The Fiji Release

Kaptio Travel Platform’s newest major release is here! For those intrigued about the name, we will explain more about that and our cycle methodology in the final section of the blog, but first we would like to highlight the exciting new features and tools of this release and benefits you might see once you update to the newest version.

Think Fiji is right for you? Talk to your account manager today about getting support for this release today. Think Kaptio is right for you? If you’re not a customer, and like what you are seeing, get in touch with someone from our growth team instead.

Updates & Improvements

The Fiji release is all about increased efficie‍ncy. Whether you’re a sales agent, a travel specialist, or an IT manager, performance during your day-to-day workflows with Kaptio are getting an effective boost. Here’s what we’ve added:

Better Passenger Information

We have added customizable sections to the Passenger Grid, that allow users to make updates to information fields either manually or with JSON using the Lighting App in Salesforce. We have also added information status alerts and account links, so you can quickly see if all data has been filled out by travelers.

For increased efficiency and performance of travel specialists and sales agents as the work to create and modify passenger and account information, these updates will help make the passenger metadata more user-specific and easier to navigate and manage.

New to Booking Wizard

Within Package Search, the Booking Wizard is getting some updates. There is now an options tab, which allows those users creating itineraries to view, compare, and select options within a package before adding it into an itinerary. This will allow sales agents and travel specialists to add per person components, protection plans, etc., before attaching the package to an itinerary.

Additionally, the Booking Wizard now has two new tabs — Pre- and Post-. These tabs will allow users to add days to pre-set trip, either before or after. This will help agents convey all trip details to passengers, including non-packaged pre- and post- days.

Also, we’ve added the ability to force the selection of a component option for an Optional Component in Booking Wizard, by selecting ‘Mandatory Optional’ on an optional component to enable this feature.

RightRez Integrations

We have worked to incorporate the Passenger Name Records (PNRs) into the Kaptio Travel Platform holistically. We made these changes at the API level, so a button now exists to manually add a PNR to an itinerary with just a few clicks. This will hopefully see less frictions between the two products when using these two tools.

New & Improved Packages

We have added new fields to the Package Departure status. We added an option to have an Unpriced Package. We added Package Modification, which allows for changes to optional selections and room/cabin assignments. Basically, Package Search just got a major upgrade and will make your sales agents and travel specialists lives easier.

Deck Plans

Kaptio Travel now has the ability to display deck plans of any and all ships in a fleet with a single click. Help your cruise travelers pick the right cabin for their needs with integrated, easy-to-access deck plans.

Payment Plans and Cancellations

While we have introduced payment plans in the last release (Eiffel), we have incorporated them into our Itineraries module for easier plan configuration. We also added new configurations to the cancellation workflow, so there is wider options when setting these options up.

You can read more about each of these features in-depth in our Fiji Release Guide for Beginners located here, or the more technical release notes located here.

Kaptio’s Way of Working 😎

i.e. when you can expect new releases

We introduced this in the Duomo release blog, but we wanted to highlight this again. In the fall of 2023, leading into the beginning of the Duomo development, Kaptio adopted Cycles as the schedule and cadence of our releases. Cycles are inspired by ShapeUp, a framework for lean product management developed by Basecamp, a software company that makes a web-based team organisation tool.

A cycle is comprised of 6- to 8-weeks during which our engineering teams are developing and delivering product, and the product team is shaping upcoming work in close collaboration with stakeholders. After each six-eight week session is a 2–3-week cooldown sprint during which teams fix bugs and address technical debt, shape-up upcoming work, and/or even learn new things. Meanwhile, the business selects (bets) on pitching for the next cycle. The cooldown sprints are planned like any other sprints, the main difference is that no new product feature work is scheduled for the cooldown sprint.

This means that you will see new releases every two months, and full releases (like Fiji) with a major + minor component every four months. We here at Kaptio Marketing will be coming to you with exciting release updates every four months, and new product announcements as they happen. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you would like a demo of the new Fiji release, contact our sales team at hello@kaptio.com. Big props to our Product and Delivery teams for helping sythesize all this information. Super stars for sure! ⭐