EasyJet's cloud-based seat booking system using Windows Azure

Cloud Computing at EasyJet 25/08/2015

Brief Company background

Discussion of business problem

High level solution

Benefits of solving the problem

Business/technical approach

Business process changes

Technology or business practices used to augment the solution

Conclusions and overall recommendations

High-level implementation plan

EasyJet, a Luton-based low cost airline in the UK has managed to create differentiation from other low cost airlines through the introduction of a new system of seat booking. The move brought in a new era in the otherwise traditional synonymous seat allotment problems due to the free seating arrangements on the flights of the airline.

The airline used a cloud-based computing service system called Windows Azure to Power its new seat booking system. The system has cloud services and a SQL Database. The company chose to use Azure which cloud application platform developed by Microsoft. The could computing services introduced in the airline helped the low cost carrier to engage in cost-effective, scalable and agile seat booking and seat allotment function hat made use of the Microsoft's global network of datacenters.

The problem was solved by the cloud computing services by the tracking of the tens of millions of seats EasyJet that were available at any given point in time through partitioned SQL databases. This helped the airline to solve its seat allotment problem.

The adaption of the technology by the airline helped the airline to implement an incredibly significant change in the operational manner of the carrier and enabled the company to sell their seats on a massive scale without the need for implementing either much money or resources.

Brief Company background

EasyJet is the largest airline in the United Kingdom and the fourth-largest carrier airline network of Europe and is based in Luton, England. Selling 61 million tickets on an annual basis, the airline operates in more than 685 routes. The airline operates in more than 30 countries with a total number of aircrafts of more than 200 Airbus aircraft. The 8,000 odd employees of the company include 2,000 pilots and 4 more than 4,500 cabin crew (http://corporate.easyjet.com, 2015).

The company has grown from a small time airline to the largest of Britain through a series of acquisitions since the company entered into a phase of rapid growth. Fueled by consumer demand for low-cost air travel, the company also expanded through base openings. The company primarily owns and operates Airbus A319. There are 24 bases of the carrier in Europe with the largest base situated in Gatwick. It is viewed as the second largest low cost aircraft carrier in Europe in terms of the number of passengers ferried by the carrier in 2014 (Corporate.easyjet.com, 2015).

Discussion of business problem

EasyJet ferries a lot of people every year. Hence presumably there was demand of the low cost seats of the airlines. The wide range of geographic locations that the airline serviced in Europe also made it a favorite among low cost fliers.

But the company faced a huge problem due to this demand for tickets and seats. One of the major problems was the slowing down of the reservation system at the airport as thousands of people lined up every day at the physical counters to have information about the seats that were available. This had dramatically slowed down the entire reservation system of the airline and reduced its sale of seats.

Moreover there was a lot of confusion within the airline about seat sharing and seat allocation. The internal servers were often over loaded with information demand and sometimes malfunctioned bringing the entire airline operations to a halt (Microsoft.com, 2015).

The long queues of customers at the airport lounges and at the airport ticket counters were a problem. The list of unsatisfied customers were growing as it progressively took longer time to acquire the relevant information for the customers due to over loading of the system this was also affecting the other online and intranet services of the airlines and often threatened to throw the schedule of the airline off line.

These were the problems that the company was facing primarily emerging out of the rise in demand for the airline tickets.

Benefits of solving the problem

There were several obvious and several potential benefits of solving the problem. The first among them was the implementation of the new system would enable the airline to get market leverage and surge ahead from its competitors in terms of customer satisfaction and uniqueness. The offering of self-choice of seats to the customer from the comfort of their homes is a definite first market move and a sure shot hit with the customers.

Implementing the new system of IT would enable the company to become more flexible in terms of the seat allocation and reservations queries. The infrastructure would become more expandable and scalable which would allow the company to plan for the long-term expansion and sustainability. With a highly scalable seat choice and allocation system, the company would be able to expand and add more seats to the flights and yet not invest anything more in terms of employees or IT infrastructure (Rountree & Castrillo, 2014).

The ease of selecting one's own seat is a matter of convenience. However more importantly it is a time saver as well as the application and the new IT technology would reduce the time-to-market. Passengers would be able to view the available seats, choose the seats available and make the purchase in very short time. Therefore the time gap between knowing the seat availability and the actual purchase is reduced adding to business.

