World Travel Awards

Digital Journal: FCM Ends 2018 on a High After Winning World's Leading Travel Management Company Trophy for 8th Year Running

19 December 2018 - Digital Journal

The World Travel Awards serves to celebrate and reward excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry and is acknowledged as the ultimate travel accolade. Awards are voted for by travel and tourism professionals worldwide, which have recognized the commitment to excellence FCM has demonstrated over the past 12 months.

Competition was fierce, with FCM up against the likes of American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Corporate Travel Management who were all contending for the title “World’s leading Travel Management Company.”

Marcus Eklund, Global Managing Director, FCM commented: “I am extremely proud of the collective contributions of all FCM colleagues in this achievement. The passion and commitment of our people are at the heart of what makes us a successful organization. It is no small feat to achieve this award and shows FCM’s continued commitment to delivering exemplary services to our clients.”

The award rounds off another year of outstanding growth and innovation for FCM with further investment in enhancing technology, products and processes. This includes:

- The launch of Seeqa, a powerful new online booking solution in the UK & Europe that gives travelers and bookers access to unparalleled travel options and functionality as it aggregates GDS, non-GDS and FCM’s proprietary content within one business travel eco-system. Built on the Amadeus cytric platform, Seeqa allows FCM to develop an exclusive roadmap for the platform’s capabilities that includes integrating FCM’s own technology applications and bespoke content

- In the USA, additional advances to FCM’s proprietary reporting solution, ClientBank, particularly development of ‘Connectors’ enabling different data sets to be integrated within one business intelligence platform. This means FCM can provide customers with even greater insights into business travel spend. Clients can also compare variances between their spend with FCM and other travel and expense costs. Areas of focus for Connectors have been: Travel & Expense, Travel Risk Management Intelligence, and Ride Sharing Services.

- The roll out in South Africa of FCM’s latest new technology platform FCM Connect, an innovative suite of next-generation interconnected business travel tools that gives clients a complete travel resource and transforms the user’s experience, whether booker, traveler or manager. The gateway to FCM Connect is ‘HUB’, which links the user to eight integrated evolutionary FCM-owned tools and superior third-party solutions from pre-trip approval and booking, to reporting and traveler tracking

- The launch of Savi in Australia, a next-generation online booking tool that takes inspiration from the very latest in artificial intelligence. Savi has been built on a foundation of exceptional market knowledge and user insight. This cutting-edge online booking product features intelligent functionality such as persona-driven user modules for travelers, bookers and managers, and richer travel content that is exclusive to FCM’s business

During 2018 FCM’s ground-breaking Smart Assistant for Mobile ‘Sam’ was launched in a further 50 markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Sam blends a powerful mix of Artificial Intelligence with the expertise of real FCM travel consultants to provide business travelers with personalized information about their trip via a chat-based interface on their mobile device. FCM also invested in additional enhancements to Sam including a new Duty of Care feature which recognizes the user’s whereabouts and triggers real-time relevant alerts when the traveler might be affected by a nearby incident, and Sam Community – a chatbot assisted ‘community’ for business traveler users to share tips and advice.

FCM also continued to take the lead throughout 2018 in driving development of technology to book IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) airline content in the corporate sector around the globe. FCM has been named a launch partner for global technology provider Sabre’s collaborative initiative ‘Beyond NDC’. FCM will participate with Sabre in the solution design process, integration and testing of an end-to-end NDC solution to meet customer needs. And in EMEA and Asia, FCM was the first travel management company to partner with Amadeus in development of the technology provider’s NDC-X Program. FCM is already working closely with key airline suppliers to test integration of NDC content in Amadeus’ Selling Platform Connect solution in 2019.

The global Leading Travel Management Company award tops off a year of regional World Travel Awards wins for FCM in 2018 as follows: