Airport Digital Transformation is a rapidly developing trend impacting the entire airport industry. It isn’t only about the deployment of advanced technology, rather, it’s about transforming an organization’s business, implementing new solutions, implementing best practices and leveraging new and existing technologies to successfully meet goals and objectives. It also involves the integration of these solutions into the company environment. This enables the organization to gain access to the latest in technology, utilize best practices across an enterprise and become more competitive in the market. This provides the opportunity to stay ahead of its competitors and stay on the cutting edge of technology.
The development of airport digital strategy is a strategic initiative that requires considerable planning and execution. It should form part of your overall corporate strategy and integrate seamlessly with the other elements of your approach. To begin with, you must have a corporate strategy that defines your goals, objectives, business objectives, target audience and other important information about your organization. You will need a detailed strategy for airport transformation, including what you will do to enhance customer experience, increase productivity, reduce cost, improve customer satisfaction and create greater organizational effectiveness.
Once you have your overall strategy in place, you can move towards formulating an airport digital transformation plan that will define how you will implement this plan. You must include a defined set of strategic goals and objectives as well as a business case analysis of the impact your efforts will have on the organization. You will also need to develop project implementation strategies that include how you will acquire the new technologies, how they will be integrated into the current systems and what technologies you intend to use to provide the most optimal passenger experience.
A key element of airport digital transformation is to involve the help of a global director. In order for your plans to be effective, you must have an honest and open dialogue with your global director. Your global director will not only help you develop a strategy and a schedule but will also help you achieve your goals through implementation. A global director can make the integration of the new technologies a smoother process by providing input on issues such as culture and best practices.
However, before your digital transformation plan moves ahead, you must have a strategy that you and your staff can execute. Creating a digital strategy helps you determine where you want to take the system. You should identify your customer base, your product or service offerings and your target market. By doing this, you will be better prepared to understand what the final decisions are going to be. When you have determined your digital transformation best practice, you will then be able to incorporate the new technologies into your business processes and your operations smoothly and efficiently.
There are a number of ways in which to integrate these new systems into airports. The first way is through the use of Workstream. Workstream will handle the integration process through its suite of applications, which include e-commerce solutions for accepting and booking airline tickets, gift cards and vouchers, managing airport reservations and tracking employee attendance. Workstream also provides real-time airport updates and information about airport services. By using Workstream, you can easily build an integrated system that offers customers the convenience of booking airline tickets, booking a flight and making changes on the fly while saving their time and reducing operational costs.
Another way in which to integrate digital technology into airport operations is through the implementation of an airport Customer Experience (ACE) program. The ACE program, which includes an online portal, enables customers to obtain and print their own passenger experience reports at any point of time, which they can then share with other customers or the airport itself. The report can contain detailed information on airport services, such as airport security, customer satisfaction, airport parking and other passenger experience factors.
In addition, Workstream is the preferred partner that Workflow is looking to partner up with for its cloud-based application platform. The two companies have created a cloud-based platform that will allow airports to manage all of their customer service needs, which includes handling all of the travel information and booking changes as well as implementing customer service alerts and implementing response systems for customer questions and issues. This will enable airports to run more efficiently and save money by eliminating the need for physical employees, and it will also allow the airports to have a one-stop solution for all travel related tasks. By taking advantage of technology and cloud computing, airports will be able to streamline operations and save money while providing better customer service to travelers.
Deepak Wadhwani has over 20 years experience in software/wireless technologies. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Intuit, ESRI, Qualcomm, Sprint, Verizon, Vodafone, Nortel, Microsoft and Oracle in over 60 countries. Deepak has worked on Internet marketing projects in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange Country, Denver, Nashville, Kansas City, New York, San Francisco and Huntsville. Deepak has been a founder of technology Startups for one of the first Cityguides, yellow pages online and web based enterprise solutions. He is an internet marketing and technology expert & co-founder for a San Diego Internet marketing company.