Comairs Information Systems and Information Technology - Essay Example

Comair’s Crew Scheduling System System Development Analysis Table of Contents Introduction 4 Background 4 Problem Situation 5 Comairs IS and IT strategy 6 PESTLE analysis 7 Economic: 7 Sociological: 7 SWOT Analysis 9 Strengths 9 Weaknesses 9 Opportunities 9 Threats 10 Value Chain Analysis 10 Primary Activities 10 Inbound Logistics 10 Outbound Logistics 11 Marketing and Sales 11 Service 11 Support Activities. 11 Procurement 11 Human Resource Management (HRM) 12 Firm Infrastructure 12 Industry strategic analysis Price 12 Development of new system 13 People Involved for system development 15 Organization personals involved in development 16 Technology issues 16 Conclusion 16 References 17 Introduction This report presents the detailed analysis of the Comair implementation of the AirCrews Operations Management and scheduling system. This report analyzes how this system will enhance the overall working and operational capabilities. The main aim behind this analytical research is to figure out the main points and factors regarding this new system adoption. For this purpose I will use different analysis technique to figure out the main factors (positive or negative) regarding the implementation of this new AirCrews Operations Management and scheduling system. Background In this section I will present a brief overview of the Comair. This company is a regional airline carrier based in the US. This is very well reputable Air Line Company that consists of nearly 7000 airline professionals who, collectively, manage and operate more than 1100 daily flights carrying 30000 passengers. Throughout its history, Comair has been an award winning leader in the regional carrier industry (Case Study). Conair is running the AirCrews operations and scheduling throughout a legacy system. This system is just about 2 decades old. There are lots of predicaments linked with this system on the subject of management of the on the whole organizational operations. Comair has an expected implementation of the new SABRE software package in the end of the 2005, but currently Comair was still using the SBS legacy system, now divided into two modules so that pilot schedule changes and flight attendant schedule changes each have monthly limit of 32,000. Comair is also monitoring the volume of transactions more carefully (Case Study).. Problem Situation This section discusses about the problem analysis regarding the two decades old legacy system and accomplishment of new AirCrews operations and scheduling management system. The main problem is regarding the handling of this system. This system is developed in FORTRAN in 1950s. As a result the basic working of this system is console based. There are also problems regarding the better user interface and working facilities of this system. Next main problem that has emerged is SBS legacy system capacity of the transaction handling. This system is developed to handle pilot schedule changes and flight attendant schedule changes to a monthly limit of 32,000. The business of the Comair is emerging day by day. The need and capacity of the transaction handling of the Comair requires more effective a big capacity system of the handling of future enlargements. Then another problem regarding the old legacy flight crew scheduling software Has happened on December 25, 2004 when this system forced the airline to cease all operations, grounding its full schedule of 1100 flights. The action altered or ruined the holiday plans of 30000 travelers. Comair and Delta lost $20 million. The Year 2000 (Y2K) problem has also affected the working of this system but later on this problem was naturalized. This system was fully crashed on 25th due to overall processing of the changes. This problem happened due to the 32,768 changes in a month. This problem has really affected the organizational overall profit and lot of flights has canceled (Case Study). Comairs IS and IT strategy Comair has established its IS and IT strategy regarding the effective implementation of the new AirCrews operations and scheduling management system. This IS and IT strategy is aimed to modernize the on the whole working and performance of the Comair. This system will increase the capability of the transaction processing and will present the more commanding working situation for the overall working crew of the comair airline. Here new IS and IT strategy is established that is, new AirCrews operations and schedulings management system will provide more better user interface and working performance. This will enhance the overall scheduling of the AirCrews operations. 0The new AirCrews operations scheduling system will integrate the state of art technology for the efficient management of the organizational information and better payroll assessment. For the development and accomplishment of the new AirCrews operations scheduling system Comair’s IT department has requested SABRE, SBS, and other vendors to make obvious crew management systems in late 2002. But the airline did not consign to a new solution at that time because of cost concerns. Then after that there are several problems have come out regarding the working of old system so that in June 2004 Comair’s IT department has invited different system developer firms and approved the replacement of the legacy crew management system. Comair agreed to terms with SABRE for its AirCrews Operations Manager and scheduled the rollout for 2005. The deadline is established for the replacement in 2005 (Case Study). PESTLE analysis In this section I will present the detailed PESTLE analysis of the new Comair’s IS and IT strategy. I will analyze and discuss the main points regarding this IS and IT strategy from the different analytical factors of the PESTLE analysis. Political: The implementation of this system allows development of a better environment at Comair’s. Comair’s organizational political environment will operate more smoothly, because we have more employees working satisfactions. Economic: As I have stated earlier that there are lots of problems regarding the better working of the Comair through the old system. The company has to face lot of economical break downs and these problems have seriously affected the profit of corporation. The implementation of new system will enhance the power of the organization regarding the air traffic handling and crew working scheduling. These systems will also grantee less problems during the working of the system. Hence there less breakdowns are expected. So I have accessed that this system will enhance power