Virgin cargo GSA deal with ECS raises eyebrows, but 'there's no conflict'
Last week’s announcement that Virgin Atlantic (VS) had appointed ECS Group as its GSSA in ...
Adrien Thominet, CEO, ECS Group
PRESS RELEASE, November 2: ECS Group is building today’s industry. For the last two years, the group has been investing heavily in its digital transformation to support its clients – and its employees – as the business develops. The leading GSSA is now able to rely on a team who is fully dedicated to offering cutting-edge technological support to all of the group’s 138 airline clients.
ECS Group has over 1200 employees in 155 offices across 50 countries. Since the beginning of the year, it has transported no less than 850,000 tonnes of cargo. The airlines that the group represents have been able to rely on the unwavering support of its global teams, bolstered by its ability to adapt and to anticipate developments. “We need to stop talking about the future. We’re already there. Our employees and our clients have been very suddenly thrust into a crisis that has turned our industry and our everyday practices upside down, but it has also allowed us to roll out all of our digital solutions. It’s clear that we were ready. And today more than ever, we are determined to continue along this path,” said Adrien Thominet, CEO of ECS Group.
ECS Group is now able to offer all of its clients the services of its Cargo Revenue Optimization department – a department dedicated to managing performance and maximizing revenue through commercial planning, pricing, analysis, real-time reporting and decision-making support systems. This technological progress is the result of projects developed by the leading GSA’s Cargo Digital Factory, a laboratory that has enabled the creation of high added-value tools: Apollo business intelligence and reporting system; Pathfinder tracking system; and more recently Quantum, the in-house ad-hoc pricing support system
A crucial step involved providing ECS Group employees the means to get the most out of all of these tools, helping them to stand out through true service excellence, a core element of the GSA’s business. The group has also made significant investments in this area to create an e-learning platform. This platform, Discovery, is fully dedicated to training and offers online modules on 15 different topics. Some of these courses are completely modular to ensure they fully meet the day-to-day needs of employees. The group has also put in place a “Change Ambassador” programme to coordinate the implementation of this transformation across all countries.
“All of this means that ECS Group is perfectly ready for its next steps. The digital strategy in place within the group perfectly complements our teams’ business abilities, and as such, it is a significant asset for our customers,” says Cedric Millet, Chief Strategy & Digital Officer at ECS Group. ECS is also taking things further by setting-up partnerships when they can optimize ECS Group’ processes or the ones of its clients. The leading GSSA is currently implementing partnerships with the main e-booking platforms to digitize the booking process and generate additional revenues for its customers.
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