TRAVEL

HCL helps a leading airline in Asia reduce 25% of its IT cost

The airline is the flag carrier of Hong Kong with operations spanning passenger and cargo services to 114 destinations in 36 countries worldwide, including code shares and joint ventures.

In the space of a year, our engagement areas with this client spanned: Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) for better visibility of application

inventory, and portfolio optimization Maintenance and enhancements of the CUPAC System (DCS, LDP, FDC,

ABC) and its interfaces Assessment of a Service Center for providing consulting services for in-

sourcing of CPA’s Help Desk

BACKGROUND

The airline was evaluating the visibility of its applications portfolio and IT spend for further investments during the economic downturn. It faced challenges in:

Providing visibility into its applications inventory Allocating Total Cost of Ownership for the applications Establishing a platform for centralized IT Portfolio Management Establishing a platform for ongoing Application Portfolio Monitoring Optimizing its portfolio to reduce redundancy and risk Aligning applications to the business Identifying outsourcing options for its IT Portfolio

CHALLENGES / OBJECTIVESSNAPSHOT

Vertical: Travel, Transportation & Logistics Micro-vertical: Travel

Service Areas: Application Portfolio Assessment (APA), Application Maintenance and Enhancement

IPs / Frameworks: HCL’s APO Methodology enabled by PRIZM™

With the aid of cutting edge tools, we were able to help optimize the applications portfolio and mitigate obsolescence In terms of visibility provided:

Made an inventory of live and obsolete applications. PRIZM™ enabled dependency diagrams for the entire applications portfolio and also provided visibility into the utilization of resources across IT, which helped enable optimal performance

In terms of agility delivered: Aligned business functions with the applications portfolio and established a platform for cost

administration. We also provided recommendations for process improvements that would help increase delivery efficiency

In terms of sustainability provided: Realigned the applications portfolio according to customer priorities, and PRIZM™ enabled the

required dashboards for continued monitoring and maintenance of the applications portfolio In terms of scalability planned:

Our optimization recommendations in certain areas led to over 30% savings and over 50% reduction in the application landscape and automation of manual processes, amongst other benefits

RESULTS / BENEFITS

THE SOLUTION

Allocated TCO for all applications Rationalized the IT spend and created a stable platform for optimized administration Reduced IT spend by over 25% in identified clusters for optimization Reduced the legacy application footprint by over 75% Removed all redundant applications that existed as a result of M&A activities Improved alignment to defined enterprise architecture guidelines Realigned the application portfolio to business priorities

HCL empowers a popular online travel portal handle 300,000 hits per day through unique architectural design

Our client is an Online Travel Portal that operates a commercial website helping users obtain discounted rates for travel-related items such as airline tickets and hotel accommodation

Over a 10 year relationship, our areas of engagement spanned: 24x7 application maintenance, support and enhancements Bespoke application development, and Independent verification and validation services

BACKGROUND

CHALLENGES / OBJECTIVESSNAPSHOT

Vertical: Travel, Transportation & Logistics Micro-vertical: Travel

Service Areas: Application Maintenance, Support & Enhancement; Bespoke Application Development; IV&V

Technologies: ASP/ ASP.Net, XML web services, Oracle, WINRUNNER, LOADRUNNER, Brio, Informatica

The client wanted to increase revenues by launching its exclusive products internationally through a unique and patented "name-your-price" business model

Reduce time to market for replicating its successes with this unique model, and further reduce the TCO of the portal

Build in better and faster search capabilities

RESULTS / BENEFITS

THE SOLUTION We established a 24X7 Network Operations Center [NOC] for this client and

deployed an onsite-offshore model for the NOC which provided database support & website development with support & enhancement activities to reduce TCO

Provided internationalization by converting the existing application to support DBCS, using industry standard Unicode

Designed and developed a new website with features like: Reverse auction Personalization City maps Search engine optimization “Tell a friend” Web Analytics and Billing

Provided timely MIS reports Developed ‘MyTravelGuide’ - a travel research tool that provides information

on travel products and destinations

Our proven onsite-offshore model provided a cost effective solution and helped achieve the highest level of SLA compliance

Faster Time-to-Market as the time zone difference between India and the USA helped achieve a 24-hour work cycle between offshore and onsite teams, resulting in much faster response

