Digital Airports- Technology, Innovation and Analytics

All airports are looking for ways to increase productivity and efficiency in the world in addition to enhanced capacity, better security, passenger experience, and robust operations. In order to realize the full potential of advanced digital technologies and business transformation, there is still a long road to go. Next-gen Airports that are in construction today represents the most technologically advanced establishments that leave a source of inspiration for others to follow.

 There was a time where except the healthcare industry (robotic surgeries), use of robots and AI driven technologies was considered sci-fi and futuristic. We see so much of these in our daily lives especially when we travel for work or leisure. With the rapid pace of advancement, these technologies have now become commonplace. When you enter the Airport terminal doors, to the second you land in a foreign country, digital technology advancements are playing an increasingly important role in a wide variety of ways to identify, authorize, authenticate and verify.

Self- service check-in podiums are biometric-enabled (Iris, Thumb impression, smart card readers).
You can download a bespoke mobile phone application that is designed for you to help navigate through the airport, understand ongoing approvals and processes i.e. from check-in to boarding, and bag drop to shopping (duty-free). The new cognitive and advanced computing data technologies like big data analytics are also aiding airlines and airports to connect with their customers like ever before. Understanding of patterns in passenger choice, behavior helps better tailor services and market targetted consumers to promote these.

Recently, I got to learn about companies like Extreme Analytics that help provide information about the travelers, their locations, also the variety of mobile apps that they use as they move through the airport. These applications have a thoughtfully designed user interface that monitors network performance to ensure the consumer is provided with adequate bandwidth and connectivity. In a case when the user feedback/response drops, the designated network manager is able to determine the cause of the deficiency:

a) bandwidth limitations at the edge or core, due to the broadband connection back to the Internet, or; b) the result of a slow remote application server.

The amount of situational awareness that these real-time analytics provide can then be combined with other real-time user and environmental inputs to provide a view into function and security. It is imperative to understand that one cannot see the concept of digital transformation in isolation.

DT is not just about customer experience or made for just customer-facing solutions. It is about a progressive and stable omnichannel customer experience through pervasive digital channels like mobile, www, chatbots, SMS, USSD, airport kiosks, and airport signage. Scoping such implementation includes support from the contact center, airport agent solutions, inflight operations, revenue management and packaging, marketing and pricing.

Credit: Datalex 

One can highlight the plan based on the chief complaint/ pressing issue or a problem that the airline is trying to solve. However, a comprehensive strategic directive is required to address all problems w.r.t digital transformation effort.


Think of the airline brand as a retailer and a mere seller of airline seats.
Airlines clearly understand that engaging and delighting customers are the only way to drive loyalty and this can be achieved by aligning their digital products offerings through the customer’s journey. These airlines also need to stress on providing unique content and capabilities that are required as per demand study.

Case Study: EasyJet. 

EasyJet has put in a great deal of effort to make sure their customers are not drawn in solely by the inexpensive price of its flights but are more driven based on the customer experience provided. Easyjet aims that when their customers travel with them their travel is easy, comfortable and informative through digital apps.

You can scan your passports on your phone and input all passenger information into EASYJET's online portal. You order a sandwich that can be delivered to your seats and you will get an automatic text if your flight is boarding/ or if it is delayed. When you land, you get the baggage carousel number and a navigation map to get there.

You can book parking, do car hire at just a click of a button!

Here are the few use cases: 

1. Enterprise-wide- Real-time operational insights 

Industry: Airports/ Airlines 

Capability: Real-time operational visibility 

A wise man once said, Your eyes cannot see what your brain doesn't know. To smoothen out operations and improve performance, Airlines also need to gain visibility into its operations. A big problem here is disconnected, disparate and redundant IT/IOT systems. To gain facility-wide visibility and control, Melbourne International Airport integrated its IT and OT systems to allow one view of the entire airport’s operations in its Situational Awareness Platform.

Multiple TIBCO technologies were used to incorporate essential operational modes, such as landside transport, aircraft positioning, vehicle information, vehicle flow, flight schedules, fire systems, asset management systems, check-in, and baggage handling. The dashboard access allows airport managers and operators to visualize potential opportunities defining the customer’s journey through the airport and act real time.

The platform processes data from more than 2,000 aircraft, 1,000 airfield and terminal assets and 15 core operations systems.

