UK Online Air Line Industry: Advantages and Disadvantages of ICT - Research Paper Example

Running Head: UK ONLINE AIR LINE INDUSTRY AND ICT UK Online Air Line Industry and ICT [The Writer’s Name] [The Name of the Institution] UK Online Air Line Industry: Advantages and Disadvantages of ICT Statement of Problem What are the advantages and disadvantages of Information Communication Technology on the online travel industry in the United Kingdom? The Purpose of the Study This study will elaborate the gains and pitfalls of introducing ICTs on the online travel industry in the United Kingdom. The research includes the changing trends of ICTs used in the online travel industry in United Kingdom from the 1990s to date. Further the study identifies the need of world-class organizations within the online travel industry to adopt the right ICTs to gain competitive advantage and remain ahead in the game. The architecture of technology within organizations in the online travel industry determines whether the technology will be a success or not. The study discusses issues related to technology architecture. The research also addresses issues related to knowledge transfer in conjunction with implementation of new ICTs within the online travel industry. Objectives of the Study The aim of the research is to explore the advantages and disadvantages of information communication technology on the online travel service providers in the United Kingdom. Further the study highlights how online travel service providers use information and communication technologies to maximise the value of their product offerings, which leads to enhanced profitability and improvement in their competitiveness. The objective of research in the given area is to gain knowledge on the following: a. Firstly define and explain the scope and progress of information and communication technology in the online travel industry in the United Kingdom from the 90s until the present. b. Secondly an understanding of the online travels industry in the United Kingdom. Background of the Study Aviation and air services industry is a large, competitive, and challenging industry, characterised by high capital and labour requirement, together with customer participation during transactions hence service fulfilment. Providing great reach and the potential for rich interaction, the Internet is a natural medium for travel transactions. Airlines are turning to e-commerce to keep business flying, and the reason they are focusing on selling tickets through their Web sites is that it is the cheapest distribution channel. From the customers perspectives, Internet have revolutionised the way of buying flight ticket. Customers can now purchase their tickets directly from the airlines via the Internet using intermediaries and/or cybermediaries in order to find the possible cheapest ticket. Moreover, online discount travel services, such as Priceline and Hotwire, allow airlines to dump excess inventory. They can use these channels, along with their own online specials, to drive traffic to less-popular routes, such as flights with inconvenient connections. Airlines are also using electronic channels to keep business travellers informed of potential delays and schedule changes. Furthermore, Industry players use different technologies to differentiate their services to customers, to create customer loyalty, and serve them faster and in more convenient ways than their competitors do. Therefore, flight companies have developed some tools to communicate with their customers as in-flight broadband service and new mobile service. Introduction Air Flight industry is moving into an environment characterized by an abundance of information - the new source of airfare information is the Internet, especially the WWW. Therefore any player in this industry needs to produce informative materials in digital form, which can be disseminated using the new information technologies. Few inventions have changed how people live and experience the world as deeply as the invention of the airplane. Until now, the airline industry has progressed to the position where it would be hard to think of life without air travel. It has shortened travel time and altered the concept of distance, making possible for people to visit and conduct business in places once considered remote. A microcosm of the overall "dot-com" online business phenomenon, aviation e-commerce continues to evolve at light speed. Change is happening so fast, in fact, that you can't tell the players without a scorecard, or rather, a good search engine. (Esler, 2001) Accordingly, the growth of the Internet and related technologies has resulted in drastic changes in the way business and consumers communicate, share information and conduct business. Forrester Research estimates that the business-to-business e-commerce market will grow from $43 billion in 1998 to $1.3 trillion by 2003 (www.partsbase.com). For the aviation industry, there is an issue that must be addressed in the Internet age that is to facilitate an integrated e-business environment among suppliers, customers and business partners in order to collaborate in creating a more efficient and profitable product life cycle. This research project will describe and discuss about the extension of how the Internet is impacting and changing the industry, how it has affected the competitive strategies & behaviour of the firms, including indicate likely future outcome. What is ICT? As we look back in history, we find out that messaging between companies was more in the company rather than using a courier to deliver a message. Today we find out that information and communication technology is widely spread out within different companies to enhance the business and become more efficient on a daily basis. Using email to communicate within a company may use different types of media to send and receive information pertinent to the company. As people communicate to computers, so do computers communicate to people, as well computers communicating to each other through a network. In today eras a business world globalises around the world making the internet grow rapidly. Information computer and technology offer many company's capabilities that are far beyond ones needs in a big corporation. As we learn from past experiences that the older technology being used in a company is not as efficient compared to current computer systems in some UK airline companies. The older version computers are slower, do not process information in a timely manner and even loose critical information on information being passed to more sophisticated computers. Some business with modern technology can use the computer to run information on a business and calculate pertinent information for future reference. Many Airline Companies in UK have come a long way using modern technology to manage a company using human interface. This is a quicker way to track information rather than the way information was being tracked using individuals to track information manually. As research for some companies success was much slower in the past, we have found out that with modern technology we can ensure using different types of methods to gather information using the internet. Using the CD-ROM today improved technology the way a company can store information using CD rx to store information and cutting down on space within a company. Some computers rely a lot on computers to make decisions or make recommendations to the best solution for the business. An organization using this type of information to make choices for the business mimic the way we often make everyday choices. As a corporation or a business becomes more powerful in the industry, it can track information beyond ones eyes. As a corporation becomes aware on how information can be transferred from one computer to the other, it becomes more efficient in the work environment. One can utilize FTP, Telnet or other programs to exchange or view information. Information communication technology has come a long way for a business in today society. It has helped many organisation keep with up to date information on how people communicating within a company can rely on information being passed within each other more reliable. Today we find out that a business is relying more on computers more than ever for reasons a computer can be more reliant and faster exchanging information. Literature Review ICT enables the sharing, use and manipulation of information in real time and ultimately the synchronisation of supply and demand. This may include collaborative planning, product data management, E-Procurement, E-trading (i.e. auctions and exchanges), extranets etc. Davis (1987 ) and Pine (1993 ) devised mass customisation as an online airline business strategy. The goal was to provide online airline business customers and consumers with a differentiated, low-cost product with input from the customer and efficient production and delivery using information and manufacturing technology. Using advanced information and production technologies, the customer and online airline business can develop the product together so as to provide customers with exactly the product they want at the time they want it. To some extent Smart and Dell are achieving this. It is important to recognise the limitation of ICT here to provide the consumer with the tangible sensations traditional market channels provide in trailing, testing and sensing potential purchases. By using market channels such as the Internet companies can skip distribution steps and move directly to the consumer. They may include enhancements in customer care, order management, new channel strategies, supply chain replenishment and customer product configuration. Various authors have reflected upon the potential of ICT for individual functional areas such as marketing (McKenna, 1997 ), purchasing (Ellinger and Daugherty 1998 ) and logistics. ICT is expected to make the flow of goods transparent (Bowersox and Daugherty 1995 ). Specifically Lee et al (1997 ) highlight the important of information exchange in avoiding the bullwhip effect (errors increase in order quantities with the number links in the chain). Traditionally information has been seen as a supporting element in the value creation process, but now information is being used to create value for the customer (Rayport & Svioka 1996 ). The global nature of online airline business and supply chain management is an increasing factor in the need for ICT to manage information. As the supply chain gets more complex and distributed so ICT helps to simplify or mask that complexity. Supply chains historically were limited around geographical proximity and availability of partners, limited information, communications and coordination (Kumar et al 1998 ). ICT makes it possible to break these limitations. Sheombar (1992 ) and Klobas (1998 ) indicated that ICT makes it possible to detach information flows from physical ones. ICT enables the application of postponement (Van Hoek et al 1998 ). Indeed the postponement concept was introduced in the 1960s (Bucklin 1965 ) but only recently received attention, coinciding with the ability of ICT to make the logistics chain transparent enough to make it feasible (van Hoek 1998 ). The application of ICT externally (with suppliers & customers) and internally is critical in enabling postponement (Droge et al 1995 ). In the Dell case ICT enables individual customers to customise their purchase (i.e. configure to order). The greater the extent to which you can allow customers to customise product offerings, the greater the overall quality of the relationship becomes. In this case, technology can become the key contributor to improving communication with the supply chain and providing configuration tools for both suppliers and end customers. This is done through the interactive nature of the Internet, which is a key attraction to building a relationship with customers (Hoffman, Novak & Chatterjee, 1995 ). The involvement of the customer in the design, production, or delivery process before the actual sales transactions, using technology to limit the cost is a key competitive strategy providing customer intimacy and product leadership. ICT provides real-time information flow, which is a fundamental requirement of pull supply chains. With increasing complexity of supply webs, integrated ICT systems are needed to provide that information transparency, masking the complexity but providing the detailed information as necessary. The Internet provides interactive access, allowing direct consumer information and immediate sharing across the supply chain. Administration costs and errors are reduced, replaced by customer-entered data. The impacts of ICT on online airline business, has been significant as the value of information increases. As information technology continues its rapid cost performance improvement, companies will continue to find incentives to coordinate their activities electronically. ICT however is not the panacea of all supply chain issues. It requires large upfront investment and ongoing expense; implementation is fraught with hurdles and is disruptive; both technical and commercial compatibility is required; and it cannot replace the underlying need for sound online airline business strategies, practices, processes and relations. Integration and agility are not new supply chain models but their adoption is largely dependant on the ability of ICT to help manage it. It is difficult to see these concepts work without the information and communication foundation that open standard ubiquitous new technology supplies. The drive for online airline businesses to develop a web capability has been mainly market access and cost reduction. Most online airline businesses now having Internet access (UK & US 91% Germany 97% Sweden 98%) and an online presence (UK80% Germany 85% Sweden 80% US 78%) adoption could be seen as widespread. Although on-line information is widely provided to customers, adoption of e-commerce is still low (% of online airline businesses weighted by employees that allow customers to pay online UK & Germany 15%, Sweden 12%, US 16%). In the current economic climate cost and resource is seen as the main barrier to ICT (D0TI 2002 ). The euphoria of the early years of online shopping has been replaced by more realistic and cautious projections of e-commerce sales. While use of the Internet for the purposes of shopping, information search, communication, interaction, and entertainment has continued to increase, the actual figures for e-commerce sales have not increased as rapidly as expected. Electronic markets are listings of products and their attributes from suppliers in an industry segment, easily available and constantly updated to potential buyers. This allows comparisons of products providing powerful information. It can make it affordable for small suppliers to have total exposure to the market, and for the shopper to know the best buy available. Although less organised and potentially more difficult to navigate the WWW (World Wide Web) provides some of this capability with similar effect. This increased and cheap information access can drive profit margin from suppliers as buys become more informed (Bakos 1991 ). This capability can lead to restructuring of industries, shifting from decentralised markets without significant intermediaries to more centralised markets with a few intermediaries (Wigand & Benjamin 1995 ). SCM, CRM ERP and Extranets Supply chain management (SCM) refers to all of the strategies, processes, and technologies that together form the basis for working with internal or external sources of supply. Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to all of the strategies, processes, and technologies that companies use to generate and sustain demand. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) normally refers to the systems providing integrating the major online airline business functions such as production, inventory, purchasing, sales, finance, and human resource management. Extranet is an extended intranet usually to suppliers and customers that allows the secure sharing of information across the Internet. All these systems are an attempt through ICT of process and data integration and information sharing. These are operational and planning tools, which allow online airline business to operation efficiently and through open standards, collaborate either internally between functions or externally with suppliers and customers. EDI & E-Procurement EDI enables partners in the supply chain to act upon the same data i.e. real demand, rather than be dependent upon the distorted and noisy picture that emerges when orders are transmitted from one step to another in an extended chain (Hewitt, 1999 ). E-Procurement solutions apply both internally and external: As an extension to existing purchasing mechanisms (ERP) allowing staff to purchase items more easily (e.g. through approved catalogues). This reduces administration costs whilst if properly implemented ensuring the control: Applied externally E-Procurement takes or incorporates the transactional ability of EDI with the user-friendly web-based information to support buying activity (account information, catalogues, order status, pricing comparisons etc). Industry Characteristics Aviation is a global industry, owned and operated largely by private commercial companies, and forming a seamless network of manufacturing, airline operations, engineering design, sales, maintenance, repairs, customer services, finance, insurance, leasing, marketing, advertising, media and other activities (www.spacefuture.com, 2000). The aviation (air services) industry is characterized by high capital intensity, high fixed costs, and mobile assets, which drive competitors towards marginal pricing (www.aph.gov.au, 2001). Therefore, it could be said that the air services industry is intensely competitive market. Unlike most businesses, which have either high capital requirements or high labour content, aviation is an economically challenging business, which needs both large amount of capital (aircraft, technology etc.) and lots of people. Aviation and air services require a high degree of customer participation during service fulfilment. Moreover, as consumption and decision-making are mostly decoupled, travel and tourism services can be seen as information products. Prospective customers need plenty of information to comprehend offerings, compare them and make their choices. "Organizations must become more strategic if they are to survive and succeed in the current business environment" (Singh, 2002). Consequently, the air travel industry is among the leading users of IT. The existing Computerized Reservation Systems / Global Distribution Systems (CRS/GDS) which provide the main links to tour operator systems and to travel agents, give a good insight into the current market situation and are the basis for the airlines' yield management, i.e. capacity planning and pricing. Threat Of New Entrants At first glance, it seems that air service industry is extremely difficult to break into. However, in fact it may depend on whether or not there are substantial costs to access bank loans and credit. For example, if borrowing is cheap, then the possibility of more airliners entering the industry is higher. Brand name and frequent flyer point also play a significant role in the Airline industry. An airline with a strong brand name and impressive incentives can usually attract a customer even if their prices are higher. Power of Suppliers The airline supply business is mainly dominated by Boeing and Airbus Company. Therefore, it can be said that the competition among suppliers in this industry is not intense. Moreover, it is unlikely that suppliers will integrate vertically. For instance, suppliers are certainly not starting to offer flight service over building airlines. Power of buyers In the airline industry, the bargaining power of buyers is quite low. Apparently, there are high costs of switching airplanes. However, the ability to compete on service is one of the issues that need to take into considerations. If the seat in one airline is more comfortable than another, it is probably that customers are willing to pay more for their pleasure. Availability Of Substitutes It is certain that regional airlines the threat might be a little higher than international airlines. That is because there is a possibility that people will take a train or drive to their destinations. Other issues that need to take into account when determining this in the airline industry are money, time, convenience and personal preference. Competitive Rivalry The airline industry is a highly competitive industry. Generally, highly competitive industry earns low returns, as the cost of competition is high. Moreover, it would be more intensely when the economy is decelerating. B2C Perspectives &Changes Since the economic slowdown and the impacts of the September 11, airlines are turning to e-commerce to keep the business going more than ever (Pappas, 2000). That is one of the main reasons for them to try to cut all the costs they possibly can (McCarthy, 2002). As a result, Airlines are increasingly pushing sales through their websites in a bid to cut costs and pass savings on to customers, a new survey claims. The Airline IT Trends survey, commissioned by Airline Business magazine and technology company SITA, reveals that 67 per cent of airlines believe their websites are the most important electronic sales channel. In addition, seven per cent of airlines are making more than half their total sales online. The survey reveals most airlines still rely on agents and global distribution systems, but the switch towards Internet distribution is being driven by customer confidence and lower costs (Fox, 2002). Besides, another impact of the Internet on the airlines B2C is the way they sell their tickets to customers, where in the past they had to use travel agents, customers can now purchase their tickets