Travel, Trasportatio, ad Hospitality How the IoT Fuels Airlies Idustry's Flight ito the Future Abstract Airlies are the least pro table ode i the aviatio value chai, well behid global distributio systems, travel agecies, MRO rms, ad groud hadlers. Historically, airlie compaies have bee early adopters of techology ad they are ow strivig to moderize their legacy processes ad systems. Digital techologies have bee at the forefrot of the trasformatioal shift to customer-cetric service delivery, ad simpli ed ad ef ciet operatios. Goig forward, the itersectio of digital techologies ad the Iteret of Thigs (IoT) will ope up bigger ad more profoud trasformatio opportuities for airlies.
Travel, Trasportatio, ad Hospitality IoT is the Next Big Thig for Airlies KLM Royal Dutch Airlies uses a robot to guide travelers through airport 1 termials. Air New Zealad's digital bracelet or app allows people to track their youg wards 2 who are yig aloe. Digital techologies have allowed airlies to deliver uique customer experieces, simplify uderlyig processes, ad improve workforce productivity. The logical ext step is to leverage the IoT to explore a whole ew dimesio to digital trasformatio. The combiatio of the IoT ad other techologies, such as robotics ad arti cial itelligece (AI), will result i umerous opportuities for service delivery improvemet. Goig forward, a smart, holistically-coected IoT ecosystem that brigs together all etities ad assets i the aviatio value chai is likely to be the ew ormal. Five Key Areas for IoT Strategy Formulatio Virgi Atlatic leverages Heathrow s beaco etwork to provide a coected ad persoalized airport experiece for its Upper 3 Class passegers. The service automatically triggers customers mobile boardig passes for presetatio as they approach their private security chael. The Emirates Group offers a beaco-based solutio that ot oly alerts airlie staff to luggage mishaps, but also oti es customers whe their bags reach the baggage claim 4 sectio. To make the most of the IoT, airlies eed to formulate their strategies aroud ve key areas: 1. Hyper-Persoalizatio: Airlies should hyper-persoalize the etire travel experiece by usig the data geerated at each poit of iteractio, whether it is the home, the airport, or the aircraft. 2. Track ad Trace: The IoT ca eable a rage of track-adtrace applicatios i a smart ad hyper-coected aviatio ecosystem. Today, permissio-based trackig allows cotextual, locatio-based iformatio such as waitig time, gate chage, ad ight delays to be delivered to passegers. I a completely sesorized eviromet, the bee ts of trackig ca be exteded to come up with a wide rage of services ad process improvemets. 3. Proactive Alerts ad Actios: The sesorizatio of customer-facig ifrastructure ad processes is eablig proactive delivery of iformatio ad services. The emphasis ow is o predictio ad prevetio rather tha post facto resolutio. 4. Higher Operatioal Ef ciecy: Most moder day aircraft egies are already embedded with a array of sesors that geerate terabytes of data per ight. At preset, that data is dowloaded after the ight for post- ight aalysis. With IoT applicatios, ight data ca be aalyzed durig the ight, creatig truly trasformative possibilities. IoT applicatios ca also help airlies maximize eet utilizatio ad reduce operatioal costs by idetifyig potetial problems early o.
Travel, Trasportatio, ad Hospitality GE's Flight Ef ciecy Services has partered with AirAsia to optimize climb pro les, estimate fuel eeds, ad miimize the use of auxiliary power 5 uits. 5. Product or Service Moitorig: With everythig from physical ifrastructure to aircraft to persoel coected through a IoT ecosystem, airlies ca also explore opportuities to drive improvemets i acillary products ad services. They ca leverage sesor data from locatio to emotio to upsell acillary offerigs such as louge access, ad fast lae access, amog others. Addressig IoT Adoptio Challeges to Esure Smooth Take-off Some of the key challeges to be addressed before embarkig o a large-scale IoT implemetatio iclude: Stakeholder Diversity: The aviatio idustry ivolves several stakeholders with diverse iterests, ad i may cases, their ow ecosystems of techologies ad systems. At the same time, may of these stakeholders are depedet o each other. So, as airlies evolve i their adoptio of the IoT, it becomes ecessary for them to look beyod their localized eterprises, ad cosider workig with other stakeholders guided by a commo IoT visio. Geographical Spread: Most airlies operate o a global scale across multiple geographies, each with its ow cultural cotext ad level of techological maturity. A successful IoT strategy will therefore have to accout for these regioal variatios. Security ad Privacy Cosideratios: Airlies operate i oe of the most secure eviromets i the world. Therefore, security ad privacy have to be accorded top priority for ay IoT iitiative i the aviatio sector. Privacy also becomes a critical issue with the deploymet of advaced techologies such as facial recogitio, as a result of which the volume of private, customer data beig trasacted icreases maifold. Complex Legacy Systems: The techology ecosystem of most airlies cotiues to host complex legacy systems ad architecture. I compariso, may IoT techologies are at a ascet stage, with commuicatio ad security protocols still evolvig. Give this disparity, durig the iitial phases of their IoT iitiatives, airlies should focus o mature techologies, like beacos, ad simpler compoets that are more easily itegrated.
