SAP.iO Foundry chooses Hotailors, pioneers in contingent workforce travel management.

Hotailors has joined SAP.iO Foundry in San Francisco, a business-to-business (B2B) travel technology accelerator for the SAP ecosystem. The incubator program is the first step to including Hotailors in the SAP product portfolio.

The SAP.iO Foundry program enables startups to develop their own solutions, integrate with the SAP software ecosystem and identify new clients. The program was originally slated to run for three months in San Francisco. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic meetings and workshops are currently being held remotely. Congrats to SAP for acting fast and marshaling the resources to keep the program running for all the teams!

Every day we’re working side by side with world-class experts and specialists, in both SAP and the wider startup ecosystem of San Fran. Even remotely, this is by far the best place to develop solutions for the business travel industry during the pandemic, but also for the time after the crisis ends. Because this crisis will change the world, and cooperation with SAP means we’ll be ready for the new landscape.

– stresses Filip Błoch, Hotailors founder and CEO

 

A pioneering solution for external workers

Hotailors was selected for participation in the SAP accelerator program because the company’s product solves a real challenge for large enterprises – which make up many of SAP Concur’s customers. Hotailors is a global leader in managing travel for the contingent workforce.

We’ve already reached the stage at which we’re meeting the needs of the market. Our services are used by thousands of travelers. We’re working with large corporations like Google and Vodafone.

– says Michał Szeksztełło, COO and cofounder of Hotailors

At present, there are essentially no other tools offering such comprehensive solutions for this category of business travel. Contractors’ expenses on business trips typically remain beyond the real control of companies and are hidden amongst project costs. The job market has evolved dramatically in recent years, moving more towards contractual-based employment, but business travel solutions have failed to keep up with the changes.

  • engagement of external staff is a crucial and necessary aspect of attracting the most sought-after specialists on the market (SAP & Said School, 2018)
  • there has been a huge shift over the last 10 years: Contractors today are specialists rather than production workers (Katz & Kreuger, 2016)
  • 44% of salaries in large businesses are made up of external employee costs (SAP & Said School, 2018)
  • 36% of employees in the United States are contractors and freelancers (Gallup, 2018)

 

Hotailors gives companies complete visibility of, and control over, external employees’ business travel spend. It also provides real-time knowledge of expenses and the remaining budgets for projects across the company. Hotailors enables this by extending travel policies, approvals and security rules from just full-time employees to the external employees as well.

 

SAP.iO Foundry: A growth opportunity

Invitations to the competition were extended to the most promising startups from around the world. Hotailors is one of the winning eight selected.

During the accelerator programme, running from March to June , Hotailors will work together with SAP specialists across product, sales and marketing to develop an integration and go-to-market approach as a listed partner on SAP Concur’s app centre. This will make it easy [for existing SAP Concur’ clients] to initiate travel for external employees engaged in temporary projects and facilitate real-time exchange of data on expenses, making it visible to budget managers.

– explains Maciej Stopierzyński, CTO and cofounder of Hotailors.

SAP.iO Foundry is the first step to including Hotailors in the SAP product range. Our inclusion represents an opportunity to cooperate with over 425,000 companies worldwide who benefit from SAP’s technologies. Both SAP and Hotailors see the potential of a real value-added for existing Concur clients looking to better manage their external workforces. Companies will experience tremendous time savings, increased transparency of expenses and far easier planning of future budgets. For Hotailors, it will mean a great leap forward in development with even bigger opportunities to come.

This is an opportunity for immediate, rapid development and positions Hotailors to achieve in the American market what would normally take years to accomplish. We look forward to working with SAP.io Foundry to deliver value to their Fortune 500 clients.

– emphasizes Filip Błoch