Website and URLs Supporting and Promoting British Airways - Case Study Example

British Airways Roll No: Teacher: 17th March 2009 Activity 2.4 Give examples of symbolic s (URLs) which are relevant to British Airways and why they are relevant. There are a number of URLs relevant to British Airways. All the URLs are helpful for enabling customers to know about British Airways and their provided services. There are some examples of the links that are associated with British Airways, which are as under: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/globalgateway.jsp/global/public/en_ This URL supports the customers to know about British Airways. It is the home page of the air service. This page contains various links to different facilities provided by the organization. It is for the global public as anyone from all over the world can access the site and order his/her tickets and get information for other services offered by the organization. It is relevant because it is a part of the website of the company. http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_gb This URL is for English customers. Along with English customers, it also provides opportunities for booking and information gaining to the people of other countries. It also facilitates with detailed information about the services provided by the organization such as travelling, residing, holidays, restaurants and others. It is also relevant as it is a part of the main website of the company. http://www.britishairwaysjobs.com/baweb1/ This URL is relevant to the organization, British Airways because it offers jobs to the people in the organization. Anyone with specific skills in relation to air service can apply for the jobs provided by the company. Online job applications can be posted in order to get jobs by the help of this URL. http://www.britishairways.com/travel/mmbhome/public/en_gb?link=TOP_MMB This URL is for management of booking information. In addition, tickets for travelling anywhere by means of British Airways can be obtained online from this URL. It is very supportive for enabling customers to get information in a timely manner. It gives details about journeying and departure with the help of British Airways. It is a part of the website of the company. http://www.britishairways.com/travel/informationhubpage/public/en_gb?link=TOP_information This URL is for gaining information about flights, travelling, travel preparation, baggage essentials, necessities at the airport, corporate travelling and on board entertainment facilities. This URL is directly linked to the company as it provides relevant information about the services provided by the organization. Through this URL, people can also get answers to all their questions in relation to British Airways. http://www.britishairways.com/travel/echome/public/en_gb?link=TOP_echome This URL is related to the facility of executive club provided by British Airways. Through this URL, people can become members to the executive club and can also gain information about executive club. In executive club, only those people can become members that are regular travellers and also those who travel for corporate reasons. http://www.bashares.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=69499&p=IROL-index This URL is very crucial for British Airways. The investors of the company, British Airways and relevant information about investment, all is given in this page. This URL gives news about investment, market and development in relation to the investors of British Airways. Moreover, this site also contains annual investment information in relation to British Airways. http://www.baholidays.com/home.jsp;jsessionid=bFeMjwCc0mhe?clearSessa=1&chosenCountry=GB This URL provides information about various holiday facilities and services provided by British Airways such as accommodation, travelling, sightseeing, rental cars, holiday spots and much more. This URL is relevant to the organization because it monitors the information about services and facilities provided by the company. Activity 2.9 Does British Airways have a website? What are its strong points? Put yourself in the place of someone who is unfamiliar with the organisation. Does it enhance the reputation and encourage further contact? British Airways has a website that is well established. It is www.britishairways.com. This website has a number of links, which are important in gaining information about various services and facilities provided by the organization. The site can be considered as a strong and persuasive site because of its features that are, it is quite simple; it uses simple colours like blue, red and white; it has a simple layout; every facility provided by the company is given a separate page and it contains detailed information about the company as a whole. Due to simplified colour scheme and layout, the distortion that can occur is minimized, which can be regarded as strength of the organization. The website has a survey form, which enables the visitors to rate the organization and also suggest ways of improvement. The website also gives advertisements about its services and features. It accommodates the customers with online booking, due to which, people do not have to go to booking offices and they can book their seats for travelling while being at home. The website gives information about flights, flight schedules, booking, clubs, hotels, travelling, rental cars and much more for the facilitation of people travelling to different locations. The website as a whole is quite informative and explanatory and all the people who are aware of the company and those who have no knowledge of the company can equally benefit from the website. The website provides the customers to gain information about booking, travelling expenditures, holiday locations, on board activities, on airport activities and much other necessitated information about the organization and supportiveness for the travellers. Overall, the website is quite simple to follow and new users have no difficulty in visiting the website and in gaining knowledge about the organization and its services and facilitations. On the home page of the website, all ticketing and booking information is given along with various options of travelling. The customers are given a chance of online booking right at the home page. They are shown expenses about their travelling in relation to different classes to travel. The expenses for economy class are the least, due to which, by default the booking is kept in economy. However, the customer can book a seat according to his own priority. The website is quite simple and is enough informative. The customers who travel by British Airways and also who use the website for booking their information and getting awareness of various services, feel no problem in gaining awareness of the features of the website. Due to the simplicity of the website, the reputation of the organization as a whole is improved, as, the information is given in a legible and comprehensible manner. The customers are encouraged to visit the website because of its strong features. In addition, the organization as a whole gains positive reputation for its provided services and efficient facilities depicted in a straightforward manner. Activity 3.4 What are "legacy" systems? What would British Airways consider key legacy systems? Legacy systems are the systems that are old and are used by the organizations for a very long time (Bisbal, et. al 1999). These are computerized systems, which have some set of applications that are continually employed by the employees of the organizations. These systems are given importance because they fulfil the needs and requirements of the users to a great extent and for a long time (Bisbal, et. al 1999). In the market, new systems are available