of organization regarding economical point of view. Sociological: There a number of problems regarding the flight deal have happened due to the problem in old legacy system. Due to that customers have to face lot of problems. This system will ensure the error free working of the overall organization. In this way no flight will be late and people would not feel any problem regarding this issue. Technological: The old legacy system was developed in FORTRAN that is a programming language of the 1950s, in which there was no in-house expertise. It was also the only application that still used the company’s old IBM AIX version of the UNIX operating system rather than running on HP UNIX. Due to implementation of the new technology we will be able to implement new technology that will support the overall working of the organization. This technology will be implemented on the new hardware that will be faster and useable (workable) for lot of coming years. Legal: The implementation of new technology will be according to the US Aviation standards. These standards will be fulfilled to take a better competitive edge in this market place. Environmental: As talking about the environmental aspects of this implementation we will have better working environment in the overall organization. Like that we will have less time in each transaction and processing. This will reduce the work load of the people in the organization. In this way overall performance will be improved that will make organizational environment more suitable. SWOT Analysis This section is about the overall SWOT analysis of the Comair’s IS and IT strategy. Here will talk about the main aspects of the SWOT analysis factors regarding the Comair’s new IS and IT strategy for the implementation of the new system. Strengths The Comair’s new IS and IT strategy for the development and implementation of the new crew schedule management system has a very strong impact on the overall organizational working performance. This will provide the strengths to the organizational crew schedule management. In this way we will have an enhanced platform for the better business management and performance. Weaknesses As I have discussed lot of advantages of this system implementation. Comair’s new IS and IT strategy for the development and implementation of the new crew schedule management system has lot of strong points but there are few weak points regarding the overall transformation. Like that after the overall transformation we need to train the whole organizational workforce that needs to interact with this system. This process of the training will take some time and money that is another organizational problem. Opportunities We have numerous opportunities regarding this transformation like that we will have better user interface, better technology, enhanced performance and biggest opportunity regarding better competitive edge. Threats We have also few threats regarding this transformation. This transformation is going to implement the SABRE technology for new scheduling system. Now we have SBS system that is functional for the overall organizational tasks. In case of transformation we also require the old data of the business. If this transformation would be not able to happen in a proper way then we will have the danger regarding the lost of old business data. Value Chain Analysis The VCA or value chain is a methodical approaches to investigative the progress of competitive benefits. It was shaped by Porter in 1980. Here in this VCA regarding Comair’s new system for the crew schedule management system, I will try to elaborate the main procedures for the competitive benefits. Primary Activities Inbound Logistics In this scenario we will acquire the new system for the crew schedule management system. SABRE technology solution will provide us the main system for the overall handling of the infrastructure. Operations Here in this stage we will establish the new system in our organizational environments. For this system implementation we acquire the hardware infrastructure and establish better platform for the system working. Outbound Logistics Here we will start the system for the organizational job processing and handling. In this phase we will check the system for the effect scheduling and management of the crew working. Marketing and Sales In this scenario we will test the system whether system is fulfilling the customer needs and requirements. Here the main aim is to check the system if it is convincing the needs of the target clients. Service We will train the overall staff for the better system usage and handling the system working. In this area we will make sure that user works in a better way. For this reason we will provide the user all services regarding the user response and system working. Support Activities. Procurement In this scenario we will establish a standard way for the system purchase and procurement activities. We will establish proper criteria for the system deployment and purchase of the supporting tools. Human Resource Management (HRM) Workers are a costly and fundamental resource of any organization. In this project we will establish a standard way for the direct recruitment as well as training, selection and development, as well as rewards with payment. The task and objectives of the association would be powerful power at the back the HRM policy. Firm Infrastructure In this activity for our new COMAIR system we will comprise and determine through business or planning. It will involve the establishment of the MIS for our organizational task handling and recording. Industry strategic analysis Price This project is aimed to renovate the overall organizational working environment. Here we have seen lot problems regarding the old technology. There is huge loss to organizational overall profit due to the break down in the old legacy system. The new system will take huge investment but in the end we will have system that is dependable. Customer satisfaction is main purpose of any business. Due to ongoing problems in the old SBS legacy system there are lots of delays in the flights. For this reason the level of customer satisfaction is going down. This new technology implementation will manage the overall organizational working structure in a better way. The cost of purchasing, implementation and training will be not as high as the overall losses that have happened due to the problems in the old SBS legacy system. The cost of this system can also be recovered through the better customer support and error free working. The system will work effectively with delay in the