JetBlue and WestJet: A Tale of Two IS Projects - Assignment Example

Customers can therefore rely on the system to plan, and pay online for their trips while the company enjoys the fact that all their inventories are centrally managed. This system facilitates decision-making process by providing quick information concerning customer experience and other airlines that are very vital for decision-making process. The companies can make crucial and strategic decisions such as the best routes to ply and get better on their customer satisfaction progress by investigating past customer experiences.

 The project was too expensive and the management of the new system is not easy especially due to resistance from the employees and the overall conversion system. There was a great risk of losing data thus requiring a backup web server for the new system. Customers’ delay and lose of data due to detailed hand processing that was involved in converting massive data for the existing reservations. The problems faced by JetBlue and West Jet were both caused by management and technology issues.

The management failed to plan for the 840, 000 files for existing reservations in Tulsa and Okla that was very complex and involving thus caused a huge customer delays (Carey, 2010). The management further did not inform their customers about their new upgrade plans because they felt that their competitors would take advantage of the situation. Many customers with reservations were made available in spite of cancellation because West Jet did not reduce the number of clients operating after the cutover.

The company did not employ a backup web server that would help them in case the system failed (Lau, 2011). JetBlue however learnt from West Jet failures and improved on them by installing web server backup, picking light traffic weekend, and hiring temporary agents. The company still faced a few problems with their systems such as increased call wait times and few booking functions that could not satisfy both the company and the clients. The main risk in this project was conversion especially in the West Jet’s side.

The management did not properly prepare for the new reservation system that was to be implemented. It was initially important for the management of both the airlines that conversion is never an easy task. It is therefore imperative to initially run both the old and the new systems in parallel until the new system permanently replaces the old one and encourage a lighter load that is easy to handle in implementation. The data conversion should then be automated and followed by skillful training of the employees on how to use the new system.

Unnecessary elements should also be abandoned in the process of implementation and instill a backup server for the new system for emergency just in case it breaks (Carey, 2010). SABRE is a real time business application system that has greatly automated the airline industry in areas such as revenue control, pricing, flight scheduling and operations as well as providing progressive solutions and revolution of travel and transportation industry. The history of SABRE started from the conversation between the president of American Airline and the senior sales representative for IBM about the need for a data dispensation system that is capable of creating and managing airline seat reservations and distributes the information automatically to all agents