Ai Editorial: 4 areas that airlines are working on to gear up for digital age

First Published on 9^th March, 2018

Ai Editorial: How is digital transformation coming along? Is there any tangible process or outcome from all of this? Airlines are showing progress, writes Ai’s Ritesh Gupta

Expectations of a traveller when they shop or travel with an airline revolve around value exchange and trust, and even saving on time especially considering that planning a trip can be a laborious task. This isn’t really new when we talk of what typically a consumer would look from any product category. But meeting such expectations isn’t easy in today’s era where brands are trying to make the of every data trail that a traveller leaves behind or how they are embracing technology.

As underlined by OpenJaw, businesses have to transform themselves in order to thrive in the digital age.

Here we evaluate how airlines are responding:

1. Transitioning into a digital organization: Air New Zealand has evolved as an enterprise. Their transformation process started in 2015. The team acknowledges the fact that there is a team of digital leaders with diverse backgrounds and skills. The roles include responsibility for accelerating transformation, facilitating decision making through analytics, making the most of cloud services, how to make the most of user experience and product development teams, cutting down on the threat or even negating the impact of cybercrimes, data breaches etc.

In one of our recent interviews, Kevin O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder, Indigo.gt acknowledged that there  is a lot of pressure on airlines to deliver new experiences to passengers. For instance, if an airline intends to target a traveller with an ancillary product then it would need to gear up for the real-time delivery of content as per the phase of the journey of the traveller, the device being used, purchase history plus clicks related to the latest transaction (or even cart abandonment) if any that indicated interest in an ancillary offering etc. So who would be responsible for making the most of personal data? How to ensure the custom integration work is in place in case of a headless architecture since the front-end and the back-end are disconnected (otherwise personalized content won’t be possible) etc. There is a need to define new roles to capitalize on the journey of digital transformation.  

2. Understanding the utility of cloud, APIs, microservices etc.: Being agile and being open to testing and experimentation without impacting business continuity is a critical aspect for airlines as the likes of full-service carriers have always been process-centric. The utility of microservices comes to the fore when businesses consider synergy in the application development process. The strength lies in breaking applications into smaller, independent services that are not dependent upon a specific coding language. This way airlines or travel e-commerce end up having more flexibility over operations and deployments. When it comes to changing the way purchasing flow works or the check-in process, these tend to be relatively big IT projects. But when it comes to aspects like microservices, O’Shaughnessy contemplates the possibility of appointing a project manner, responsible for “getting something done quickly and get out of the door in an agile way”. In a positive development, proactive airlines are embracing an open-first culture within their development teams. This underlines the fact latest capabilities are deliberated first with a perspective that any member/ team could potentially use them.

3. Attaining customer-centricity with responsibility: If on one hand airlines have been building on a core data asset with a perspective that if a company can’t access their own customer data, airlines can’t even get close to attaining customer-centricity, then on the other they also need to respect privacy, too. In fact, it is being pointed out that developments such as General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR (coming into force in Europe on 25th May this year) are also resulting in a meaningful digital transformation. There is no scope for companies that mishandle/ misuse data. Also, rather than considering security and customer experience separately, this development paves way for a more holistic view of the customer experience. As we highlighted in one of our recent articles, there is a need to be aware of registered consent when accessing customer data (so data coming from any touchpoint and system, the related computation or processing of data is to be done in sync with consent, assess how the data is being used, what data is being used and for how long that data can be used), address data audits in a speedy, exhaustive manner (say who has been accessing data) and ensure there is consent across all touchpoints (including integration with consent registration databases). The core data asset, say a customer data platform, needs to collect, manage, and store personal data responsibly.

4. Omni-channel shopping and servicing: There is plenty to look forward to in this arena as to how a core data asset blends with core airline systems/ engines. How can airlines bank on business rules and control content for each customer to get closer to personalization? How to ensure new processes, such as IATA’s One Order, can be incorporated into an airline’s IT set up to come up with a consistent experience across the booking funnel? There are lots of interesting developments in this arena. Airlines are being pushed to expect a lot more their respective PSSs, especially full-service carriers. There is a need to opt for a platform that’s a blend of both offer and order management, standing out for business intelligence, passenger identification module etc. for a seamless journey (being aware of the current flight, current order, servicing needs etc.). Whether this platform becomes a part of a PSS or works alongside it, a master record would serve the travellers best, be it for shopping or servicing.

Hear from experts about digital transformation at the upcoming Ancillary Merchandising Conference, to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland this year (9-11 April, 2018).

For more info, click here                    

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