Travel, Trasportatio, ad Hospitality Coclusio For airlies, the ideal IoT adoptio strategy would be to employ a 'start, lear, prove, ad improve' methodology that allows them to experimet with ew techologies i a progressive maer. The rst step is to explore opportuities that t ito a 'sese ad make sese' model. These are iitiatives that are essetially simple to realize but deliver value that delivers great busiess value. The ext step should be to ehace the self ad situatioal awareess of differet compoets. The al step i the IoT deploymet process would be to exted these capabilities across a coected ad collaborative IoT etwork, that icludes all odes withi the aviatio ecosystem, alog with a robust set of machie-learig ad AI algorithms that keep evolvig i terms of maturity, co dece levels ad self-learig capabilities. With this approach, airlies will be ready to take off i the directio of true cogitio, where the eterprise is self-learig, itelliget, ad self-thikig. Compaies with a visio of evolvig ito such a cogitive eterprise will regard the Iteret of Thigs as a powerful eabler. Eve as airlies gear up for the IoT revolutio, the trasitio toward a cogitive era i busiess has already begu. The IoT capabilities that airlies build today will play a key role i helpig them evolve ito cogitive orgaizatios tomorrow. Refereces [1] KLM, Robot Specer to guide KLM passegers at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (November 2015), accessed May 2, 2016, http://ews.klm.com/robotspecer-to-guide-klm-passegers-at-amsterdam-airport-schiphol [2] Air New Zealad, Air New Zealad s Airbad a world rst (November 2015), accessed May 2, 2016, http://www.airewzealad.co.z/press-release-2015-airz-airbad-a-world- rst [3] Virgi Atlatic, Virgi Atlatic lights the way with Apple s ibeaco techology at Heathrow (May 2014), accessed May 2, 2016, https://blog.virgiatlatic.com/t5/our-future/virgi-atlatic-lights-the-way-with-apple-sibeaco-techology/ba-p/26359#.vydj9r97iv [4} The Emirates Group, Iovative techology paves the way for better hadled baggage (April 2013), accessed May 2, 2016, http://www.theemiratesgroup.com/eglish/ews-evets/ews-releases/ewsdetails.aspx?article=1187838 [5] GE, Aalysis: How airlies are tappig ito the Iteret of Thigs, accessed May 2, 2016, http://www.ge.com/digital/press-releases/aalysis-how-airliesare-tappig-iteret-thigs
Travel, Trasportatio, ad Hospitality About The Author Balaji Jagaatha Balaji Jagaatha heads the Travel ad Hospitality practice of the Travel, Trasportatio, ad Hospitality busiess uit at TCS. He has over 17 years of experiece i the travel idustry ad has worked with leadig airlies ad global distributio systems i the areas of IT strategy ad roadmap, iovatio cosultig, ad trasformatio delivery. About TCS' Travel, Trasportatio ad Hospitality Busiess Uit For over two decades, TCS has bee deliverig value ad busiess results to leadig travel, trasportatio ad hospitality (TTH) compaies across the globe. Our portfolio of offerigs is tailored to our cliet eeds, eablig them to drive customer itimacy, improve operatioal ad process efficiecy, moderize ifrastructure ad the applicatio ladscape, improve IT productivity, ad embrace emergig techologies. I additio to beig associated with some of the largest IT trasformatio programs ad pioeerig techology iitiatives i the TTH idustry, TCS also has some of the best fuctioal ad techical cosultats with rich experiece i TTH. Our Travel & Hospitality Iovatio Lab, part of the larger TCS Co-Iovatio TM Network (COIN ), provides the ecosystem to research emergig treds, develop proofs of cocepts ad co-iovate with cliets. Parterships with leadig idustry bodies, joit product offerigs with cliets, ad ivestmets i developig TTH solutios, assets ad capabilities, reiforce our focus ad commitmet to our cliets. Cotact Visit TCS Travel, Trasportatio ad Hospitality uit page for more iformatio Email: global.tth@tcs.com Subscribe to TCS White Papers TCS.com RSS: http://www.tcs.com/rss_feeds/pages/feed.aspx?f=w Feedburer: http://feeds2.feedburer.com/tcswhitepapers About Tata Cosultacy Services Ltd (TCS) Tata Cosultacy Services is a IT services, cosultig ad busiess solutios orgaizatio that delivers real results to global busiess, esurig a level of certaity o other firm ca match. TCS offers a cosultig-led, itegrated portfolio of IT ad IT-eabled, ifrastructure, egieerig ad assurace services. This is TM delivered through its uique Global Network Delivery Model, recogized as the bechmark of excellece i software developmet. A part of the Tata Group, Idia s largest idustrial coglomerate, TCS has a global footprit ad is listed o the Natioal Stock Exchage ad Bombay Stock Exchage i Idia. For more iformatio, visit us at www.tcs.com All cotet / iformatio preset here is the exclusive property of Tata Cosultacy Services Limited (TCS). The cotet / iformatio cotaied here is correct at the time of publishig. No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, trasmitted, posted or distributed i ay form without prior writte permissio from TCS. Uauthorized use of the cotet / iformatio appearig here may violate copyright, trademark ad other applicable laws, ad could result i crimial or civil pealties. Copyright 2016 Tata Cosultacy Services Limited TCS Desig Services I M I 11 I 16