AmEx’s T&E Tool Goes Solo

American Express is making moves to establish its travel and expense management service, Global Business Travel, as a standalone company, and a major part of that strategy includes partnership with major cloud-based platforms.

In an announcement made Monday (May 4), AmEx revealed that its GBT business will immediately begin a transition to become an independent company. New collaborations with companies including enterprise resource planning service NetSuite and spend management tool Coupa will aid with that transition, the company said.

According to American Express Global Business Travel Chief Administrative Officer Pat Bourke, it was a no-brainer for AmEx to choose cloud servicers to strengthen its travel and expense reporting solution. “The partners we’ve selected represent the best of what cloud services offer – security, operational cost savings and agility,” the executive said in a statement, adding that cloud computing is “fundamental” to the GBT business strategy.

GBT’s transition to the cloud will boost its business travel offerings across the IT, procurement, administration, finance and human resources areas of business operations.

In addition to NetSuite and Coupa, American Express also revealed GBT’s new partnerships with finance and human resources cloud service Workday, enterprise integration platform-as-a-service tool Dell Boomi, as well as enterprise communications provider Jive. GBT said it plans to finalize its transition to the cloud sometime later this year.