UK. Inflight POS technology provider BOM and iAnywhere Solutions, the mobile and wireless subsidiary of Sybase, together with LogicaCMG are providing Britannia Airways with solutions to mobilise its cabin crew and boost sales.
Britannia runs BOM’s Clue Sky Trader inflight sales system with a customised SkyDock docking station on the trolley for crew PDAs. The new wireless solution is designed to enable cabin crew and pilots to access a wide variety of information including email, flight crew rosters, health and safety information and duty free point of sale applications, on Casio PDAs. This move opens up the communications channel between all Britannia employees as well as providing cost and timesavings, and process improvements.
Britannia’s director of IT and change Iain Andrew said: “This initiative is part of Britannia’s strategy to enable our entire organisation through an automated workflow and knowledge management system. The PDA and e-flightdeck projects will allow the initial investment in our Livelink intranet system to be fully capitalised, allowing remote access to our information and processes in the air”.
Over 2,300 users at Britannia are utilising the iAnywere mobile solution which includes a local SQL database on the PDA, data synchronisation, integration, mobile email and the remote device management software, Manage Anywhere. Cabin crew can use their own personal-issue PDA’s to access the latest product guides and promotion information by wireless and to access and send Internet forms and sales reports.
Britannia infrastructure project manager Eddie Marsden-Jones commented: “Britannia identified the need to replace our current on board point of sale system, but rather than replace like for like, we wanted to find a technology that would allow us to completely rework the way we interface with our crew. By selecting a PDA rather than a dedicated point of sale device, we have a piece of technology we can really vision with, and we feel like we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface”.
“From a sales perspective, we are now in control of the application. From a communications perspective, we now have a mobile extension to our intranet and a CRM application informing crew of customer details and special needs,” said Marsden-Jones.
The Britannia system works by synchronising all the necessary data sent to crew PDAs, to the crucial fifteen minute window which they have during the 15 minute flight briefing, just before the flight. For the 1,800 cabin crew using the Casio devices, this now means that they can instantly access their flight packs, which include passenger manifests, health & safety information, work rotas, flight information and inflight sales reporting. This information is synchronised with the head office via the wireless network at each of the 12 UK destinations that Britannia services.
The benefits of using wireless include the eradication of paper-based processes, a reduction in the time taken for crew to check in, and the ability to access up to date customer information. Eddie Marsden-Jones concludes: “By using wireless we can transfer data to all crew simultaneously, and crew can perform other duties while the data is flowing. We can tailor our own promotions much easier, add advertisements and do far more sophisticated reporting.”
Britannia Airways is the largest holiday airline in the UK with 30 aircraft and 3,000 employees.
See also www.ianywhere.com and www.bom.co.uk
