Stay in Touch With Wireless Phones. PR Newswire: 8/1/00

Over Half of Business Travelers Now Stay in Touch Using Wireless Phones, According to American Express Survey

Wireless Charges Billed to Corporate Cards Jump 30% over 1999, As More Companies Seek to Control Telecom Expenses

NEW YORK, Aug. 1 (PRNewswire) -- Until a few years ago, harried business travelers bumped into each other in an all-too-familiar, on-the-road meeting place -- the crowded bank of hotel or airport pay phones where lines added to the frustration of business travel. Those days are past.

Wireless phones are fast becoming standard equipment for today's road warriors, according to a business traveler survey and recent statistics from the American Express Corporate Card.

Not only are more than half of business travelers now carrying wireless phones, but a growing percentage are also managing their telecom expenses through the use of the Corporate Card. The survey, which polled 600 U.S. business travelers, indicates that wireless phones are now carried by 53% of corporate travelers -- a 28% jump over last year.

The survey also revealed that 59% of all calls on the road are now made using wireless phones, up two percentage points from last year, while the use of pay phones is sharply decreasing, down to 7.6% from 11% a year ago.

The survey also uncovered that 20% of the respondents find they're spending more time on the phone while on the road than last year at this time. Most of these calls, 46%, are for business or keeping in touch with theoffice, but 40% are personal or family calls. Internet and email access account for 8% of on-the-road telecom charges.

Wireless Charges to Corporate Card Growing

This increase is also evident in travel & entertainment (T&E) charge card expenditures. The amount of wireless charges billed to the American Express Corporate Card has increased about 30% year-over-year in May, according to Jud Linville, President of American Express Corporate Services, Canada and U.S.

The wireless increase has been fueled by growth in the length of individual calls, as well as an increase in the number of calls from year to year.

"Our internal research indicates that 25% of our Corporate Cardmembers are using their Cards to pay for their telecom expenses," said Linville. "The majority of business travelers are still submitting separate invoices to their accounting departments, which is a huge administrative burden and gives companies no oversight of their telecom expenses. By requiring travelers to charge wireless phone expenses to their Corporate Card accounts, companies can keep a closer tab on employees' charges to ensure travelers are staying within company policy, and spot opportunities to negotiate the best rates with service providers."

The survey confirmed that despite the rising volume of wireless business calls and the growing impact of telecom costs to corporate expenses, most companies do not require their employees to expense their telecom charges to their T&E charge card. Of business travelers surveyed, only 9% bill wireless expenses to their business T&E card. The survey found 18% of the respondents have their wireless phone service centrally billed to a company account and another 36% either submit an invoice or a bill to accounting for reimbursement.

"Telecom expenses are exploding with today's frantic pace of business, with business travelers' reliance on wireless phones and a dramatic increase in Web access through laptops, mobile phones, and personal digital assistant devices at hotels and on the road," said Linville. "This clearly represents a new area for T&E cost management that will need attention."

Telecom Solutions from American Express

American Express has developed a series of solutions to help companies maximize telecom savings. Billing to the American Express Corporate Card allows corporations to improve management and monitoring of telecom expenses, detect fraudulent use and receive comprehensive MIS reports. Corporate Cardmembers reconcile a single statement and write one check for all their business expenses, reducing the time for expense reimbursement and eliminating the need to write multiple personal checks.

Working with leading telecommunications providers and at no additional cost to the customer, Telecom Solutions from American Express offers a range of out-of-office telecom billing services allowing Cardmembers to directly bill charges for wireless phones, calling card calls, pagers, Internet access and virtual office phones.

Some companies have reported significant reductions in telecom expenses by billing to the Corporate Card, as a result of lower administrative costs and an increase in Cardmember accountability.

"We have been using Telecom Solutions products on our American Express Corporate Cards for approximately one year," said Kathy Powell, Vice President for Data Systems International (DSI), an advanced information technologies solutions company based Overland Park, Kansas. "We have documented our savings to be 30% below what we had originally been paying through our master billed account and, at the same time, we improved our ability to monitor for the unauthorized use of calling cards. I highly recommend taking advantage of Telecom Solutions through American Express."

The survey was conducted by New York-based International Communications Research, which interviewed nearly 600 randomly selected business travelers from July 5 - 9 to create a national sample.