The ambitious project also helped the company to reduce on development costs for two new platforms and risking the over loading of the existing reservation system. The management of the new platform would be simple and easy which simplifies the entire system of seat allocation in the airline. Ultimately the airline would be able to ensure that the customers walk out satisfied and contended which is one of the sure-shot ways of increasing business and reputation and in creating a loyal band of customers (Corporate.easyjet.com, 2015).

Business/technical approach

A survey by the airline before the adoption of the cloud computing system indicated that the company would be able to achieve a cost saving up to 35% savings over a period of three years. The new cloud-based software-as-a-service e-mail security system would also enhance eth security of the information and the entire IT system of the company. .

The strategy of the company of outsourcing its non-core activities was also maintained.

The costs and overheads of the company has been dramatically reduced as a team of just 59 IT professional employed by the company is able to manage and support data inflow and analysis in about 7,000 computer users. This has enabled the company to focus on delivering business value and create a differentiation of services in the market that would give the company market leverage (Corporate.easyjet.com, 2015).

The business approach of the company was to be able to strategize a system that would deliver market leverage and ensure customer satisfaction through smooth delivery of the service. This was enabled by the adoption of the cloud computing system which has drastically reduced comparative costs for administrative overhead as the new system would allows the users and the customers to manage their own systems and report spam without any intervention from the IT department of the company. The new system, while providing good technical support, also reduced management requirements which are among the biggest business benefits of the new system for the company. Hence while the security aspect of the entire system was ensured, the costs of administering the security system were virtually nil (Corporate.easyjet.com, 2015).

On the technical aspect, the new cloud computing system that the company adopted used Proofpoint Enterprise features like the as LDAP integration that forces the IT system to automatically apply different sets of filtering rules and prohibitions and checks for e-mail sets for different groups of users.

The new system is also multilingual which allows the airline the flexibility of interaction of the airline's internationally-distributed staff with the new system in the language of their preference which increases productivity and reduces risks of misunderstanding.

The concept of cloud computing relies on a model that enables an ubiquitous network to have and acquire access to a shared centre of computing resources that are configurable. Using this service, that is generally provided by the third party companies and firms are able to get data storage solutions without expending anything to install new hardware and software in to the existing system. This form of computing allows users to acquire various capabilities for the storage and processing of their data in computer systems and servers belonging to third-party data centers.

Coherence and economies of scale is achieved through the sharing of resources. The broader concept of a converged infrastructure and the sharing of services is the basis of the cloud computing.

Business process changes

The new IT system for EasyJet is third party oriented. Using this new IT system entails uploading of company data on an external server that is connected to the company's internal server but functions separately. This means that the new system essentially functions on its own and there has not been much change in the business process due to the adoption of could computing system.

The only perceivable change in the business process is the complete automation of the seat choosing and allotment system and the reservations process where the customers can have their seats according to the availability and their choice. The new system also provides a high degree of cyber security to the company and hence in this aspect of business process the company would tend to feel a bit more relaxed.

Technology or business practices used to augment the solution

The adoption of the cloud computing system to allow passenger the choice of seat selection and booking from the comfort of their homes has changed the way the airline reserved the seats. The customers no longer need to queue up at the airport counters of the company but can safely choose their tickets from their smart phones.

The technological practice that was introduced to augment the new cloud computing system is the adaptation of the IT professionals to the extra flow of information from the external server into the company server. There was a certain degree of larger information to the internal server of the company and hence the IT professionals of the company needed to upgrade the IT section to meet the e demands of the added information. The IT department of the company also had to use technology to add on to the layers of security that the cloud computing system was providing to the company's internal server and the information being transferred from the external server to the company server.

Conclusions and overall recommendations

It is recommended that the cloud computing technology serves EasyJet in multiple ways and hence the company should adopt the system. It is also recommended that the airline should train its IT staff and the staff with the responsibility of reservation of seats to align their skills with the new system. The company should also take advantage of the scalability of the cloud computing system and try and expand its business to exploit the true potential of the new system.

High-level implementation plan

The implementation plan is to first choose the cloud computing service from the options available in the market. For EasyJet, the most viable option is the Microsoft Azure platform. The platform offers platform-as-a-service option to the users and hence the airline would be able to enhance its reservation system.

The plan should be implemented throughout the airline system and across all the markets that the airline operates in. However it can also be planned to be implemented in phases across various markets of the company.

Summary of project

The Microsoft Azure platform that is proposed for EasyJet is meant to augment and offer a unique seat choosing service through mobile platform and the PC platform for customers. The cloud computing system would help enhance the company services, provide market leverage of the company and help the company to adopt a relatively affordable and scalable IT system which can be used to expand its market and operation further.