American Express, IBM Join Forces To Offer Easy-To-Use Online Tool For Reporting, Reconciling Business Expenses.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2002

"American Express @ Work Reconciliation Management" Will Enable

Companies to Process Travel and Purchasing Costs More Efficiently

American Express Company, the world's largest issuer of corporate cards, and International Business Machines (IBM), the world's largest information technology services provider, today announced an agreement to jointly develop a Web-based expense reporting and reconciliation tool designed to reduce the cost of managing everyday business expenses.

Marketed by American Express as part of its American Express @ Work suite of online expense management tools and hosted by IBM, the application will help companies boost productivity and increase control over everyday expenses by automating employees' expense reporting and reconciliation processes.

The American Express @ Work(R) Reconciliation Management tool eliminates the need for such labor-intensive practices as manually obtaining signature approvals and reviewing corporate policies. It also relieves the burden on Accounts Payable personnel of verifying and assigning accounting codes to the thousands of travel and purchasing expenses companies incur every month. The new "e-business on demand" service will be available to American Express Corporate Card and Corporate Purchasing Card clients in the second quarter of 2002. Pilot tests are now underway.

"Companies need to manage the bottom line now more than ever, and our aim is to bring automated expense reporting and reconciliation to a wider audience through our relationships with the tens of thousands of companies using our cards," said Yvonne Schneider, Vice President, Global Product Development, American Express Corporate Services. "Together IBM and American Express are filling a gap for world-class expense reporting and reconciliation tools backed by blue chip security standards, customer service and implementation support."

American Express will offer two modules of the solution, one for reporting travel and miscellaneous business expenses, the other for reconciling corporate purchases. Both have been adapted from a Java application that IBM developed for its own internal use to serve the company's hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide.

Accessed via a standard Web browser through the American Express website, the reconciliation tool will offer business travelers, corporate purchasers and accounting departments a single, user-friendly site where they can audit, manage and process everyday expenses. The solution automatically inserts relevant expense data into employees' expense reports and purchasing reconciliation forms from their Corporate Cards and Corporate Purchasing Cards, enabling users to quickly review charges for accuracy and only supply a few necessary accounting codes.

Accounting departments can configure the solution to help ensure that employees meet company policies and tax requirements. Employees may benefit from faster approvals and reimbursement. Companies can benefit from reducing the costs of managing and rectifying improperly documented expenses. The solution also produces data files that integrate with a variety of financial systems, helping streamline reimbursement to the individual and facilitate payment of commercial card bills electronically.

American Express @ Work Reconciliation Management will meet the needs of companies that place a priority on reducing their employees' administrative burden, as well as companies that need a maximum of accounting detail captured for financial and procurement reporting.

"We invented the expense reporting solution to help reduce the hassle of reporting expenses for our own employees and avoid the costs associated with processing them," said Ralph Senst, vice president, e-business collaboration solutions for IBM. "Now companies of all sizes can access a hosted version of one of the key productivity tools that has helped IBM become a premier e-business."

About American Express Corporate Services

American Express Company (www.americanexpress.com) is the leading provider of commercial cards, corporate travel and expense management solutions in the U.S. Through its Corporate Services group, formed in 1982, the company counts more than 70% percent of the Fortune 500, along with tens of thousands of mid-sized companies, as customers of its Corporate Travel, Corporate Card, and Corporate Purchasing Card services. A growing number of companies are enrolled in American Express' cost-saving interactive solutions, including Corporate Travel Online and American Express @ Work.

The American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel, financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, financial planning, investment products, insurance and international banking.

About IBM Global Services 

IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology services provider, with approximately 150,000 professionals serving customers in 160 countries and annual revenue of about $35 billion (2001). IBM Global Services integrates IBM's broad range of capabilities -- services, hardware, software and research -- to help companies of all sizes realize the full value of information technology. For more information about IBM expense reporting solutions and IBM Global Services, visit: http://www.ibm.com/services/e-business/ers.