A Service Oriented Architecture helps develop a self-service approach and
improve the Customer experience
Paul
Coby, CIO for British Airways (BA), says a Service
Oriented Architecture (SOA) is helping the airline develop its self-service
approach and ensure the Customer remains the priority.
As
self-service technologies such as Online Check-in become the norm among
airlines, Coby is keen to stay ahead of the
game. He says SOA is a flexible architectural process that allows the
reuse of resources and will enable BA to respond quickly to Customer service
issues.
“Anyone
can buy the technology to have online check-in, but the clever thing is how you
integrate it with the Customer experience. SOA enables you to get things
right by allowing you to make short-term changes where you need to be flexible
and agile, such as making sure the seating policy is right,” says Coby.
“If
you set up the systems correctly, unlike the old days where you had to go into
some code, SOA allows you to get things done by
rules. For example, seating policy or an upgrade can be based on a set of
rules or criteria. There is a lot you can do quickly to manage systems by
enabling you to change parameters.”
“The
direction in which we are heading is the ability to manage things directly by
putting the business in control of the system so it can fine-tune and change
things,” says Coby. “For example, with marketing
engines in the BA.com
web site, the business can define which group it wants to
talk to in order to make offers.”
Service
orientation is also crucial for the development of BA’s self-service staff
portal. “With SOA, the goal is to move much more quickly in what we want
to make available to staff,” says Coby.
“Instead of building a system, performing a transaction, or preparing a new
report that takes nine months, it can be done in minutes or seconds.”
However,
Coby says that it is important to realize the
limitations of SOA. He says service orientation cannot change the
fundamental actions of systems - but if IT organizations understand the
architecture, they should be able to create more flexible systems.
For example, Coby says SOA
helps with convergence projects, as passengers embrace mobility
and look to use telephones to receive flight information and check in at the
airport.
“We
need to keep thinking about new technologies that give people what they want
and mobility ranks highly with the new generation of passengers,” he
says. “SOA is helping us apply the right processes as we converge.”
Lisa Kelly 08 Nov 2007