There is a tremendous increase in revenues as the web site is equipped to handle over 300,000 hits per day compared to its earlier capacity of 50,000 hits per day

“Working for the past four years with New Delhi-based HCL Technologies Inc., …virtually bet its future on offshoring. Determined to cut capital costs, improve time to market, and ramp-up quickly to meet explosive growth, …..had, at one point, 166 HCL consultants working on projects across four continents…”

- Chief Information Officer

CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL

HCL helps increase bookings for an online travel portal specializing in last-minute deals

Our client is UK’s leading online travel & leisure retailer, with over 1.65 million visitors per week. It provides customers with the best options to maximize leisure time

In our 5 year relationship, our areas of engagement spanned: 24x7 application maintenance, support and enhancements Bespoke application development, and Independent verification and validation services

BACKGROUND

CHALLENGES / OBJECTIVESSNAPSHOT

Vertical: Travel, Transportation & Logistics Micro-vertical: Travel

Service Areas: Application Maintenance, Support & Enhancement, Bespoke Application Development, IV&V

Technologies: J2EE, JBuilder 6, Informix 9.3, ATG Dynamo 4.1, Red Hat Linux 8, JBoss 3.2.3, Tomcat-4.0.4, XML, VXML, IVR (Nortel) Perforce, Homesite 4.5 (Windows), Forte Windows / Linux), CRT (Windows), x2vnc (Linux) Reporting, Informatica 6.2, Oracle Business Objects 5.1

The client wanted to increase its ‘Hit-to-Book’ ratio by allowing mobile booking as a new viable channel

Need for an ‘enhanced website experience’ for end customers through new website features

Improve customer service, and reduce high contact center operational costs

Streamline Business Intelligence reporting to help management make better business decisions

RESULTS / BENEFITS

THE SOLUTION We were able to provide a tremendous cost advantage by offshoring the website enhancement,

maintenance and support engagements By building a Dynamic Packaging solution with IVR capabilities, our client was able to offer

better services which helped increase productivity, and thereby generated higher revenues We also extended services to upcoming new platforms like mobile WAP applications, and

integrated them with GIS We provided support for pre-sales activities like promo codes (specific promotion code numbers) We streamlined daily, weekly and monthly MIS reporting where over 200 reports on various

categories were developed By introducing Informatica [which replaced Perl scripts that consumed a lot of time], our client

has experienced significant savings in its operating costs

Significant increase in bookings Increased revenues by improving customer service, customer response and service times Increased operational efficiency by generating reports more easily and quickly, which led to

key sales and product profitability decisions Reduced contact center operating cost Reduced website TCO

HCL’s Sales Management CRM solution enables a 50% reduction in incident rates while improving user satisfaction

The airline has strong presence in South East Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and the "Kangaroo Route" markets. It is recognized as the World's Most Admired Airline and was ranked 27th on Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies in 2010”.

Over a 2 year period and with a 30 member team, our areas of engagement spanned: 24x7 application maintenance, support and enhancements across various functions Global rollout of Microsoft CRM Corrective and preventive maintenance, technical support for upgrades, business

process improvements, and technical advisory for all applications SLA compliance of 99.3% A proactive study undertaken to optimize the applications portfolio Enhancements quality with a near zero defect track record

BACKGROUND

CHALLENGES / OBJECTIVESSNAPSHOT

Vertical: Travel, Transportation & Logistics Micro-vertical: Travel

Service Areas: Application Maintenance, Support & Enhancement; Global Rollout; Applications Consulting;

Technologies: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, [Database] SQL Server, [Integration Method] - Web services

The airline was looking for a solution that would automate its Sales Management function in 7 regions across the globe

The application is to become a way of life for over 400 Sales Force employees across the world

The solution was required to facilitate the airline’s operations, and efficiently manage its contacts, accounts, and leads/opportunities, while interfacing with its legacy applications

The solution was also expected to provide deeper insight into customer performance trends

RESULTS / BENEFITS

THE SOLUTION

We helped automate the airline’s sales management function through an effective CRM solution that is leveraged in 7 regions across the globe, and by over 400 sales force personnel.

