Visage launches international travel roaming alerts

NEW ORLEANS, USA: Now travel and mobility managers can prevent the "Bill Shock" from hefty international wireless roaming charges for their globetrotting employees. Visage Mobile, a company focused on wireless expense management, data and analytics, today announced the launch of International Travel Roaming Alerts at Fusion, Concur's premier client event.

Coming soon to the Concur App Center and available now through Concur TMC Preferred partners, International Roaming Travel Alerts will notify travel and mobility managers to potential wireless and mobile spend overages before international travel takes place.

Bzur Haun, CEO of Visage Mobile,said: "We all know first hand about the horror stories of an international traveler returning home only to be greeted by a four-figure wireless bill. By combining the power of the Concur Travel & Expense platform with Visage's wireless spend data, we can now easily provide travel and mobility managers the visibility and control to get travelers on the right plan before they travel, and mitigate these needless overages before they happen."

A recent CWT Travel Management Institute study pegged international roaming charges as the number one secondary (meaning not airfare/hotel/rental car) travel expense critical to generating additional savings to the enterprise. Visage's own customer data shows that mobile "roamers" are typically 4x more costly than non-roamers.

According to Haun, part of the challenge is that notifications for international mobile overages are currently only sent to the end user, typically while they are already travelling and accruing roaming charges. This leaves it up to the end user to manage the potential cost overruns by adjusting their plan mid-trip, turning off their mobile device, or even having their company's MDM (mobile device management software) shut off their phone completely.

With Visage's International Travel Roaming Alerts, the responsibility shifts to the individuals accountable for controlling travel and wireless expenses, prior to the trip's start. This ensures the travelers have the right plans before they hit the road and can use their mobile devices with confidence that costs will be contained.

Jigish Avalani, SVP and General Manager of Developer & Platform Services at Concur said: "Visage's International Travel Roaming Alerts are a perfect example of how third party companies and developers are harnessing the power of Concur's open platform to deliver additional value to customers and their employees. Visage combined their expertise in mobility expense and analytics with the Concur platform to deliver apps that are connected, effortless and transparent for clients.

Coming soon to the Concur App Center, Visage's International Travel Roaming Alerts will also be available through Concur TMC Preferred partners, with Indiana-based Gant Travel as the TMC Preferred partner to offer the product.