Jim Martin offers a roadmap to managing and integrating today’s increasingly different and sophisticated airport IT systems.

In every area of business, consumers are demanding simpler solutions and companies are responding. Think about how Google has simplified the search for information on the Internet for instance, or the sophistication yet simplicity of today’s automobile.

Airports are no different, and they are reacting with efforts to simplify passenger travel. Consider today’s leading airports that have valet parking services and are working to provide kiosks that enable passengers to check in at the car park.

As convenient as these services are, imagine the next step – the ‘delight’ of the passenger of the future.

Imagine the following future scenario for an outbound passenger. After driving to the valet parking facility they are able to quickly check the Flight Information Display system (FIDS) to see their flight’s status.

Before heading to the terminal they can walk to a common use self-serve kiosk, which provides them with a number of service options at their fingertips. They include (1) Issue boarding pass? (2) Check bags? (3) Car wash? (4) Oil Change? and (5) Car waiting upon arrival?

After receiving a boarding pass and dropping off their baggage right there at the kerbside, the passenger can then be expedited through to security as a part of the registered traveller programme.

While all of this is not possible today, this type of simplification is what airports are striving for, and it is not that far away.

Enhanced simplicity for the passenger, however, creates a number of challenges for the already overburdened IT staff at airports. Essentially, the result is increasing demand for a wide variety of systems to be integrated, with those systems becoming increasingly complicated.

And these challenges are reflected throughout many different areas of the airport. Some of the most pressing challenges include the integration of traditionally disparate systems such as IT infrastructure, airport operational systems and airline systems. How sophisticated the integration of these systems is depends on each individual airport.

With these challenges, however, come opportunities for airports to develop ways in which they can overcome those hurdles and benefit from new and improved practices.

What does this mean? As I see it, there are two primary ways of simplifying airport IT systems support and maintenance on the back end, thus helping simplifying passenger travel on the front end. Using an integrated support solution and applying new concepts such as Business Process Management (BPM) to an airport IT environment.

For adopting either approach will ensure that managers can directly impact the bottom line and see a host of related benefits.

First, let’s look at what is meant by an integrated support solution. Many airports manage and maintain their IT systems once they are in place around a ‘one-to-one’ concept, where each IT system is maintained by a different service provider. What I am suggesting is a refinement of this traditional strategy to reflect an integrated approach of dedicated and cross-trained personnel able to maintain the multitude of systems found in today’s airports.

Instead of a one-to-one strategy, airports can look to incorporate a ‘one-to-many’ strategy by moving to an integrated support service provider (for example, the dedicated, cross-trained team). By doing this, each airport operations system cost is treated incrementally within the overall costs of maintaining the IT systems.

The bottom line is that instead of having a different service provider for each system (like check-in kiosks, FIDS, parking revenue and control, etc) a single service provider maintains all the systems.

This optimises the airport’s ability to add new systems to its service package with only the incremental costs of the new system, instead of procuring a completely separate support solution. The airport benefits from the economies of scale of using a single service provider across a large number of systems.

In addition, an integrated support team becomes more knowledgeable about how best to accomplish the airport’s end objective of simplifying passenger travel. As the service provider becomes more familiar with the airport, it reduces the learning curve associated with properly maintaining the airport’s various systems.

Beyond a refinement to the traditional service strategy, the other key idea worth exploring is Business Process Management (BPM). While BPM is not new to commercial organisations, it is a relatively new concept to the airport IT environment. So while the idea has been out there (think common off-the-shelf software products such as MS Office), it has not been utilised specifically in airport IT support.

Essentially, BPM uses methods, techniques and tools to design, enact, control and analyse operational business processes – basically, repetitive business processes performed by organisations as part of their day-to-day operations.

BPM could be considered similar to the gauges in your car. Just as they provide feedback on how your car is operating, BPM provides feedback on the performance of the airport IT service environment. It allows management to get a definitive answer to the question: “Is our service provider doing what they claim – and are contractually obligated to do – to keep our IT systems functioning properly?”

