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Back to Air Transport IT Review - Issue 1, May 2010

Service management: a new era of end-to-end thinking

By Leo Dowling
Director, Service Development, SITA Global Services

Services such as passenger processing are increasingly delivered to users and customers through multiple channels - using business processes that are more elaborate and automated than ever before. The result is greater technological complexity, and an inextricable link between business continuity and IT uptime and performance.

Airlines and airports - and their customers - rely on IT services as never before. At the same time, the number of services used to support business operations and the complexity of the services ecosystem has increased.

Consider the IT services needed to run check-in, for example. They embrace Web reservation booking and Web ticket sales, as well self-service check-in kiosks, mobile check-in, and Web check-in.

Think also of the multiple services in the airport that are adopting wireless technologies, including: RFID wireless services for baggage/cargo, as well as IP-enabled aircraft and airports shifting around huge amounts of operational and non-operational information.

The result is a dramatic rise in both the number and complexity of IT services that are critical to operational processes. Failure in one application will impact all other components in the chain.

Multi-tier architectures provide scalability, but they also pose challenges. End-to-end service involves multiple, dependent applications, network elements and third parties, making it difficult for IT departments to identify the true culprit. End-to-end service management, not silo management of applications and the network, is required to optimize IT uptime.

Complex and disparate infrastructures

Some companies are challenged by resources, time or the skills needed to directly manage the complexity arising from the widespread use of IT services. Most contracts today offer SLAs and service contracts on a service by service basis, not end-to-end. Many customers do not have the resources to create an end-to-end service management layer themselves.

This is particularly the case for small and medium airlines, but while larger airlines and airports may have more resources and a willingness to self-manage more aspects of IT services, they too continually face the challenge of complexity.

In addition, business owners are realizing how the newer and emerging IT services are important for the success of their core business processes. Along with IT departments, they are concerned with the evaluation, direct management and optimization of these services - such as high-revenue generating online sales or high-cost sensitive check-in.

The expectation is that these services can be run without downtime. But without true end-to-end service management, this will be difficult for any business.

The industry challenge

One of the greatest challenges facing the air transport industry is true end-to-end service management. This is the ability to look at the service from a customer's perspective, irrespective of the underlying complexities of multiple network and application layers.

Different customers may also have different needs in terms of service levels and the degree of end-to-end management they require. So service providers must provide a 'modular' set of services to address market needs supported by a global operational team.

It will require service operations centres rather than network operations centres. It will also require a complete re-engineering of the service culture, focused on a total range of ITIL principles (see box).

The need to work with customers Working closely with customers on achieving an end-to-end capability not only drives a better product and service. It also ensures the service provider with a better understanding of the customer's overall business requirements. SITA's own approach to end-to-end service management is proactive and pragmatic, with a series of service support offers that complement core services already developed for the air transport community. They include: The evolution of the SITA's Integrated Service Desk. The development of new Command Centres in Montreal and Singapore, which include in their operational teams a dedicated vendor management team that monitors and manages incidents that SITA has dispatched to its third-party service providers. The strategic focus on personnel development around ITIL knowledge and maturity will also build a common language focused on enhancing service. This will complement the development of SITA's customer service practice. Over the past twelve months, several pilots have been undertaken with customers to test acceptance of specific tools. These have included customer experience monitoring tools, allowing performance measurement of Web-based transactions, such as e-commerce. What is service management? According to ITIL, service management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services. The core tenet of service management is transforming resources into clearly measurable business deliverables. Research has shown that a structured framework for service management within a company can provide a means for service providers to offer a more business oriented and tailored proposition of services. You can find out more about ITIL at www.itil-officialsite.com.

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