directly from the airlines via the Internet and this also helps the airlines to get rid of travel agent cost, which also helps them to offer lower fares to their customers (Pappas, 2000) This is because the Internet provides a set of enhanced tools to enable airlines to develop special relationships with their customers, as well as benefiting from the reduced costs they are trying to achieve (Pappas, 2000). All the players in the industry is benefiting from doing business online. Carriers are looking to the Internet to reduce the cost of sales and improve customer satisfaction. (Wagner, 2002) In addition, the consumer behaviour has also changed during the last decade, where today they ask for better service, want more specific offers, both with regard to content as well as to the complete travel arrangements, are becoming more mobile and travel more frequently, tend to make more frequent but shorter vacations, and decide later, leading to de-creased time span between booking and consumption, are becoming more critical and less loyal; and are more price sensitive, comparing more and more offers, which leads the airlines and travel agencies be more competitive to serve all these needs. (Klein, Randolph and Selz, 2001) B2B Perspectives &Changes The Internet has also brought many advantages to the players in the industry, giving the chance to combine their assets together with the other players, and by this way, serve the customers in more efficient ways, get more advantages to survive in the very competitive environment, reduce their costs significantly. For example; online discount travel services, such as Priceline and Hotwire, allow airlines to dump excess inventory. They can use these channels, along with their own online specials, to drive traffic to less-popular routes, such as flights with inconvenient connections (Wagner, 2002) All those competition and customer needs lead some of the players create alliances to combine their powers and be able to stay on the stage. As an example; in January 2000, a major travel alliance was formed among 27 US airlines in order to build a travel Web site or portal, code named Orbitz, to offer discounted fares and ticketing directly to travellers. (Business Week, 2000). On Aug. 19th 2000, it announced Supplier Link travel system, which will enable the company to book tickets directly through airlines' reservations systems. American Airlines has implemented the system, and is expected to save as much as 77 percent of booking costs on tickets bought through Orbitz. (McCarthy, 2002) Airlines with strong brands and loyalty programmes are able to create very advantaged deals with non-airline industry players to provide additional services and products to their customers, such as hotels, car rentals, insurances, etc. (Pappas, 2000) How do UK airline companies use various digital technologies, why? How &why do the strategies &offerings of companies differ? As the competition in the air services industry is increasing dramatically, it is vital for the companies in this industry to adopt the new technologies in their system in order not be thrown out of the competition by their rivals. Industry players use different technologies to differentiate their services to customers, to create customer loyalty, and serve them faster and in more convenient ways than their competitors do. For example, the flight search engine of Orbitz searches the airfares and schedules of 450 airlines and has up to 2 billion flight and fare options in its system at a time. (Martinez, 2001) British Airways rewards frequent flyers with new mobile service, which includes all activities conducted through wireless devices, such as PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), and cellular phones. They also offer Wireless Seat Selection via a new WAP-service in the U.K., allowing passengers to check in and select seating using their cell phones, avoiding check-in lines at the airport via a graphical seat map, which is based upon the seat map used in British Airways' airport check-in kiosks, on their handset. Customers can look up flight availability and view up-to-the-minute flight arrivals and departures information for any British Airways flight (Market Research and Trend Scouting, 2001) Responding to new airline trends, Worldspan will deploy FareChase User Recognition System (URS) technology. URS allows travel agents and corporate travel managers to automate access to their accounts on airline Web sites. With URS, Worldspan users will be able to access Web-only fares offered through various airline sites. (M2 Presswire, 2002) Case Study: Background of case study: Web-Based Intermediaries In the past years, CRS/GDS have built so-called 'online travel supermarkets', also called web-based intermediaries, for consumers using Web technology. Preview Travel (www.previewtravel.com) and Travelocity (www.travelocity.com) are two of them. They are offering on the one side a one-stop-shopping site for travel and tourism products, with a wealth of travel related online content, and on the other side a highly efficient transaction mechanism based on advanced technology, customer profiles and interaction design. While industry incumbents have developed different business models and (re-) positioned themselves in the online market, new players, so-called cybermediaries, have entered the market and positioned themselves prominently as consumers' advocates with innovative pricing models (Klein, 2000). TravelBids and Priceline are two outstanding examples