Developers Head to The Perfect Trip DevCon to Tackle Business Travel Challenges

BELLEVUE, Wash., Sept. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Concur (NASDAQ: CNQR), the global leader in integrated travel and expense management, and TripIt call on the developer community to accelerate app development for the business travel market. On Oct. 2, the Perfect Trip DevCon 2013 will convene in San Francisco, bringing app developers, entrepreneurs and API providers together to focus on improving the business traveler and corporate travel buyer experience.

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Developers will have the opportunity to hear from Tim O'Reilly and find out how they can leverage the Concur Open Platform and other travel API's to develop innovative solutions for the business travel ecosystem and how to reach business travelers and enterprise buyers with such applications.

"We are at the cusp of a golden era of software application development as developers find new ways to monetize the combination of big data, the cloud, and mobile devices," said Tim O'Reilly, founder and chief executive officer of O'Reilly Media. "One of the key success factors is an open framework for accessing big data; companies like Concur have taken steps to opening up their platform, giving developers the opportunity to drive the next wave of business travel apps."

According to the U.S. Travel Association, the U.S. business travel market is estimated to be $259 billion annually[i]. In the United States alone, 458 million business trips were logged in 2011[ii], providing a large need and opportunity to developers worldwide.

At The Perfect Trip DevCon, developers and entrepreneurs will showcase new apps and learn about APIs and tools to build apps for business travelers and corporate travel buyers, including Concur's audience of more than 20 million business travelers and 18,000 companies worldwide. Developers will also learn how to turn everyday business travel questions into potential money-making apps and services. The list of friction points for business travelers is long, which creates significant opportunities for developers to improve the business trip experience.

To that end, Concur is opening up its platform of its more than 65 percent of the Fortune 500 business clients to aid app developers in accessing the data and services from the integrated travel and expense solutions from flight, hotel and car bookings to expenses, invoice and compliance requirements.  At The Perfect Trip DevCon, developers will learn how to tap into this industry and build apps that focus on improving the travel experience. In addition, Concur will be awarding $100,000 to the most entrepreneurial ideas in helping foster innovation throughout the travel ecosystem through the Perfect Trip Fund.

"The business travel industry is a very sizeable and relatively untapped opportunity for developers," said Tim MacDonald, executive vice president of Platform & Data Services at Concur. "We are enabling developers to capitalize on this opportunity with our open platform, the Concur App Center, and our $150 million Perfect Trip Fund."

To register or to find out more details about the conference, please visit https://www.concur.com/en-us/perfect-trip-devcon.

About Concur
Concur® is a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions for companies of all sizes. Concur's easy-to-use web-based and mobile solutions help companies and their employees control costs and save time. In support of the mission to fuel The Perfect Trip™, Concur delivers continuous innovation through The Concur® T&E Cloud, the open platform that enables the entire ecosystem to build upon and extend applications, content and T&E data aggregated through Concur; and Concur® Big Data, which leverages the industry's most comprehensive source of T&E data to provide enhanced value in accordance with their travel policies. The Concur Perfect Trip Fund invests in leading edge innovative travel technology companies and is awarding $100,000 in innovation awards at its first annual Developer Conference on October 2, 2013. Apply here or learn more at http://www.concur.com or the Concur blog. 

[i] Source: U.S. Travel Association, March 2013 http://www.ustravel.org/sites/default/files/page/2009/11/US_Travel_Answer_Sheet_March_2013.pdf

[ii] Source: U.S. Travel Association, March 2013 http://www.ustravel.org/sites/default/files/page/2009/11/US_Travel_Answer_Sheet_March_2013.pdf

SOURCE Concur