FCM Strengthens Tech With Shep Acquisition
FCM has announced that its parent company Flight Centre Travel Group has fully acquired Shep, the Texas-based software company that provides a browser-extension based communication platform for multi-national corporations.
The acquisition builds on last year’s initial investment in the firm, and boosts FCM’s already robust technology offering.
Marcus Eklund, global managing director of FCM, said that: “At FCM, we strive to offer a best-in-class traveller experience at every touchpoint of the customer journey. The Shep software has allowed us to extend that experience on third party websites, further building on the flexibility we offer customers that we’ve become known for.”
Shep’s integration into the FCM customer offering comes at a pivotal time as the company gears up for the global rollout of its highly anticipated new omni-channel platform to service a multi-national client base that stretches over 100 countries.
Daniel Senyard, co-founder and CEO of Shep, observed that: “FCM shares our passion for intelligent and ground-breaking technology that addresses pain points and vastly improves the user experience. We are thrilled and excited to play our part in supporting their vision for the new FCM Platform.”
Built in-house and fully proprietary, FCM’s new platform provides a comprehensive, globally consistent experience that delivers a superior level of choice and that all-important flexibility and ability to choose from a number of integrations to deliver on multi-national and local needs.
The Shep browser tool will enable FCM to customize content and enhance the user experience on third party websites and online booking tools that corporate customers use, either as part of the FCM platform’s flexible offering or when booking or searching outside of a company’s recommended booking tools.
There are also tangible benefits for customers in the important areas of health, safety, sustainability and policy guidance, which the Shep product will enable FCM to integrate into these systems when the products don’t offer them themselves.
As a result, customers can expect greater consistency across the globe, while also delivering better control, duty of care, sustainability and communications benefits – a critical priority in today’s evolving travel landscape.
Alongside Shep, FCM will continue to leverage the significant technology investments its parent company has made in recent years to improve customer experience.
These include the acquisitions of booking technology specialist WhereTo, mobile chatbot platform Sam, and equity investment in air content aggregator TPConnects.
Said Eklund: “Our continued focus in game-changing technology provides our corporate clients with superior tools and services to help them stay ahead of the rapidly evolving corporate travel landscape. This will allow us to emerge from the pandemic in an incredibly powerful way.”