schedules, no flight will be late. In this way we will get more customer satisfaction and better loyalty. Taking the better competitive edge in the market place is also a significant aspect of this technology incorporation. In this way we will be able to enhance the market share and overall market place. Development of new system In this section I will talk about the Comairs new system development. Here I will talk about the main practice, analyze, design, programming, testing, conversion, maintenance, software, hardware and network related details. The air crew management systems are really complex and difficult to develop. For this reason we do not develop this system personally. The next option is regarding the purchase of this system. We have two companies SBS and SABRE technology in this ground. We already were working on the SBS technology. Adoption of this technology will provide us main advantage regarding the old data conversion, but as there few aspects of this technology are not so effective. So management has accepted the SABRE technology system. This will be based on new technology that has better crew management solution, so we will purchase this system form the SABRE. The incorporation of the old system with the new is very indispensable. We have 15 years old records and details regarding the organizational procedures and working. We also have huge collection of the historical payroll. So there is extreme need of the old data incorporation with the new system. In the system development first of all we will analyze the overall old system process and working style. Then we will conduct the meeting with the organizational personnel to access the main requirements, modifications and facilities that they want in the new system. The development team will then design the new system that involves the soft and hard system design. The programming of the system will involve the coding that will be carried out in some databases supportive language which can process the overall databases transactions. In the conversion phase we will convert all the old system data into to newly developed system. This data will be used later for the better overall processing of transactions, because the assessment and some decision are taken on the basis of historical data. The historical data is really significant because we need this data to access the future trends and some possible decisions are also taken on the basis of the historical data. Maintenance of the system will be included in the system development and deployment contract. We will design a contract with SABRE that involves the after implementation maintenance. No. Activity 1 Requirements assessment 2 System design 3 Development 4 Hardware implementations 5 Testing 6 Quality assurance and performance analysis We will require software regarding the implementation of the new scheduling system. This software can be security or network management related. This software will support the overall better working of the system. The hardware will be the main part of this project. For the implementation of new system we will require the new supportive hardware for the overall support of the organizational processes. This includes new work stations, network servers, network switches and other communication devises. We will establish the VPN (Virtual private network) that is more secure and effective regarding the overall organizational processes. People Involved for system development In this section I will discuss about the people that are involved in this system development. Required staff Responsibilities Project manager To manage the project In an effect way Planner Plan the project and resources in such a way the project exaction can possible on time and in resources Analyst Analyze risks and any required improvement Assistant Assist the staff for there responsibilities System designers Will designee the system design System coder Will code the system for the better system working System tester Test the system for its error free working Quality assurance This team will provide the better system quality and working Etc. Any person who is required specified latter Organization personals involved in development This category of the users that will be involved for the collection of the basic requirements and system features. Like that we will involve the following people for this system development: Operators IT operatives Managers Employees for the new system handling Network management staff Technology issues Nowadays we are facing biggest danger from the online data hacking and information theft. Lots of people are uncertain from the online data sharing. In our system we need to make sure that there are no security holes in the system working and online data transfer and sharing. By this way the organization information structure will free of risks. Conclusion In this report I have presented a complete overview of the AirCrews Operations Management scheduling system development and planning system. I have discussed about the main project implementation details and plans. This report is complete overview of the main project tasks and their execution details. I have used different analyses techniques to find out the main facts regarding the better implementation of the system. I hope that this report will offer a better and deep insight into the overall organizational system implementation. References Jawadekar, W. S. 2004. ‘Software Engineering: Principles and Practice’, New York: McGraw Hill. Kenneth Laudon, J. L. 1999. ‘Management Information Systems, Sixth Edition’,. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Lafore, R. 1999. ‘Object Oriented Programming in C++’, (3rd ed.). Indiana: Sams Publishing. Legge, & Karen. 2004. ‘Human Resource Management’, 10 Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Mahn, C. 2005. ‘Open Vs. Closed Communication Protocols Why Open Protocols are the Way of the Future’, Retrieved April 27, 2009, from Gibson Engineering: http://www.gibsonengineering.com/PDF%20Files/open%20vs%20closed.pdf Norton, P. 2001. ‘Introduction to Computers’, Singapore: McGRAW-HILL. Pressman, R. S. 2001. ‘Software Engineering: A Practicioners Approach’, 5th Edition. London: McGraw Hill. Richards, H. 2004. ‘Soft Systems Methodology’, Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/dstools/control/softsm.html Sommerville, I. 2004. ‘Software Engineering’, 7th Edition,. New York: Pearson Education (Addison Wesley). Williams, B. 2005. ‘Soft Systems Methodology’, Retrieved April 14, 2009, from Actrix Users Home Pages: http://users.actrix.co.nz/bobwill/ssm.pdf Read More