Each of these eight areas is established throughout the process of any project management. In the very first stage of initiation, keeping in mind the phenomenon of electronic ticketing and its history, it will be very important to establish an integration program and a scope dimension in order to make clear the overall implementation process of the new technology across the company. Developing a business case here will therefore serve the purpose of defining the integration strategies and the overall potential scope of the technology within the Efficient Airline business structure.
In this business case, we will also give special attention to how the overall cost-benefit ratio will help the integration process. Another important aspect that we will pay special attention to in the first two stages is the overall risk factor that comes with the implementation of a new program. In this business case, we will thus highlight some of the risks that could potentially appear during the implementation process or after it and will also give recommendations on possible solutions.
Cost benefit model
The main purpose of providing the cost benefit model here in the business case is to give a clear idea of the overall savings and cost cuts that the company could potentially experience with the implementation of the electronic ticketing system. The table below will give an evaluation of the client services department that is mainly responsible for the reservation, ticketing and delivery issues and will analyze the effects on overall costs for Efficient Airlines when analyzing the ticket printing costs, ticket distribution and fulfillment expenses, human resource expenses and others.
AIRLINE COST BENEFIT MODEL
Effect of decrease in Costs
Department of Distribution -- including Reservation, Ticketing & Delivery
Driver
Direct Sales
Agent Sales
Impact
Electronic
Ticketing
Ticket Printing Costs:
1. STD Printing
X
X
Cost Cut
2. STD Wallets
X
X
Cost Cut
3. STD Printers -- depreciation, maintenance &cost of capital
X
X
Cost Cut
Ticket Distribution and Fulfillment Costs:
1. BSP and ARC
X
X
Cost Cut
2. Safe Custody and secure transport
X
X
Cost Cut
3. Envelopes
X
X
Cost Cut
4. Postage & courier
X
X
Cost Cut
5. Real estate: Ticket Offices, Call Centers & Airport Counters
X
X
Cost
Reduced
Radically
Manpower:
1. Managing safe custody and security of X
X
Cost Cut paper tickets/STDs
2. Issuance of STDs
X
X
Cost
Reduced
Radically
3. c. Lost tickets
X
X
Cost Cut
4. d. Exchanges and other post-fulfillment services
X
X
Cost
Reduced
Other Distribution costs:
1. Conversion to Direct, Web-sales
X
X
Asset
Cost
falls and Cash
inflow
Rises
2. Interline Sales Data purchasing from GDS
X
X
Cost Cut
In the table below, we analyze the direct impact that the use of a 100% electronic ticketing system will have on the overall client services patterns as they exist in the company now:
Driver
Impact
Electronic
Ticketing
Greater use of Self-Service Check-in:
a. Check-in Counters/Real Estate at Airports
Cost
Reduced
b. Boarding Card Printers -- depreciation, maintenance and cost of capital
Cost
Reduced
Customer Service:
a. No "Ticket on Departure"
Faster
Client
Processing
b. Standard, electronic record of ticket higher customer
Empowerment
c. Electronic Interline endorsement
Higher
Satisfaction
d. Voluntary and Involuntary Re-routing
On-time flight
Departure
g. Ticketing and Customer Service counters/Real Estate at Airports
Higher overall fleet utilization
Manpower
a. Managing Check-in
Cost
Reduced
b. Managing Ticketing and Customer service counters
Cost
Reduced
Significantly
c. Managing Post-flight reconciliation and ticket coupon sorting
Cost Cut
* Cost cut denotes the elimination of the driver and 100% cost saving
* Cost reduced denotes a major change in the driver's process of function with a cost saving percentage between 60%-80%
* cost reduced significantly denotes that major changes have occurred but major functionalities of the original process are still retained as support for the new structure and the overall cost saving percentages range between 30%-60%.
Project planning tools and techniques
The project planning tools and techniques which were necessary for the appropriate implementation of the e-ticketing integration in the Efficient Airline business structure; the first thing that was absolutely necessary was building a strong team. As discussed...
