 minutes. "It is a huge point of differencebanks never respond quickly and rarely well"says Alexandre Prot.
While fintech start-ups will continue to expand in the SME market, the key account market is still the preserve of the traditional players.
With their high-tech know-how, are these fintechs shaping the future of the financial sector? payment for business travel ? "This calls into question many paradigms. The lines are moving"says Karim Bennaziz-Houmane, global head of BNP Paribas' Corporate Card sales teams. Does this mean that the traditional players are shaking in their boots? For the time being, their concerns are limited, even though some major accounts are beginning to test these start-up offerings in some of their business units. "These are attractive products, but they are suited to SMEs that have few travellers and are looking for simplicity.says Julie Troussicot, France Director of AirPlus International. What's more, they offer neither the same data qualitynor a complete range of centralised payment solutions."
While these fintech start-ups will undoubtedly continue to expand in the SME market, the key account market is still the preserve of AirPlus, American Express, BNP Paribas, Citi, Société Générale and others. Their primary strength: worldwide geographical coverage which, more than ever, meets the needs of multinationals and their employees around the world. "Our customers prefer to consolidate their card programmes at global level with as few contacts as possible. Our support, which is provided on a global level, meets their requirements"says Karim Bennaziz-Houmane.
Integrated solutions
While they lack the agility of the latest arrivals, these long-established players have not waited for them to provide companies with technological solutions for managing their travel expenditure. For example, the card housed appeared over two decades ago. Integrated into travel agencies' booking tools and linked to the company's account, it facilitated the settlement of all air tickets before extending its scope to rail, hotels, car hire, etc. Similarly, the virtual cardThe vPayment service, which can be used to pay suppliers who do not accept credit cards, has grown steadily since American Express launched its vPayment offering in 2009, followed by other specialists such as AirPlus with its AIDA card and BNP Paribas.
Like all these players, from this summer Société Générale will be offering, a complete range dematerialised payment solutions, with a dedicated account and the option of generating a virtual card, backed up by insurance to cover travellers who don't have a payment card. "With this packaged offer, we will be able to optimise the response we give to our customers, both those who already have a fleet of corporate cards and those who do not, but who have strong links with our bank and are looking for a response to their needs to optimise their travel expenses."explains Stéphane Nicaise, Commercial Cards Product Manager for the French bank.
These dematerialised solutions, whether electronic or paper-based, have played a major role in optimising corporate travel programmes.
These paperless solutions have played a major role in optimising travel programmes companies. And travellers don't even realise it, since the payments integrated into the travel agency channels are made before they travel. By collecting very precise data on each trip, they offer a clear, consolidated vision of the total cost of travel expenditure. A vision that could be even clearer tomorrow with the advent of decision analysis tools. "By reworking travel data - payments, but also classes of travel and routes taken in air and rail, hotel categories - these tools make it easier to read the information in order to save time for decision-makers and give them negotiating levers for their supplier contracts."explains Karim Bennaziz-Houmane.
By running their algorithms, corporate payment specialists intend to use their data to in a more ambitious way. "Our approach to reporting will changesays Marie Auzanneau, Marketing Director of AirPlus France. Today, we offer a historical overview. Tomorrow, we will be able to carry out predictive analysis to suggest concrete actions to companies to reduce their costs. In the same way, we plan to create an index of passenger well-being based on the number of journeys made, in which classes, etc."
In the meantime, AirPlus is expanding both its product range and the geographical scope of its offering with the roll-out of a Europe-wide corporate card. Not that AirPlus doesn't have experience of this payment solution, which is still essential for settling small mobile expenses, since it has been distributed for several years in Germany, the Benelux countries and the UK. "The real novelty is not the card itself. Which is unique, is to offer a uniform product in 19 European countries by the end of 2020"says Julie Troussicot.
Simplified management
Announced last year, the launch of the AirPlus corporate card has been slightly delayed. "We have completely overhauled our IT structure. As we embarked on this digital transformation project, we came across a ball of wool.says Julie Troussicot: If you're going to do that... you might as well do that too... and then that again. All in all, we now have an accomplished and innovative product."With, as soon as it was launched, simplified management of the card programmeIt also has a sign-up process that takes around fifteen minutes, with double identification of the user's identity, and SMS alerts for each transaction.