It is a key enabler of a completely integrated support solution, which as I’ve discussed, provides significant benefits to airport management. But beyond that, BPM provides airports with a host of benefits in its own right such as accountability, improved efficiency, improved access to information and, ultimately, reduced costs.

In fact, the ideal situation for airport senior management is for an integrated solution provider to maintain the airport IT systems using BPM to provide feedback.

Using the car example, if the engine is running hot, the consumer can get caught between the manufacturer and the mechanic, each blaming the other for causing the problem. If an airport is using an integrated solution provider that employs BPM, it eliminates the issue of accountability because the solution provider ‘owns’ both issues.

And when we think about the increased system integration airports are moving towards, this single-source accountability becomes even more important – the airport simply cannot afford to have two vendors arguing that the other one is at fault while important systems remain down.

BPM also improves efficiency because it has the ability to monitor all the various business rules used to manage the airport’s service environment (for example, the specific tasks and the frequency of preventative maintenance or asset management). It can also monitor an airport’s service level agreements (SLA) such as “restore each incident in 30 minutes” or “complete all service requests in three business days”.

The more accomplished BPM solutions are ‘real-time’, which allows management to maintain a constant pulse on the execution of a service strategy. Once real-time BPM has been achieved, an even more sophisticated set of actions can be taken, such as proactive escalation or alerts.

These alerts ensure attention is focused on a critical service area that is trending or performing poorly. In the passenger of the future example, BPM rules could require that the returning traveller’s car be washed one day before he returns, with escalation in place if it has not happened within eight hours of arrival.

While BPM provides important benefits to airport IT management, it is not something that can be implemented overnight or without a commitment to ensure the processes, tools and technology are well understood by the IT service management personnel.

The implementation of a BPM solution involves the application of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) good practices to a traditionally ‘closed’ solution set.

Many airports have IT systems that are proprietary and have typically utilised separate support providers. But ‘opening’ up, this solution set by using an integrated solution provider allows the creation of a cross-functional system administration and support team. BPM provides the tools to oversee the integrated team, or essentially, the feedback loop.

The most important step to implementing BPM requires the creation of a Service Desk, which is very different from the traditional help desk/call centre model. A Service Desk is a full-service resource for the maintenance and support for all airport IT systems, from passenger check-in to parking access and revenue control systems.

Step two is the ability to provide on-site repair. This involves a team of technicians, cross-trained on a variety of airport systems, so that economies of scale can be achieved.

The ability to effectively perform on-site maintenance is very much dependent on the creation of a Service Desk and the BPM processes that enable the successful execution of the airport’s service strategy through proactive monitoring and issue escalation.

The third step is fully integrated system administration. Think of the system administrators as the subject matter experts, with the technicians providing the day-to-day maintenance. Developing an integrated support team where each system administrator creates and shares knowledge and problems with technicians allows management to find ways to continually improve solutions based on operational experience.

Again, cross-training is critical so that system administrators can be leveraged across multiple systems.

Finally, an integrated airport environment requires the creation of Operational Level Agreements (OLA). These agreements ensure that the service provider has the ability to ‘reach back’ to the actual vendor when needed.

BPM can be implemented to track the parameters of these agreements to see that sub-contracted vendors’ responsiveness is being maintained to the levels necessary to address problems or system design changes.

As airports work towards providing innovative solutions to consumers, they are seeking new ways to accomplish this objective. An integrated IT solutions provider combined with BPM will enable them to reach their goal of simplifying passenger travel.

And in this complex, fast-paced, over scheduled world, who doesn’t need a bit of simplification?

About the author Jim Martin is vice president of ARINC Managed Services (AMS). He is responsible for the general management of AMS, including setting the organisation’s strategic direction and overseeing its business plan.

Asia-Pacific Airports 2008 Issue 3