In the BizSci Spotlight: Airline Service (part 1)
BIZSCI IN
BRIEF
Many U.S. domestic air carriers still
struggle to stay one step ahead of bankruptcy, despite the examples
of standouts like Southwest and JetBlue. These airlines have yet to
fix holes in their service infrastructures that result in frequent
unmet customer expectations. Until these airlines inventory all
customer expectations and ensure they are met at each customer
touch point (ticket counter, web, call center, gate, and aircraft),
their businesses will continue to suffer.
What's
Broken?
It's 11:30 pm. After a two hour delay, I had
finally boarded a commuter plane at Atlanta's Hartsfield
International en route to Dulles and home. Instead of taking off,
it seemed that something was very wrong. Although the passengers
had been asked to take their seats, fifteen minutes had passed with
no one to close the door. Worse still, the flight attendants looked
like anxious parents at a child's birthday party hoping it
really was a good idea to reserve a clown just returning
from rehab.
Lemmings Can Stay Seated
A meticulously
dressed business woman in the isle seat to my right was more than
concerned about the delay. She first asked and then demanded to
know what was going on. I paused my iPod long enough to determine
she was not armed, and continued listening to an audio rendition of
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Twenty minutes later, I noticed
the passenger had returned, her black pumps slightly wobbly and her
matching skirt slightly wrinkled. She was quietly saying something
with an expression that begged attention, so I paused my wireless
headset again. With a tenor that could have been a sob if her tear
ducts were working, she quietly heaved,
"They said I have to leave the plane. ..... Was I
threatening?"
A woman behind her, seemingly fully occupied with the tag team
effort to subdue a two-year old lifted her head and offered, "Yes,
you were rude."
The Entertainment Arrives
Before the
passenger was removed, she had been successful with short words to
gain an attendant's assistance in "allowing" her to remove her
seat-belt and pose a question to a person in-charge. She had then
walked to front of the plane, unfortunately finding the person in
charge was the same efficiently listening attendant. Incredulous
that there was no pilot or co-pilot AND that she was
expected to sit indefinitely without explanation, I surmised that
she began making quiet demands ... first that someone call to find
out what the !*_k happened to the pilots and then that someone tell
the passengers when the !*_k they would be departing.
I didn't hear her directly, but the next two announcements told the
story. Three minutes after she left her seat came the first
announcement,
"This is the flight attendent. As I am sure you have noticed our
departure is delayed. Unfortunately, our pilots have not yet
boarded the plane, but they should be arriving shortly. Thank you
for your patience."
Five minutes later came the second announcement,
"I am pleased to announce that our pilots have arrived! After a
short pre-flight checklist, our plane will depart
momentarily."
Based upon the short time between the arrival of the pilots and the
ejection of the passenger, it seems the pilots must have been
greeted by the same senior attendant, requesting authorization to
immediately remove a disorderly passenger.
Part 2: WinTel, the Luddite Revolution
This is the second article in the Forward to the Mainframe? series
Part 1: Revisiting the Mainframe Utility Computing Model
Part 3: A Virtualization Machine - the X86 Mainframe
The history of the Luddites is a interesting study, particularly for practitioners in the computer industry. In the early 1800's, Ned Ludd's textile culture defended hand looms over the new large knitting frames. This was despite the fact that the larger looms produced much more cloth with far less skilled labor.
Instead of looms, today's Information Technology workers repeatedly choose servers without the virtualization or processing redundancy needed to keep critical applications running. And they choose these servers over commercially available mainframes and other highly available systems with proven track records.
Let's look at the factors that led and continue to lead an intelligent and informed business computing market to chose lesser technologies.
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On the Road: Hosted Telecommunications Keynote
HOSTED VoIP EDUCATIONAL LUNCHEON
LEARN HOW A PRESTIGIOUS GLOBAL LAW FIRM—VOTED BY FORTUNE MAGAZINE READERS AS A TOP "GO-TO LAW FIRM” EVALUATED AND IMPLEMENTED A HOSTED VOIP SOLUTION
The presentation in flash format is here.
The event notice is here.
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Intro to Minimum Computational Requirement
The Minimum Computational Requirement or MCR is an analytical method for helping an organization determine the least amount of technology required for a function or organization.
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Understanding Minimum Computational Requirement (MCR)
Ever notice that your fastest computer is the little one in your pocket?
Consider some of the daily tasks you need technology to accomplish, read e-mail, check your calendar, answer the phone, listen to a song. You can browse any e-mail in seconds, as long as you use your Blackberry. Similarly you can find and play any song or video in seconds, as long as you use your iPod.
Unfortunately, it typically takes longer to perform these "simple" tasks on your office desktop or laptop.
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The Inherent Efficiency of Growth
What's the best way to create a more efficient IT organization?
- Implement ITIL?
- Outsource?
- Better align IT goals with business strategy?
- Integrate enterprise processes using web services?
- Focus on growing the skills of your resource pool.
What if there was a better way to provide more services per dollar, one that had nothing to do with your ability to execute as an organization? I am talking about business growth, and the impact running an IT organization at a belt tightening Gap (Limited Brands) vs, heading a similar organization at a rapidly growing Nordstrom.
My analysis provides a surprising and very disheartening result if you are CIO at a company with weak or negative growth. IT departments in growth companies have a significant cost advantage.
Thus if you are right now heads down figuring out how to give your low growth company a cost advantage so it can ... "catch-up" with the industry leaders, you might want to read this article, ... because your job just got a bit tougher. More...
Part 3: A Virtualization Machine - the X86 Mainframe
This is the third article in the Forward to the Mainframe? series
Part 1: Revisiting the Mainframe Utility Computing Model
Part 2: WinTel, the Luddite Revolution
Forget everything you think you know about mainframe technology. Everything that follows
X86 Mainframe Home Page More...
Part 1: Revisiting the Mainframe Utility Computing Model
This is the first article in the Forward to the Mainframe? series
Part 2: WinTel, the Luddite Revolution
Part 3: A Virtualization Machine - the X86 Mainframe
IBM's Mainframe Business Model
As the original utility computing device, the mainframe business model enables a company to invest in a system that it can grow with.
With a mainframe purchase, you buy a machine that typically can do more than you need. This "utility" computing model enables you to buy only what you need. Thus, instead of paying a price of two million dollars for unlimited use of a mainframe, you might pay one million dollars to obtain the computing power you need today. More...
Profit Forms
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