of these new entrants, which focus on innovative pricing models. Case Study: Travelbids TravelBids (www.travelbids.com) is an example of a reverse or procurement auctions. Customers' requests are posted on TravelBids, which is a specialized electronic market. While in the Lufthansa auction, potential customers submit bids for flights, in reverse auctions, travel agents submit bids for customer orders. In contrast to the Lufthansa auction, customers using Travelbids have a wide range of attributes, which they can specify or intentionally leave open. They take an active role by specifying their preferences for travel offerings. On this market, all bids are visible for everyone to see; hence prospective customers can view other listings and see the results. The bidding period can be set up to 72 hours, unsuccessful bids can be repeated. On the supplier side, travel agents bid to fulfil the demand. They use their knowledge to identify flights that fit the customers' preferences and use part of their commission in order to gain additional orders. (www.wi.uni-muenster.de) The specified offers are forwarded sequentially in a highly efficient and patented process to potential suppliers. Customers' offers are binding and have been substantiated by a credit card authorization. Airlines then decide whether they want to take additional customers at the listed price depending on their current load factor and price policy. Feedback is given to the customers within hours. Web-Based Airline Strategies The Internet is having a profound impact on today's global economy, and as most aerospace executives can attest, the Web unquestionably is challenging long-held business norms in their industry sector. (Cofoni, 2000) The success of Travelocity and other online travel supermarkets is attributed to the ease of booking combined with comparison-shopping features. Faced with this success, major airlines have formed alliances like Orbitz, as mentioned in part 6.0, which mimic the supermarket business model and attempt to compete aggressively with them. With rebates of up to 40% but at fixed prices, the airlines involved attempt to sell those last minute seats, that otherwise would have led to unused inventory without affecting their established price schema (Saliba, 2000). The business model mimics Priceline's business model. It is, however, based on a fixed price strategy. Although neither Orbitz nor Otopenia are operational at the end of 2000, they have already been the subject of legal scrutiny as the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and the German Travel. Agents Association (Deutsche Reiseb& und Reis-everanstalter- Verband) have asked the respective antitrust agencies to check the announced alliances. (www.wi.uni-muenster.de) Today, the air travel industry, almost like any other industry, is currently characterized by an increasing number of distribution channels. Triggered by increased information and communication possibilities combined with lower costs, we see a mixed-mode structure that represents a continuum of combinations of traditional channels such as Travelocity. On balance, two trends have to be distinguished. Firstly, the rise of new intermediaries are mainly successful on a large scale in the role on online travel supermarkets, parallel to the push of airlines into various forms of direct selling, and secondly, decreasing market transparency and increasing concentration against the prevailing electronic market rhetoric. (www.wi.uni-muenster.de) Likely Future Evolution Of This Industry Planning ahead implies viewing the future, envisaging the world travel scene and succeeding in your business. It is appropriate to look at probable future technologies and how they will affect air travel industry -and how they can be incorporated into the planning for new products and marketing-. What is expected is hundred per cent automation, commission capping by airlines, which is a 'reality', e-mail billing - at present at least sixty per cent of agents receive their billing through e-mail and all agents should opt for the option-. The scene for 2006-2007 also looks promising, electronic ticketing would eliminate all forms of manual labour and be electronically viable. The only thing needed by an agency will be the itinerary, and the customer will only need photo identification at the airport, and the rest will all be on the system. The next in line would be Internet bookings and virtual printing network, which would work between the International Air Transport Association (IATA) office, agents and airlines. Conclusion The rapid growth of the Internet is becoming an increasingly vital tool for information technology. More people and industries are going online to conduct activities such as business transactions, personal correspondence, and information gathering almost everyday. Digital connection between the industries, companies, and individuals becomes more critical to economical advancement. With regard to Internet development, the airline industry has significant progress in recent years in developing new, more sustainable technologies. From the B2C perspectives, the Internet can facilitate the way to do business. Moreover, the advantage of using Internet leads to decrease the cost of the products and services, and improve customer satisfaction. In B2B, the progress in Internet and technologies has impact on improving relations among the airlines, hotels, car rentals and travel agencies. 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