MANAGEMENT COVER

Enterprise apps: lifeline of the airlines industry

Airlines operating in India are leveraging the power of enterprise applications to streamline internal information flows in order to collaborate and enrich their customer's experience, says Abhinav Singh

It is a fiercely competitive market. Airline companies in India are vying to outclass each other in the sky. Increasing use of IT and enterprise applications (EA) has helped these companies offer better services to customers and attract new ones to their fold.

Efficient back-office

Airlines in India have felt the need to streamline their customer-facing departments. By using EA, airline companies aim to pass on vital information to their customers as quickly as possible. These applications have helped airlines to reduce their back-office expenses substantially. Says Manoj Srivastava, head, IT, Air Sahara, “We are using a CRM solution which sits on top of our call centre operations. This helps our call centre agents pass on information to our customers, and also helps in disseminating information with regard to any new service we might have introduced at a particular time.” He explains that by using EA efficiently, Sahara aims to get in touch with its customers directly rather than through travel agents; this will help the airline save on the commission which they have to pay the channel for every customer acquisition. “We will be able to pass on this savings to the passenger,” Srivastava explains.

Satisfying customers

RFID tags will help us keep track of passenger baggage, and help eliminate baggage loss Shyamal Mukherji Director Air-India	By using EA efficiently, Sahara aims to get in touch with its customers directly rather than through travel agents Manoj Srivastava Head, IT Air Sahara

It has become imperative for airlines to go in for EA for the sake of operational efficiency, and for providing enhanced customer service and a heightened travel experience. Airlines in India have realised that EA can help in their initiatives to provide a high level of customer satisfaction. Comments Shyamal Mukherji, director, IT, Air-India, “For an airline, adoption of EA is absolutely necessary for providing better customer service and for carrying out the basic business of the organisation such as passenger reservation, departure control and the like. Without EA it will be very difficult for an organisation to function with globally distributed points of sale and areas of operation.”

Information integration

EA have resulted in a uniform flow of information throughout Air Sahara. Srivastava says, “The easy flow of information has resulted in avoiding duplications as information has to be entered only once. It has also helped our departments to be on an Intranet, and all the users can be logged on at the same time. This has helped us give instant information to our customers.” EA have enabled Air-India to streamline the information flow throughout its 120 locations across the world. Says Mukherji, “Our head office in Mumbai is connected with all our offices worldwide—it is an operational necessity for us.”

Bottlenecks in adoption

Technology adoption isn’t easy for airlines with their operations distributed across locations. There are several unique challenges. Any new product being adopted by an airline has to comply with the GDS (Global Distributions System), which links the different airlines reservation systems across the world. Mukherji explains, “Any new product to be introduced has to comply with the GDS. It is very difficult to get a slot on GDS, and once you get it it takes an average of 10-14 months to get the clearance.” Besides this, due to the price war going on between airlines in India, they keep introducing new products and services frequently. This makes it necessary for them to bring changes in their internal EA system, which poses an immense challenge for the airline companies. Notes Srivastava, “When we went in for an ERP and CRM solution, we customised them as per our business strategy. Now as there is a regular change in our strategy from time to time, we have to bring regular changes in our ERP and CRM systems; this poses a big challenge for us.”

Lost & found

Airlines are toying with the idea of using RFID tags to keep a track on passenger baggage. Air-India already has plans to take this idea forward. The tags will be linked to the ERP system. These RFID tags will be attached to the luggage of the passengers instead of the normal paper tags. Says Mukherji, “These tags will help us keep track of passenger baggage, and will thus help in eliminating baggage loss.”

The national airline is increasing its openness by setting up an in-house call centre for its international passengers. Mukherji explains why: “We felt that by setting up an in-house call centre we would be able to train our workers as per our standards. Meanwhile, we will continue to outsource our call centre operations for our domestic passengers to a third-party call centre.” (The airline’s call centre operations are linked to its CRM solution.)

Meanwhile, Air Sahara is planning to invest in a data warehousing solution wherein a business intelligence solution will be used to get useful business and customer information currently lying in discrete forms.

Airlines operating in India will need to keep on upgrading and bringing innovation to their existing systems. Going by the plans of some like Air-India and Air Sahara, it is clear that they have shown a strong inclination towards IT adoption. On an average, Air Sahara spends eight percent of its total revenues on IT, while Air-India spends around two percent, which is not as meagre as it seems because of its huge revenue. Their IT spend may go up keeping in mind the increasingly competitive scenario and the need to continue to invest in IT to support value-added services.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com