ISON Travel

No day is the same in the travel industry. The fast pace is both a challenge and an opportunity for those who know when and how to seize the moment. Helen Cannon, CEO and founder of ISON Travel, has always had a keen sense for timing and the vision to stay ahead of the curve. “ISON is an extremely dynamic, fast-moving company. We do not sit still”, she says. 

Thirteen years ago, Helen, entrepreneur and mother of five, set out with a clear vision: to create a high-touch, tech-forward TMC that would not only meet today’s needs but be ready for the future. ISON Travel has since grown fivefold in just four years, marking a significant presence in the travel management space, with €46.3 million in revenue in 2023, up from €4.3 million in 2020.

This remarkable growth, recognised by its inclusion on the Times’ fastest-growing companies list, opened exciting opportunities and new challenges. As a result, Helen was seeking a tech partner who could support ISON’s expansion, and that’s when Sabre came in. 

The quest for the right technology partner 

“We identified Sabre as being just as dynamic as we are,” says Helen. “We were looking for a partner that could pivot quickly to the demands of the industry—and to ours. We gave Sabre some incredibly tight deadlines at the beginning of our partnership, and they didn’t flinch.” 

With a clear strategy in mind, ISON Travel wanted to tackle content fragmentation, leverage Sabre’s multi-source content and capabilities, introduce automation to improve agent efficiency, and drive innovation across the business.  

“From our very first interaction with Sabre, they really took the time to fully understand what our business was about, what we needed, and what we were looking for going forward,” Helen recalls. “They weren’t just focused on our immediate needs. They really understood our goals and what we wanted to achieve in the next three to five years. And we identified very, very early on that Sabre was a partner that we could work with.”

Getting started with Sabre 

ISON and Sabre quickly kicked off the collaboration. Gillian Keir, Travel Technology Specialist at ISON Travel, was instrumental in the onboarding process and appreciated the collaborative approach taken by Sabre.

“A good onboarding process has to be very collaborative by all parties. We are really thrilled with how the implementation went with Sabre because we’ve had experiences with some bad onboarding in the past, and we didn’t have any of those issues with Sabre”, Gillian explains. “It’s been a speedy process, but not at the detriment of any of the deliverables. It’s been kept on track and project-managed really well by the delivery team, and I can’t thank them enough.” 

The four-step onboarding process 

The onboarding process at Sabre is broken down into four key stages: planning, training, tech integration, and ongoing support. “The planning part was absolutely seamless,” says Gillian. “We managed to get the right people in the right room asking the right questions. The training was also very exciting”, she mentions, highlighting that there were a lot of excited agents involved, and that the training was done at the Sabre offices, “which was a nice couple of days out while learning at the same time.” 

“The tech integration is just phenomenal,” continues Gillian. “It was managed effectively, and we had clear guidelines with what I call stage boundaries in place. We knew that there were certain steps that we all had to work together to deliver. We’ve never felt pushed or rushed. The communication has been key, and the support from Sabre has been outstanding.”

The impact of the partnership has been immediately visible to ISON Travel’s agents. “Our agents at ISON are extremely excited to use Sabre,” says Gillian. “One of the biggest pain points for our agents is having multiple content sources to check to make a booking. Sabre eliminates this for our agents because they only have one place to check for all the content they need. The bonus is that they can service these bookings and see them in the live environment, which benefits both the agents and our customers with quicker turnarounds.”

Helen shares in this excitement, noting, “Fragmentation isn’t going anywhere, but Sabre’s access to multi-source content and the capabilities that sit on top of it, enabling our agents with tools that bring efficiencies within the business, is truly phenomenal and something that really excites us about our future with Sabre.” She explains that corporate clients “want choice, value, efficiency, and a super-responsive service” and that content fragmentation “can be a blocker to delivering what the customers are wanting”.

Helen also acknowledges the role of fragmentation in driving innovation: “Fragmentation allows a TMC to demonstrate its value to a corporate client through innovation and the ability to deliver value. Being able to show how you can innovate and bring all this multi-source content together and deliver it to your clients in the most efficient way possible—through Sabre’s platform—enables us to provide the most seamless experience possible.”

Looking ahead

As the partnership continues to grow, both Helen and Gillian are confident that ISON Travel and Sabre’s shared commitment to innovation and excellence will ensure ongoing success.

“The biggest takeaway that I can take from this whole process with Sabre is the amazing people we have met and worked with,” says Gillian. “We are really excited to continue working with Sabre because Sabre is an evolving technology company, and so is ISON.” Helen concludes, “Their unwavering commitment to excellence has been outstanding from day one, and I’m so excited to see our partnership grow.”