The outcomes were: 

1. Real-time geospatial mashup of data streams in a fully interactive map on any device

2. Unprecedented visibility into airport operational systems

3. Incident identification and management

4. Industry-leading analytics and predictive capabilities for proactive resource and demand management

5. Will allow for collaborative decision making (CDM) between airport operators, service providers, stakeholders, and airlines to improve quality of service to customers

6. Fully supported COTS platform with long-term development road map minimizes time-to-value

7. Fuels continuing the drive for greater operational innovation and efficiency

8. Enables the enterprise strategic vision through a robust set of core integration technologies



2. Tracing Consumer demand 

Industry: Manufacturing, Food & Beverage including airport stores/chains 

Capability: Paperless product traceability, automated business logic

Now more than ever manufacturers are under pressure respond to consumer demand for traceability and deliver outstanding customer service. To address this challenge, a major Australian soft drink manufacturer implemented an information database system that connects the customer experience directly to production. The solution involved making the production information system available to the Consumer Complaint hotline and applying a series of automated business rules.

Each bottle’s product code could be traced back to the production facility, line, time of manufacture, and the line leader and shift manager details. This allowed the company to react in real-time to product issues but also gave the manufacturing teams visibility into the value and impression they create with their customer.

Now, instead of waiting for daily and weekly reporting, the company can identify and react to issues by the hour. The accuracy of complaint data was increased by up to 95 percent.



3. Single Sign-on, Customer Insights 

Industry: Transport, Airports 

Capability: IOT, automated business logic, border management solutions (Passport Control, visas, pre-clearance, automation) 

Changi airport is the front runner when it comes to Digital Airports. With the convenience of a single account, customers can now view their Changi Rewards loyalty points and iShopchangi purchase history on the same dashboard on the Changi Airport website and iChangi mobile app. For Changi Reward members using the iChangi app, they can enjoy the convenience of the Changi Rewards e-Card as well.

For CAG, the benefit is also significant. The single login ID enables a consolidated 360-degree view of the customer, which was not possible previously when the individual systems maintained their own set of user databases. These numbers will continue to soar in the coming years as new airport features like greeting through robots (at Tokyo Airport ) and the airport luggage check-in robot (at Geneva Airport), become more common.

Automated processes and driverless vehicles will eventually handle baggage handling, refueling, security, and check-in processes, which will be necessary to manage the sheer volume of things and people efficiently. As airport operators think about the airport of the future and act to align their systems to achieve that goal, they are experiencing difficulty in moving from legacy systems to automated processes and, eventually, integrating A-CDM completely.

The most significant legacy issue, by far, is operating airports in silos – something future airports cannot afford. Airlines have an extensive laundry list of tasks – each as urgent as the next – that is required to be done more efficiently with fewer resources.

According to Frost & Sullivan, these challenges, combined with global capacity constraints, will drive up airport IT spending over the next five years. For an organization as complex as an airport, the crucial element of successful airport digital transformation is the integration of the airport’s operational planning and IT solutions.

While emerging technologies such as biometrics, the blockchain, and artificial intelligence are exciting, these point solutions solve specific problems in a very complicated environment. This is a crucial distinction because passengers have grown accustomed to seamless experiences, and expect as much wherever they are, whenever it is.

Their everyday lives involve highly interconnected hardware and software that simply do not operate in silos – and airports must behave this way as well. Silos leave financial value on the table. When people and software operate in silos, the lack of alignment not only severely cripples operational and cost efficiency but also leaves the door open to risky miscalculations that result in delays, inconvenience, and even mishaps.

Moreover, burgeoning passenger growth is only increasingly burdening the traditional siloed set-up. As inefficiencies compound, airports will continue to bleed money through delayed and reactionary decision-making. Particularly in times of irregular operations, operators risk missing opportunities to deliver compelling customer experience. In response to this, airport operators are today automating many of their processes on systems that can plan complex, interdependent resources. Full integration begins by implementing a single, holistic system that gives planners a complete view of on-the-ground operations.

Then, they will truly be able to drive operational performance improvements across the business. By uniting all these voices and sharing timely, accurate information, airport operators can work with confidence. These are powerful tools that are available, out of the box, and can be configured to solve the many scheduling challenges in the airport. Airports are barged with an ever-increasing passenger base and digital technology is expected to aid and augment an airports’ ability to handle enhanced capacity. Digital transformation efforts can improve passenger experience by streamlining processes, which in turn will help drive revenue growth for the airports.