but the organizations are stuck to their old systems because of their working (Bisbal, et. al 1999). In addition, the users of the legacy systems are well off in terms of using the system. They are fully trained and have full knowledge of legacy systems due to which, they do not like the legacy systems to be transformed or changed wholly (Bisbal, et. al 1999). There are many legacy systems in most large organizations. Like many organizations, British Airways also has legacy systems. British Airways is showing concern towards transformation and improvement of their legacy systems as they consider that they are not doing well with their legacy systems. The legacy systems are usually large, ill documented and generally vital to the continuing operation of the organization (Bisbal, et. al 1999). For improvement of communications, British Airways has given a large project to CISCO for the betterment of its networking and communications (CISCO 2005). According to the administration of British Airways, it is not compulsory to make use of legacy systems when there are better and well-equipped systems in the market (CISCO 2005). For the improvement of their services and support, the organization is ready to expend on the attainment of new technology that is more supportive and reliable. The organization is confident that the system provided by CISCO will be reliable and beneficial for the staff and for “making communication easier and accessible” (CISCO 2005). According to the Project Manager at British Airways, “The legacy systems have been developed over the last 10 - 20 years and rely on many interfaces to support the business processes." (Compuware 2009). Therefore, the legacy systems that are working in British Airways are quite old and are used for a long time. The extraction of data from the legacy systems of the organization is considered as a challenge (Compuware 2009). For shifting from legacy systems to new systems, many aspects are to be kept in mind such as the new developed system, training, expertise of people and time required for becoming used to the new system. British Airways is concerned towards making its data handling and communication services better due to which, the organization is ready to transfer its data from legacy systems to the new systems that are informed to be better and improved versions of technology (McCue 2008). Data maintenance and management is vital for the organization due to which, the organization is concerned with secure transfer of data from the old systems to the new systems. According to McCue (2008), “technology is crucial for British Airways” due to which, they are ready to start working on new systems in place of their legacy systems. Activity 3.5 Which of British Airways’ suppliers or customers would be suited for inclusion in an Extranet, and why? Unlike internet, extranet is confidential network that is created between individuals by the permission and allowance of the authorized organization (Callaghan 2002). Extranet can be comprehended as a branch of intranet of a company (Wilkinson 2005). The additional feature of extranet is its privacy that it offers to its users. It is a grand network that is used by large organizations all over the world for enhancement and betterment of their services and linkage (Callaghan 2002). As British Airways is a large organization, it has its online booking system and other information services through which, it allows its users to access its information portal online. Along with other services, British Airways can allow its investors and customers to access its extranet. For such a large organization, extranet will prove itself supportive and beneficial for the organization. The investors of the organization will be accommodated with enough knowledge and the organization will be able to develop a business-to-business relationship with its investors on the basis of its extranet. With the help of extranet, customers and future investors will gain information about the company. The future investors will be encouraged by the use of extranet, as, they will be facilitated with all relevant knowledge concerning the organization as a whole. Through extranet, the organization can exchange bulky amounts of data with the help of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) (Callaghan 2002). British Airways will be able to share its services catalogues with its customers by the help of extranet. Extranet is also supportive in enabling British Airways to be supported in terms of development and improvement by the partnership and cooperation of other companies. The extranet will be helpful in conducting connected training and courses programs for the employees in order to get training for their related jobs and tasks (Wilkinson 2005). With the support of extranet, the news that is common and significant can be shared with partner companies (Wilkinson 2005). The extranet will be supportive and beneficial not only for the company, British Airways itself but will also accommodate the affiliated companies, investors and customers in order to get relative information and data about and by the organization. The investors, affiliated companies and customers, all will be suited for inclusion in the extranet because, they will be provided with much supportiveness by the organization once, they get attached to the company’s extranet. Therefore, it is quite clear that an extranet that accommodates customers, affiliated companies and investors will help the organization towards betterment and success and will also allow many beneficial features to the organization in terms of its development. References Bisbal, J., Lawless, D., Wu, B. and Grimson, J 1999, Legacy Information Systems: Issues and Directions, IEEE Software, 16, 103-111. British Airways. 2009. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.britishairways.com/travel/globalgateway.jsp/global/public/en_ British Airways. 2009. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_gb British Airways. 2009. Explore Our Working World. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.britishairwaysjobs.com/baweb1/ British Airways. 2009, Manage My Booking. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.britishairways.com/travel/mmbhome/public/en_gb?link=TOP_MMB British Airways. 2009, Information. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.britishairways.com/travel/informationhubpage/public/en_gb?link=TOP_information British Airways 2009, Welcome to Executive Club. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.britishairways.com/travel/echome/public/en_gb?link=TOP_echome British Airways 2009, Investor Relations. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.bashares.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=69499&p=IROL-index British Airways Holidays 2009. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.baholidays.com/home.jsp;jsessionid=bFeMjwCc0mhe?clearSessa=1&chosenCountry=GB Callaghan, J 2002, Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management and the Struggle for Power, Palgrave Macmillan, London. CISCO 2005, British Airways Selects Cisco and Prime for Airline Industry’s Largest IP Telephone Network, London. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.cisco.com/web/UK/news/pdfs/2005/11_05_2005_ba_selects_cisco.pdf Compuware 2009, British Airways Data Conversion Flies With Compuware. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.compuware.com/pressroom/news/2002/1361_ENG_HTML.htm McCue, Andy 2008, British Airways CIO: the interview. Retrieved on 14th March 2009 from http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/business/soa/British-Airways-CIO-the-interview/0,139023749,339293863,00.htm Wilkinson, Paul 2005, Collaboration Technologies: The Extranet Evolution, Taylor & Francis, London. Read More