Although they don't yet have the famous agility of start-ups, the incumbent players are equipping their solutions with functions that are better adapted to today's expectations.
The arrival of neobanks on the market has had the positive effect of to stimulate the creativity of historical players. "This means that we must not rest on our laurels"says Julien Claudon, Head of Card Issuing and Digitisation at Societe Generale. While offering new options for its corporate cards - one focusing on security with a dynamic cryptogram changing every half hour on the back of the cardSociété Générale is also revising its banking monitoring tool, Sogecarte.net. For its part, BNP Paribas is supporting the digital transformation of businesses with a new website that makes users increasingly independent. "There is no longer any need to go through a customer service department, employees can now change their own ceilings, for example"says Karim Bennaziz-Houmane.
The need for modernisation
Although they do not yet have the famous agility of start-ups that have built their offering on the latest technologies, the established players in the market are gradually equipping their solutions with functionalities that are better adapted to today's expectations. However, another development has been highlighted by the new wave of corporate payment solutions: the increasingly close link between payment and the expenses section. "Some major groups are beginning to challenge the position of the traditional players in these two areassays Karim Bennaziz-Houmane. If we don't modernise our approach, fintechs will become our competitors. To this end, we are increasing our in-house technical capabilities, while setting up partnerships with innovative players in order to become more efficient."The global head of BNP Paribas' Corporate Cards sales teams describes a range of services that go beyond the simple means of payment, from a pre-approval system for travel expenses to packaged solutions combining means of payment and expense claim management.
Simplifying this time-consuming task as much as possible has given rise to a host of innovationsThese include fintechs, of course, but also Sodexo and Edenred. For example, for its Business Card - the new name given to the Ticket Travel Pro solution at the beginning of the year - Edenred combines payment by MasterCard with an expense report module developed in-house, and recently improved, or with the real-time business expense management platform developed by the start-up Jenji. "Through its operations in Europe and Latin America, Edenred has also enhanced its offering at the local level, with a character recognition function in Spain and the possibility of reconciling the transaction with the supplier's electronic invoice in Italy and Mexico".explains Antoine Dumurgier, Managing Director of Professional Mobility Solutions at Edenred.
Another development has been highlighted by the new wave of corporate payment solutions: the increasingly close link between payment and expense reporting.
In the same vein, the raison d'être of Rydoo aims to limit the friction associated with the reimbursement of travel expenses. This 'corp-up' - not a start-up, since it is a subsidiary of the large Sodexo group - draws on the expertise of two recently acquired companies, iAlbatros for reservations and Xpenditure for expense reports, to offer an all-in-one mobile service. Book a plane or hotel in just a few clicks, with payment centralised in the company's account, photos of receipts to inform other expenses: the product reduces to a minimum the administrative tasks that add to the process.
The fact remains, however, that with their smart and virtual cards, which have the virtue of eliminating the need for upstream expense claims by paying a large proportion of expenses, the payment players have the means in their portfolios to circumscribe their ambitions. "There are a lot of expense claim management tools on the market today, but they will be less and less useful with even greater centralisation of payments"says Julie Troussicot. She goes on to cite the example of business lunches and the acceptance of the AirPlus corporate card by Business Table, a specialist in the management of meal expenses.
The rise of integrated maps in smartphones could also change the situation, giving users a new way of accessing information. an even more technological twist to the offerings of payment specialists. However, while American Express introduced the Apple Pay wallet for its corporate cards last year and BNP plans to extend this solution, which is already available to individuals in Italy - and soon in France - to the business market, the appeal of digital payment is still evolving timidly. "There are no technical limitations to its deployment, but there is no demand. The corporate market is more conservative, and doesn't have the same thirst for novelty.says Julien Claudon. It's always surprising to hear talk of innovation in contactless payment, and yet corporate cards have only recently begun to offer it."
