Transforming the Future of Travel Through Innovation
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About the Company
As one of the world’s largest global airlines, this US airline company has for a decade led the airline industry in operational excellence while maintaining the reputation for award-winning customer service. With the mission of connecting the people and cultures of the globe, the company strives to foster understanding across a diverse world and serve as a force for social good.
Challenge
Technology is rapidly transforming the travel industry as travellers constantly seek innovative solutions that can make their flying experience more comfortable. As a result, the aviation sector is increasingly harnessing the power of IT and innovation to provide a seamless and efficient customer experience.
The airline has been on a digital transformation journey for several years, and the move to the public cloud significantly accelerated that journey. To support the technology innovations and cloud transformation, they needed differentiated talent beyond their existing tech hubs. Their workforce is comprised of a mix of employees and contractors. However, the company believed there are certain types of work that are best done by its own people. Projects that deliver a competitive advantage or those that generate significant intellectual property needed to be supported within the organization.
Unlocking the Business Value
The airline partnered with ANSR in 2019 to establish a Global Capability Center in India in line with three IT business priorities:
They engaged ANSR to advise on the requirements for establishing a Global Capability Center to enable the business’ priorities and to expand IT capabilities in India. ANSR’s GCC Playbook framework and recommendations allowed the company to determine all key requirements and decisions needed to operationalize a GCC in India.
Building a World-Class Team that is at the Frontlines of Disruption
Like others in the industry, the company faced a massive slowdown in air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. They took this as an opportunity to transform their business, so when the recovery starts, they could emerge stronger, more modernized, and more agile for the future. with ANSR’s help, the company scaled their India team from 40 to 250 members, despite the uncertainty the pandemic cast around the world.
The IT Transformation and International Technology team today spearheads their multi-year transformation program. The team manages IT operational excellence to drive delivery in five specific areas: Metrics and Performance Analytics, Operations and Capital Planning, Program Delivery Tools, Vendor Management Operations, and Strategic Initiatives.
The Software Engineering team has already started taking the applications from the legacy tool to the cloud. The team develops solutions for various teams and functions within IT. It supports internal teams such as Corporate Technology, Crew Services, Digital IT, Enterprise Automation –Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Operations Technology, Reservations, and more.
The Channels Purchasing team successfully executes transactions annually through the inhouse payments engine with billions of dollars in transactions, while the Identity Access Management (IAM) team provides information security services to employees, business partners, and customers.
The Omnichannel Technology team manages the user experience and content on the website, ensuring the customer-facing app on Mobile and Enterprise Mobility employee-facing apps are optimized for the best user experience and maintaining the reservations technology.
The GCC also has an IT Revenue Accounting team designed to support the consolidation and report on flight and ticket information. It owns the airline’s single source of ticket information and revenue data, develops ticket data capabilities required to meet changing information needs, and attends to end users’ requests for information with the help of technologies such as Java, cloud, and APIs.
Impact
It’s no secret that API is an essential technology that enables a business to thrive in the digital space. The Retail API Platform and Revenue Framework team has worked on some exciting projects and made a significant impact on the airline’s transformation program in a short span. In addition to creating critical APIs through the retail API platform and revenue engines, the team developed the branding API – the first high-use API used more than a billion times a month.
The APIs being built at the GCC support more than $20 billion in revenue for the company. All the flight shopping that customers do on the website, on the mobile app and on some third-party channels is supported by APIs built here.
The GCC successfully leveraged ANSR’s #TakeTwo programme to offer complimentary upskilling program for experienced women technologists with best-in-class practices and latest tech trends with a goal to get them job-ready.
