Building and Managing Systems Essay

JetBlue and WestJet A Tale of devil IS Projects The quantify had come for some(prenominal) JetBlue and WestJet to upgrade their military reserve schemes. Each aircraft carrier had head started out using a system designed for smaller start-up skyways, and some(prenominal) needed more processing power to deal with a far-off greater volume of nodes. They also needed features like the ability to interrelate prices and seat inventories to other airlines with whom they cooperated. Both JetBlue and WestJet contracted with Sabre Holdings, one of the near widely hired airline IT tenderrs, to upgrade their airline reservation systems,The contravention between WestJet and JetBlues passation of Sabres SabreSonic CSS reservation system illustrates the dangers inherent in any large-scale IT everyplacehaul. It also serves as insofar another reminder of how successfully planning for and implementing new engine room is effective as valu open as the technology itself. Sabres newes t system, SabreSonic CSS, performs a broad array of services for any airline. It sells seats, collects payments, allows customers to shop for passages on the airlines Web pose, and provides an interface for communication with reservation agents. Customers canuse it to access airport kiosks, select specific seats, check their bags, board, re daybook, and receive refunds for flight cancellations. All of the info generated by these transactions atomic number 18 stored centrally inwardly the system. JetBlue selected SabreSonic CSS over its legacy system developed by Sabre equalize Navitaire, and WestJet was upgrading from an older Sabre reservation system of its own. The first of the dickens airlines to implement SabreSonic CSS was WestJet. When WestJet went live with the new system in October 2009, customers struggled to place reservations, and the WestJet Web identify crashed repeatedly.WestJets call unions were also overwhelmed, and customers experienced slowdowns at airport s. For a family that build its business on the strength of good customer service, this was a nightmare. How did WestJet allow this to happen? The critical issue was the transfer of WestJets 840,000 files containing data on transactions for past WestJet customers who had already purchased flights, from WestJets old reservation system servers in Calgary to Sabre servers in Oklahoma. The migration required WestJet agents to go by complex steps to process the data. WestJet had not anticipated the transfer timerequired to move the files and failed to reduce its passenger loads on flights operational immediately after the changeover. Hundreds of thousands of bookings for future flights that were made before the changeover were Essentials of management Information Systems, Tenth Edition, by Kenneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon. Published by Prentice Hall. copy pay 2013 by Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 1-269-41688-X In recent years, the airline industry has seen several low-cost, high -efficiency carriers sneak to prominence using a recipe of extremely competitive fares and not bad(p) customer service.Two examples of this business model in action are JetBlue and WestJet. Both companies were founded within the past two decades and have quickly magnanimous into industry powerhouses. But when these companies need to make sweeping IT upgrades, their relationships with customers and their brands can be tarnished if things go awry. In 2009, both airlines upgraded their airline reservation systems, and one of the two learned this lesson the hard way. JetBlue was incorporated in 1998 and founded in 1999 by David Neeleman. The caller-up is headquartered in Queens, New York and flies to 63 destinations in 21states and cardinal countries in the Caribbean, South America and Latin America. JetBlues goal has been to provide low-cost travel along with unique amenities like TV in every seat, and its heavy reliance on information technology throughout the business was a crit ical factor in achieving that goal. JetBlue met with archaean success and continued to grow at a rapid pace, consistently ranking at the top of customer satisfaction surveys for U. S. airlines. Headquartered in Calgary, Canada, WestJet was founded by a group of airline industry veterans in 1996, including Neeleman, who left to start JetBlue shortlythereafter. The bon ton began with approximately 40 employees and three aircraft. To daytime, the friendship has 7,800 employees and operates 420 flights per day to 71 destinations in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Earlier in this decade, WestJet underwent rapid expanding upon spurred by its early success and began adding more Canadian destinations and then U. S. cities for its flights. By 2010, WestJet held nearly 40 percent of the Canadian airline market, with Air Canada drop to 55 percent. JetBlue is slightly bigger, with 167 aircraft in use compared to WestJets 88, but both have used the samelow-cost, good-s ervice formula that brought profitability in the notoriously treacherous airline marketplace. The rapid growth of each airline rendered their breathing information systems obsolete, including their airline reservation systems. Upgrading reservations systems carries special risks. From a customer perspective, completely one of two things can happen Either the airline successfully completes its overhaul and the customer notices no difference in the ability to book flights, or the implementation is botched, angering customers and damaging the airlines brand.Chapter 11 make Information Systems and Managing Projects handle these problems. JetBlue cease up using its patronizeup site several times. JetBlue had the advantage of seeing WestJet begin its implementation months before, so it was able to avoid many of the pitfalls that WestJet endured. But JetBlue had also experienced similar customer service debacles in the past. In February 2007, JetBlue tried to operate flights during a efflorescence when all other major airlines had already canceled their flights. This turned out to be a poor decision, as the weather conditions prevented theflights from taking off and passengers were maroon for as long as ten hours. JetBlue had to continue canceling flights for days afterwards, range a total of 1,100 flights canceled and a loss of $30 million. JetBlue management cognize in the wake of the crisis that the airlines IT infrastructure, although sufficient to deal with median(prenominal) day-to-day conditions, was not robust enough to handle a crisis of this magnitude. This experience, coupled with the observation of WestJets struggles when implementing its new system, motivated JetBlues cautious approach shot to its own IT implementation.Sabre had to ad effective the flights using the new system. This delay aggravated a deluge of customer dissatisfaction, a rarity for WestJet. In sum total to the increase in customer complaint calls, customers also took to the Internet to stock their displeasure. Angry flyers expressed outrage on Facebook and flooded WestJets site, cause the repeated crashes. WestJet quickly offered an apology to customers on its site once it came back up, explaining why the errors had occurred. WestJet employees had trained with the new system for acombined 150,000 hours prior to the upgrade, but WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer explained that the company encounter(ed) some problems in the live environment that simply did not pop out in the test environment, foremost among them the issues surrounding the massive file transfer. WestJets latest earnings reports show that the company weathered the storm successfully, remained profitable, and ranks just below JetBlue and Southwest in airline customer satisfaction. Neverthless, the incident forced the airline to slow down its rollout of a frequent flyer program, as well as code-sharing planswith other airlines, such as American Airlines and chinaware Pacific. These plans allow one airline to sell flights under its own establish on aircraft operated by other airlines. In contrast, JetBlue learned from WestJets mistakes, and built a backup Web site to prepare for the worst instance scenario. The company also hired 500 temporary call center workers to manage potential spikes in customer service calls. WestJet also ended up hiring temporary offshore call center workers, but except after the problem had gotten out of hand. JetBlue made sure to switch its files over to Sabres servers on a Friday night, becauseSaturday flight traffic is typically very low. JetBlue also sold smaller numbers of seats on the flights that did take off that day. JetBlue experienced a few glitchescall lodge times increased and not all airport kiosks and ticket printers came online right away. In addition, JetBlue needs to add some booking functions. But compared to what WestJet endured, the company was extremely well prepared to 403 Essentials of Management Information Syste ms, Tenth Edition, by Kenneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2013 by Pearson Education, Inc.