References/Credits: 

https://www.nagarro.com/en/blog/tag/digitization

http://www.changiairport.com/corporate/media-centre/resources/publication/issue-7/a-seamless-digital-experience-through-one-changi-id.html

https://www.circusstreet.com/blog/easyjet-digital-transformation

https://www.lux-airport.lu/category/blog/

http://blog.datalex.com/introduction-to-airline-digital-transformations

https://www.extremenetworks.com/extreme-networks-blog/how-to-enjoy-air-travel-again-elevating-the-air-traveler-experience-at-the-airport-of-2020/

http://www.airport-world.com/news/general-news/6153-blog-the-rise-of-the-digital-airport-experience.html

http://www.adlittle.com/en/insights/viewpoints/airport-digital-transformation

https://www.internationalairportreview.com/article/76057/future-digital-technology/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2019/03/27/what-are-the-best-and-worst-airports-for-business-travelers/#c17d3a572322

http://www.airport-business.com/2019/03/europes-airports-embrace-digital-transformation-sesars-innovative-excellence/

https://www.moodiedavittreport.com/the-digital-conversation-how-to-maximise-digital-revenues-at-the-airport/

https://en.airport.ir/news/63405/The-rise-of-the-digital-airport-experience

https://www.circusstreet.com/blog/easyjet-digital-transformation

https://www.isa.org/intech/201708channel/

Technology led and Consumer Driven Ecommerce

With the passing of time, a lot of retailers have started to experiment with the latest technology. Although, we know that technology is really important to any retail organization, and retailers are doing their best to serve their customers. On this journey of customer satisfaction, retailers work towards implementing the ideas and also ensure that the entire process is seamless.

Over the years, customers have become connected to their favourite brands in a way that was never seen before. One of the most common ways is by interacting with them on the various social media platforms where the brands educate and provide relevant information to the consumers. The future of retail looks like this: A customer walks into a store and a sales associate says, “Welcome back.

We think you’ll like this product.” The product offered is chosen not only by using the consumer’s prior purchases but also by the store’s intelligent software. The software knows the product’s characteristics (including style, fabrication, color, design, fit, etc.) match what the customer likes. The software is not using the kind of algorithm that Amazon uses to sell books (“customers who bought this also bought these other things”); it’s much more sophisticated than that. It works the way Spotify recommends new music.

Spotify looks at the many characteristics of a song and identifies how it compares to other songs, making its recommendations highly personal, targeted and effective. We are no longer in the business of brands creating value in the rarefied confines of their owned-and-operated supply chains, protected from the extremes of competition that they could afford to extract value through a series of imprecise, expensive, third-party handoffs. As the shift from physical to online stores continues to gain momentum, the legacy institutions will still comprise the greatest share of brand fulfillment, even as their singular power over consumer choice and brand strength is eroding.

 A wave of digital retailers is moving from the internet and into some of the empty mall space left vacant by companies in bankruptcy, like Sears and Payless ShoeSource, or trimming back their real estate, like Gap. One venture capital firm is at the center of the new normal in retail as traditional sellers scale back their footprint while digitally native companies open some of their first brick-and-mortar locations.

 Headquartered in Venice, California, Fifth Wall Ventures has backed more than a dozen businesses, including electronic scooter maker Lime, co-working platform Industrious and real estate analytics company VTS. It has $305 million in assets under management, investing mostly in tech and real estate. Now, it has its eyes set on retail. Fifth Wall has raised $64.5 million as of November, and has a target of $200 million, for a new retail fund, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 I bought the shorts and, returning to the hotel, I searched the internet for the sandals. I found them on birkenstock.com and was completely dumbfounded by the choice on the site – there are literally hundreds of style/colour combinations to choose from; far more than I had ever seen in any store – the choice was incredible!

 Second example. I am a keen skier and, in the past, have treated myself to Kjus skiwear, which is expensive, stylish, technical clothing. The only physical retail stockist in the UK is Snow+Rock, so last month off I went to the Kensington High Street branch. I found a pair of black salopettes but didn’t like the colour of the jackets and so I returned home to look online.

On kjus.com I bought a jacket, two further pairs of salopettes and three mid-layer vests. None of these options had been available in the store. Department stores survived for decades when consumer behaviour didn’t change very much – as they controlled store opening hours, the locations (stores) where you could obtain the product and the selection.

 Now via the internet and mobile, the consumer is in control with 24/7 opening hours, a variety of delivery options and in most cases access to the whole product file of every brand.

References:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2019/02/04/retail-technology-nrf-oracle-barneys-zebra-technologies-columbus-consulting-infor-steve-sadove-true-fit-revolve-group/#44d41b016399

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/329922

https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/from_banner_ads_to_brand_creation_the_digital_retail_revolution/41688

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/04/meet-fifth-wall-the-vc-firm-helping-online-retailers-open-more-stores.html