Hence the very first objective was to hire the personnel who were familiar with the e-ticketing structure and understood its advantages and disadvantages. This will hence be an in-house project (Heerkens, 2007). Understanding team dynamics will hence be also an important facet for the success of this integration. And one of the most important dynamics is the use of reward and punishment matrix, i.e. rewarding and acknowledging good team efforts and inputs and checking/modifying the efforts that are bringing down the overall process or the team.
The nest step is to analyze the need for e-ticketing within the current company structure. The business case that has been developed in this paper has highlighted the need for e-ticketing as an integral part of the company structure. The paper has also presented a financial breakdown of the cost-benefit analysis so to numerically support the advantages of e-ticketing that had been previously mentioned. Another important project technique that will be used in this process is the use and implementation of a modified communication process because that will allow us to perform re-evaluations and reality checks on the structure and it implementation. This particular aspect is important so that with the passage of time the unworthy and unnecessary aspects of the project can be eliminated and the appropriate aspects can be thoroughly implemented (Heerkens, 2007).
Another important too of Project management that will be incorporated during the six months of execution will be the use of appropriate communication channels that follow the model that has been exhibited earlier. That model will help apply an effective top-down and communication structure that will also work effectively the other way round. One of the other aspects that will be kept in mind while the project is in the process of completion will be to avoid and prevent all the post-project concerns, doubts or issues. This could be done through tactical planning or the use of various success metrics that are available for application from the business world and the aviation industry (Heerkens, 2007).
Project brief/scope (30)
The scope of electronic ticketing in today's era is huge. Everything is now technologically driven and e-tickets have made it a lot easier for passengers to purchase their flight tickets and confirmations without having to hustle to the airport and stand in line while still facing the off-chance that they won't be able to get on the flight that they want because by the tie their turn comes, the flight is full. In other words, it is more proficient and suitable for them. In addition to that, once the e-ticket ahs been booked, it will always be in the airline's database hence you can't loose your ticket. Furthermore, the scope of e-tickets is also vast because the customers can make changes in their itineraries without having to purchase new tickets with the changes.
In terms of the scope of e-tickets and their benefits within the firm, e-tickets reduce costs significantly as already shown in earlier tables. Furthermore, e-tickets pose an environment-friendly as saving the paper used up in printing paper tickets will save up to "the equivalent of 50,000 mature trees per year or about 5 square kilometers or 2 square miles of forest."
Efficient Airline aims to establish the kind of footing in the e-ticketing industry that the clients and customers want to be associated with because of its human and business values. Hence the overall brief of the e-ticketing structure within the Efficient Airline business structure will present the following aspects:
Mission Statement:
Nothing is more common than the wish to be remarkable (William Shakespeare). And our wish to be remarkable expands to the global front through effective communication and easy access to flight reservations and booking.
We believe so strongly in our e-ticketing services that we feel we will be depriving you of a great resource if we didn't do everything in our power to get the word out.
Objectives:
1. Involve all senses
See what hasn't been seen
Hear what hasn't been heard
Feel what hasn't been felt
Project what hasn't been imagined
We aim to involve our passengers in the overall services packages of the Airline by advertising and marketing on the e-tickets and the websites that provide the booking and reservation information.
2. Improve overall clientele base both in the corporate and social world.
We aim to improve the expanse of the airline in terms of the annual passengers as well as the total destinations through utilizing the costs saved from not printing paper tickets and relaying on electronic ticketing.
3. Adopt the Problem-solver approach
This simply means that "efficient airlines" will serve as a research engine also. The agency will invest time in analyzing consumer trends and the factors that pose a problem in e-ticketing work and projects and through quarterly publications provide solutions and alternatives.
Vision:
1. Ensure quality and efficiency in work and projects, e-ticketing and otherwise
Positioning:
Engage a percentage of savings from the e-ticketing process in charity or pro bono works across the country
Fund the activities of charity organizations and advertise their work for free based on the findings from the problem-solver approach on the e-ticketing booking sites. This will also pose a community development stance of the company, one that hadn't existed before but was now doable because of the savings and cost cuts experienced with the integration of…
