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Visa Inc. today introduced a new global information and reporting tool for commercial cards developed through a partnership with Spendvision, a United Kingdom-based expense-management software maker. Visa says that over the next few years its new IntelliLink Spend Management tool will replace Visa Information Source, Visa Information Source Select and other Visa information management tools that enable commercial card issuers to track and report spending data on commercial cards. Commercial cards typically include corporate, travel & entertainment, purchasing and fleet cards. Visa says organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to multinational corporations, can use IntelliLink to report and analyze their commercial card spending in multiple currencies and languages, with local tax information. IntelliLink also enables corporations to integrate non-card spending into their accounts-payable spending analyses. The product replaces Visa's previous standalone applications with "a single source for corporations to handle comprehensive expense-management, which issuers can customize to their own needs," Janet Zablock, Visa head of commercial sales, tells CardLine. A spokesperson for MasterCard Worldwide tells CardLine that for several years MasterCard has offered a product comparable to IntelliLink called SmartData.gen2. Spendvision also has offered its commercial card expense-management system to individual card issuers for the last several years and will continue to do so. Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. last year adopted Spendvision technology for its commercial card customers. Robert Kirby, Spendvision CEO, tells CardLine sister publication Cards & Payments that as more corporations shift routine corporate payments from costly manual processes to electronic channels, commercial cards are poised for growth. "We predict that over the next five years purchasing cards will become the norm for many corporations' routine payments," Kirby says.
