Travel Planning - Interface with American Express

[Former Member]

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Hi All,

I am very New to Travel planning.

My client raised the requirement to integrate the travel planning with American express.

So that Employee can directly book Airline tickets through SAP travel planning.

My Query:

1. How can we integrate American express External reservation system with SAP ??

2. How does Amadeus or Galileo GDS are helpful in this ??

3. What are the challenges in integrating external reservation system with SAP ??

Kindly help me.

Thanks in Advance........

Regards,

Edwin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Edwin,

1: There is no SAP standard interface to connect Amex reservation system

     (SAP standards exist for: e-Travel from Amadeus, GetThere for Sabre: ERP 6.0 EhP5)

2:  GDS = Global Distribution System. Most online booking tools have interfaces to at least to one of the these GDS's. (Most flights are stored in these systems for online bookings)

3: Some of the notes from Lukas are very helpful to understand the technical complexity of integration of external booking platforms. At the end it is important what to archive with this integration. Therefore I always recommend to scope very clearly with the travel management department the goal of "online bookings" and integration of these external services.

Best regards,

Sigi

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

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Thank You so much Sigi

and Sorry for Late reply...

Some more queries regarding Credit Card Clearing...

Actually We are also planning to incorporate the Credit Card Clearing Concept

in Travel Expenses. American express is our major service Provider.

Upload of Credit Card Transaction data into SAP will be manual.

1. What will be SAP specific credit card transactional data format (to Upload in SAP) and Service Provider (American Express) keys to map in SAP ??

2. How to contact American Express to integrate Credit Card Transactional data in SAP ??

Awaiting response on these Queries on earliest basis.

Thanks in advance...

Best Regards,

Edwin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi.

Currently I am working on this kind of the Project and, currently we are facing a huge issue between SAP and Amadeus, maybe you or someone can help me with the following issue.

- The issue is related with "Remarks": They are entered by the travel agency and when them are imported from GDS to AMI they are transfered, but when the synchronization is done from AMI to SAP the "Remarks are not comming to SAP.

We are using the Web Service: CO_AMI_TRIP_PLAN, some one knows how to fix this issue?

Best Regards.

Victor Calderón.

[Lukas_Weigelt · Accepted solution]

Hi Victor,

please open a new thread for your question instead of reviving a two year old thread . Also please provide as much information as possible.

Cheer, Lukas

<Thread locked>

[Lukas_Weigelt]

Hi Edwin,

>> 1. How can we integrate American express External reservation system with SAP ??

I guess with means of enormous programming expertise in ABAP/+OO/WDA, SOAP, vast knowledge of the FI-TV-PL module, lot's of time and nerves of steel.

>> 2. How does Amadeus or Galileo GDS are helpful in this ??

In theory, the Amadeus GDS Gateway provides a standard interface to SAP R/3 and as far as I know (you might want to confirm this) American Express Corporate Services has been certified by Amadeus (ten years ago or so) to be a partner in the whole SAP Travel R/3 pulp.

>> 3. What are the challenges in integrating external reservation system with SAP ??

Okay, let me elaborate on my partially sarcastic behaviour.

My company is currently in the process of implementing SAP Travel Management including FI-TV-PL with the so called standard interfaces "HRS" and "BIBE". I have been involved with the Planning module now for about half a year I think and it is hell. I'm direly thankful the OSS support is doing an awesome job at the moment collaborating with me and fixing up the module (this is not meant sarcastically, they really do a great job). So yeah, what challenges are there:

• The standard documentation has lots of gaps. is partially obsolete and might leave you in the dark and pioneering how to initially set up your system or to get a grip of a plan what you actually "have to do to get things work" roughly.
• The information-density of the travel planning module on SCN and on the web at all is very very thin and very theoretical, so you will spend lots of time playing around with the modules of the standard interfaces, swim around in the runtime of programs and logs trying to get a grip.
• The attachment of an external interface is a set of numerous steps; you'll have standard reports, WDAs, probably PI scenarios or B2B connectors, Web Services, Data Container Services like iDocs and so on playing a role in one or more parts of the entire process. I personally found it to be challenging to stay on top of things
• Travel Reservation services evolve fast. A lot faster than SAP reacts with respective maintenance activities for the SAP connectors, master data, interfaces etc. This might result in not being able to use the current available solution an external service provides, but rather an older one which could already be considered obsolete.
• You'll have numerous contact persons, which usually causes progress to slow down
• I found the module FI-TV-PL to have as many technical holes as a swiss cheese which again takes tons of time for analysis and correction proposals; but as I said, things get better thanks to SAP's development support (and my own persistence if I might add that in my arrogance)

That pretty much sums it up. I hope this doesn't disillusions you too much but I think it's better to know what's coming than noticing in midst of the implementation (like me).

best regards + Cheers,

Lukas

[Former Member]

Travel Planning - Interface with American Express

Thanks Very much Lukas for sharing your experience.

I will keep in mind all of the points that you mentioned here and will be seeking

your help in nearby future.

Warm Regards,

Edwin

Travel Planning - Interface with American Express