Building and Managing Systems Essay

JetBlue and WestJet A Tale of Two IS Projects The time had come for both JetBlue and WestJet to stir their reservation systems. Each carrier had started out using a system designed for smaller start-up airlines, and both needed more processing power to deal with a far greater volume of customers. They to a fault needed features like the ability to link prices and seat inventories to other(a) airlines with whom they cooperated. both(prenominal) JetBlue and WestJet contracted with saber Holdings, atomic number 53 of the most widely pulmonary tuberculosisd airline IT providers, to upgrade their airline reservation systems,The going away between WestJet and JetBlues implementation of Sabres SabreSonic CSS reservation system illustrates the dangers inherent in either large-scale IT all overhaul. It also serves as yet another reminder of how masteryfully planning for and implementing unseas one(a)d technology is besides as valuable as the technology itself. Sabres newest syste m, SabreSonic CSS, performs a broad array of services for any airline. It sells seats, collects payments, fall by the waysides customers to shop for flights on the airlines Web come in, and provides an interface for communication with reservation agents. Customers canuse it to access airport kiosks, select specific seats, check their bags, board, rebook, and receive refunds for flight cancellations. All of the data generated by these transactions are stored centrally within the system. JetBlue selected SabreSonic CSS over its legacy system developed by Sabre rival Navitaire, and WestJet was upgrading from an older Sabre reservation system of its own. The first of the two 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 site crashed repeatedly.WestJets crab centers were also overwhelmed, and customers experienced slow tear downs at airports. For a company th at built 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 dint of complex steps to process the data. WestJet had not anticipated the transfer timerequired to move the files and failed to push down its passenger loads on flights operating immediately after the changeover. Hundreds of thousands of bookings for future flights that were made before the changeover were Essentials of Management breeding Systems, Tenth Edition, by Kenneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2013 by Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 1-269-41688-X In recent years, the airline manufacture has seen several low-cost, high-efficien cy carriers rise to prominence using a recipe of exceedingly competitive fares and outstanding 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 grown into industry powerhouses. But when these companies need to even off 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 company is headquartered in Queens, New York and fly to 63 destinations in 21states and eleven countries in the Caribbean, South America and Latin America. JetBlues intention has been to provide low-cost travel along with unique amenities like TV in every(prenominal) seat, and its heavy reliance on information technology throughout the business was a cri tical work out in achieving that goal. JetBlue met with early success and continued to grow at a rapid pace, consistently rank 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 company began with approximately 40 employees and three aircraft. To sidereal day, the company 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 expansion 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 travel Canada dropping to 55 percent. JetBlue is slightly bigger, with 167 aircraft in use compared to WestJets 88, but both have apply the samelow-cost, go od-service formula that brought profitability in the notoriously tr each(prenominal)erous airline marketplace. The rapid growth of each airline rendered their existing information systems obsolete, including their airline reservation systems. Upgrading reservations systems carries special risks. From a customer perspective, only 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 construction Information Systems and Managing Projects handle these problems. JetBlue ended up using its backup site several times. JetBlue had the advantage of eyesight WestJet begin its implementation months before, so it was able to avoid many of the pitfalls that WestJet endured. But JetBlue had also experienced correspondent customer service debacles in the past. In February 2007, JetBlue tried to operate flights during a blizzard 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 winning off and passengers were stranded for as long as ten hours. JetBlue had to continue canceling flights for days afterwards, reaching a total of 1,100 flights canceled and a loss of $30 million. JetBlue jazzment realized in the wake of the crisis that the airlines IT infrastructure, although sufficient to deal with normal day-to-day conditions, was not robust enough to handle a crisis of this magnitude. This experience, linked with the observation of WestJets struggles when implementing its new system, motivated JetBlues cautious approach to its own IT implementation.Sabre had to fix the flights using the new system. This delay provoked a deluge of customer dissatisfaction, a rarity for WestJet. In addition to the increase in customer complaint chitchats, customers also took to the Internet t o express their displeasure. Angry flyers verbalized outrage on Facebook and flooded WestJets site, causing 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 appear in the test environment, foremost among them the issues skirt 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 Cathay Pacific. These plans allow one airline to sell flights under its own name on aircraft operated by other airlines. In contrast, JetBlue learned from WestJets mistakes, and built a backup Web site to found for the worst case 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 only 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 sell smaller numbers of seats on the flights that did take off that day. JetBlue experienced a few glitchescall wait times increased and not all airport kiosks and ticket printers came online right away. In addition, JetBlue necessitate to add some booking functions. But compared to what WestJet endured, the company was extremely well prepared to 403 Essentials of Management Information Systems, Tenth Edition, by Kenne th C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright 2013 by Pearson Education, Inc.