Air Mauritius soars to new e-commerce heights
SINGAPORE--Air Mauritius' ambitious IT overhaul over the last few months has turned the carrier into a more modern, flexible and customer-oriented organization, according to the IT chief of the airline.
Sushil Baguant, executive vice president of information systems at Air Mauritius, said tapping on the Web was necessary to complement traditional channels such as travel operators and its call center. The airline is the national carrier of Mauritius, an island located in the Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa.
Trends in the airline industry, such as increased competition due to liberalization, as well as rising fuel and manpower costs, led to pressure on Air Mauritius' profitability over the years, Baguant said at the E-Commerce Asia Summit 2008 on Wednesday.
Customers were also growing in sophistication--more airline customers are increasingly demanding the same services provided by, for example, the banking industry.
To tap on the Internet as a revenue stream, build customer loyalty through personalization and improve on operational efficiencies, Air Mauritius focused on a fully transactional Web site and putting in place a CRM (customer relationship management) system that was integrated with its existing systems such as customer records.
As part of efforts to provide better customer service, there is also an SMS module to notify customers of flight delays via their mobile phones, or even offer passengers in the lower classes the option to upgrade before they arrive at the airport.
The airline also automated its cargo business and enabled its 2,700 employees worldwide to perform applications such as leave and concessionary travel, electronically.
Launched in late 2007, the revamped site comprises features such as flexi-pricing options which show alternative fares on different travel dates. Following the revamp, there has also been an increase in site traffic as well as transactional activities, noted Baguant.
To help ease the integration process at the backend, Air Mauritius opted for Oracle's employee self-service module and CRM software from Siebel comprising modules such as analytics and loyalty. The loyalty module was rolled out as recently as two weeks ago, said Baguant.
"Today, we focus much more on revenue generation," said Baguant.
Concurrent with the technology implementation, processes and mindsets within the organization had to be changed, said Baguant. Training was conducted to help staff adapt to the new processes, and adopt a more service-oriented approach.
According to Baguant, the airline is planning to provide avenues for customer feedback and user-generated content such as customers' video or photo impressions of Mauritius. Also in the pipeline is a single-page booking service using Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and Extensible Markup Language).
E-tickets will also be rolled out under the online booking engine by end May, said Baguant.