Concur Study Reveals Road Warriors Packing More Mobile Apps Than Ever, But Are They The Right Ones?

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Business travel got you down? You're not alone. A recent study conducted by Concur (NASDAQ: CNQR), a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, reveals some major pain points that are leaving business travelers feeling unhappy (55 percent) and dissatisfied (53 percent). While a third (31 percent) did report a sense of accomplishment upon completing a business trip, dissatisfaction was attributed largely to looming task of managing receipts and filing expense reports.  In fact, 80 percent said filing expense reports at the end of a trip increases their stress level and a third say the hassles of business travel impacts their overall job satisfaction.  

But all is not lost. More and more business travelers are turning to mobile technology, selecting apps specifically to enhance their business travel experiences and ease the pains of being on the road and away from the office. These apps enable travelers to make changes to their travel on the fly, capture expenses and receipts at the point of purchase, book a taxi or find their way around a new destination. Whether they leverage a corporate-issued app or are embracing the increasingly popular concept of "Bring Your Own Apps" (BYOA), 89 percent agree mobile technology improves their travel experience and more than half of business travelers (62 percent) are relying on apps every time they travel.

So what apps are travelers using to help navigate cities and reschedule booking? Most common applications include airline apps (44 percent), map apps (41 percent) and hotel apps (30 percent). And although expense reports were identified as a major pain point of business travel, less than a half of these travelers (43 percent) are leveraging apps to file their expenses while on the road. Below are additional key findings from the survey:

• Travelers aren't using just one or two of these apps. Nearly a quarter of them (22 percent) use five or more business travel apps during their trips – hoping to stay productive in transit.
• And the more frequent the business traveler, the more travel apps they use. Thirty-two percent of travelers who venture out on behalf of their company at least three times per month use five or more apps, compared to just 13 percent of those who travel less frequently (less than two times per month).
• As may be expected in today's technology-savvy world, age also makes a difference in app usage. Surprisingly, more than half (60 percent) of business travelers 55 and older frequently use any travel app.

"Mobile devices and applications should put the business traveler firmly in control of their trip," said Rajeev Singh, president and COO of Concur. "Our mobile services are designed specifically to help alleviate the stress inherent in business travel, and deliver an experience that that brings the possibility of The Perfect Trip to life."

Concur Mobile Adoption

In the last year, Concur has seen 49 percent overall growth in new mobile app users, with continued strong adoption of the Concur app by road warriors on Android (58 percent growth), Blackberry (80 percent growth) and Apple iOS (64 percent growth). Concur has seen a 67 percent increase of business travelers submitting expense reports from their mobile devices since last year, and a 53 percent growth in those approving their expense reports on the road. In addition to leveraging Concur's mobile app, millions of travelers also use TripIt® on their mobile device to organize and share their trips.

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