Provided Application Maintenance & Support services across various business processes including: Marketing, Flight Operations, HR, Finance, Cargo, and Cabin Crew

The CRM Project involved: End-to-end Project Management Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Application Design with customization and configuration Integration services with legacy applications (Web logic and J2EE platforms) Global Rollout - For 7 regions across the globe - the Americas, Europe, North Asia, South

East Asia, South West Pacific, West Asia and Africa Providing End User Training

We also provided them a 6 month warranty option

Results of maintenance and support across business processes: Significant process improvements and well documented Incident Management Processes A 50% incident reduction rate in the Finance application Top failure rate reduced by 30% in problem management A 30% improvement in productivity in Incident Resolution resulting in improved customer satisfaction scores A proposed reduction in Application Portfolio size by 10%

Results of the CRM project: A unified view of customer and agent accounts and the complete automation of the sales process; Standardized sales

processes for regions across the globe Enhanced dashboard and reporting capabilities, enabling deeper insight into customer performance Personalized and effective customer interaction ; Efficient management of accounts, leads, contacts and opportunities Seamless integration with legacy applications has enhanced data visibility and improved user productivity Ease of user adoption

HCL helps reduce ticket distribution costs by creating an accessible and open distribution channel

Our client is one of the largest airlines in North America and a founding member of Star Alliance

In our 10 year engagement history, our span of services include: 24x7 application maintenance, support and enhancements Bespoke application development Independent verification and validation services The development of 10 unique business applications A re-usable components library

BACKGROUND

CHALLENGES / OBJECTIVES SNAPSHOT Vertical: Travel, Transportation & Logistics Micro-vertical: Travel

Service Areas: Application Maintenance, Support & Enhancement, Bespoke Application Development, IV&V

Technologies: J2EE Platform: JAX-RPC, JAXBv1.0.6 API for XML Binding, JDK1.4, Java Web Services/SOAP, Log4j for logging, XSLT, XML, HTML Screen Scraping, Xalan and DOM/SAX Parser; Application Server: WebSphere Application Server 6.0; IDE: Rational Application Developer, XMLSpy, UML Tool, IBM Rational Rose

Reduce ticket distribution costs Increase sales by creating a more accessible and open distribution channel Provide corporate users’ air travel expense detailed views for journeys on flights Develop applications to automate:

Corporate fare management: detailed views for journeys on flights Marketing and promotions management Direct connections between the travel agent and the airline reservation

system Integrate the airline reservation system with GDS/ GNE / Travel portals

and intermediaries

RESULTS / BENEFITS

THE SOLUTION

“This project is a key initiative in our overall strategy and you have responded to the challenge. You have proven yourselves to be strong partners and we appreciate your dedication.”

- Manager, Strategic Initiatives

CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS

Ticket Distribution – SOA based open architecture to develop web services for Low Fare Search, Air Booking, Retrieve PNR, etc; OTA Compliant web service for inventory distribution; Built an Internationalization Framework to help add new destinations with multi-lingual support capabilities; Recommendations in selected areas led to over 30% savings, and over 50% reduction in the application landscape, automation of manual processes, etc; Developed a roadmap for migration from GDS to the GNE (Global New Entrants) distribution fee system and created an integration suite (Direct Connect Solution) to connect to GNE 30% faster with low cost of migration.

Corporate Management - Developed a web-based corporate contract mgmt application with features like customer profile, contract number, validity, discounts, terms & conditions, and a pricing engine for calculation of discounts; Online booking is based on various fare families and payment functionalities using SOA based web services; Provided integrations between existing legacy systems and the fare management system; Provided travel agents with the ability to book using specified contracts information; Multiple discounts structure provided for different legs of a journey under the same PNR; Online corporate/ private fares on aircanada.com; Generation of three levels of expense reports (employee, department and company) for better cost control

Marketing & Promotion – Built a role-based web application to manage promotional products for online booking; Generated product codes; Managed black-out periods; Managed product discounts; Managed email templates & qualified customer lists published dynamically on the web; Created appropriate Call Center interfaces

Supporting Business Critical Applications accounting for 5%-6% revenues for the airline

Zero disruption transition completed well ahead of schedule Reduced costs through interfaces for communication with travel

parties 3rd party communication and integration Increase in business by integrating existing OTA compliant Travel

Parties with the client through SOA Supporting next generation technology initiatives