Back to Regional e-Newsletter NEU Q4 2009
Welcome
Rob Watkins, Regional Vice President
Sales and Relationship Management, Northern Europe
The question I'm most often asked by airlines and airports is how they can make sure they are getting value for money from their IT infrastructure. There is not a company in today's economic climate that is not feeling the need to 'sweat their assets', particularly IT assets - yet, paradoxically, at the same time, to make investments that can help cut costs and improve efficiency across their whole business.
The air transport industry is no exception and perhaps more than any is reliant on smart IT investment decisions.
First and foremost, IT has to be used to provide services your customers want (be they internal or external). But clearly there is more to it than simply adopting new technology. It is also about smart management of IT resources to ensure they are working at an optimum at all times: over-loading can be risky, while under-utilisation is expensive. It is a situation made more challenging by the ever-changing levels of demand placed on IT resources, and the constant introduction of new more innovative solutions that require integration with existing IT investments.
At SITA, we constantly monitor IT decision-making in the air transport industry through a number of annual surveys, and this year our findings have been similar to other surveys across the IT industry. The focus for IT functions remains on delivering value for money, with an emphasis on total cost of ownership, sourcing strategies and organisational productivity. The change now is in the speed at which IT management is expected to react to new business needs.
Added to that is the constant need to have innovation as a core capability, analysing and assessing the latest trends, for example cloud computing, virtualisation, Green IT, unified communications, mobile and so on. The increasing needs of delivering value for money as well as innovation provide demanding times for IT managers.
My answer to the question of how to ensure your IT provides value for money is to achieve the optimal balance between scope, risk and cost.
SITA can play a part in how you achieve this balance. As well as underpinning many of the more mundane "business as usual" processes we are also delivering some of the most transformational IT projects in the industry today.
This unique breadth of capability, knowledge and experience is at your disposal and we are always eager to take up a new challenge.
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