• South African Airways migrates to iCargo
• Cathay Pacific selects iFly Staff to manage its staff travel
• IBS wins award at Air Cargo Africa 2011
• IBS wins award at IATA World Cargo Symposium
• Top Moves
• Sound Bytes -The product has to live beyond the technology of today

South African Airways migrates to iCargo

iCargo solution suite to fuel the growth of the cargo business of the carrier

South African Airways (SAA), the flagship carrier of the Republic of South Africa and the region’s largest airline, has successfully adopted IBS’ next generation, air cargo management solution suite iCargo. iCargo now helps South African Airways manage its entire cargo business including an impressive list of international destinations as well as an extensive domestic and intra-Africa network. The migration to iCargo has been the next logical step for the airline that was, as a member of the Core Group of Influencers, involved with the evolution of the product since its formative stages.

With the implementation of iCargo, South African Airways has made several advances in its use of IT for its business transformation. These include migration from ‘legacy’ systems to a more cost effective and futuristic, flexible and adaptable, fully web based IT platform, and integration of IT for all business functions such as sales, operations and revenue accounting into one coherent and consistent platform thereby eliminating the need for repeat data entry and speeding up the end-to-end process. The new solution covers the business process automation and management across all cargo and mail business functions, such as post office mail handling, mail revenue accounting, ULD management, cargo revenue accounting, cargo sales & operations, cargo terminal operations and revenue management.

As a result of the two phase transition, iCargo is being used across the SAA network of 48 stations including 39 international locations, 5 self handled warehouse facilities and its global cargo HQ at Johannesburg. iCargo, the world’s most definitive cargo solution, is set to further improve process efficiencies, provide scalability, enhance profitability and fuel the cargo business growth plans of South African Airways.

“iCargo will enable SAA Cargo to bring its entire network to a real time basis, thus enabling improved communication to customers regarding the transport of their cargo, whilst allowing for improved yield management and profit optimization. The integrated system allows for improved management of the overall cargo flow within the SAA network,” says Gary Hoyle, CFO SAA Cargo.

Available both in licensed and SaaS (Software as a Service) modes, the iCargo solution suite’s impressive list of customers across six continents include names like All Nippon Airways (ANA), Jet Blue, Kingfisher Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) and Qantas.

Cathay Pacific selects iFly Staff to manage its staff travel

~iFly Staff to manage the duty and leisure travel arrangements for more than 27,000 employees ~

Cathay Pacific has signed a multi-million dollar contract to implement IBS’ new generation solution, iFly Staff, to automate and improve the management of employee travel. iFly Staff will also be used for Cathay Pacific subsidiaries including sister airline Dragonair.

The implementation of iFly Staff will result in an automated staff travel solution that supports the eligibility and entitlements offered to the airline’s employees and their dependants. It will provide a 24X7 self service environment giving employees access to staff travel facilities across the globe.
iFly Staff will also help both Cathay Pacific and Dragonair to improve efficiency by simplifying and streamlining staff travel management processes for both duty and leisure travel.

“We recognise the trust Cathay Pacific has placed in our solution and our delivery capabilities by selecting iFly Staff. By providing process improvements, and improved efficiencies as well as greater employee satisfaction, iFly Staff will help Cathay Pacific and its subsidiaries deliver the business process transformation they are looking for. ,” said Murray Smyth, Sr. VP & Global Head, Airline Passenger Services Line of Business, IBS Software Services.

IBS wins award at Air Cargo Africa 2011

IBS received prestigious "STAT Times International Award for Excellence in Air Cargo" at Air Cargo Africa 2011. Based on a world wide on-line poll conducted by STAT Times Media, IBS was adjudged as the runner up in the award category 'International IT Systems provider of the year in Africa'.

Accepting the award, Akshay Shrivastava, Sr. SVP and Global Head of Cargo Line of Business for IBS, said, “This award is a global recognition of the efforts being made by IBS in recent years in transforming the aviation industry. This is also a recognition of the contribution of the members of the IBS team who, with their professionalism and commitment, have ensured a leadership position for iCargo in the industry in such a short time. Our latest success in implementing the iCargo solution suite at South African Airways, our flagship customer in Africa, only reinforces our commitment to deliver value to our customers."

IBS wins award at IATA World Cargo Symposium

IBS won a Strategic Partner Anniversary Award at the recently concluded IATA World Cargo Symposium held in Istanbul from 8 to 10 March 2011, for completion of five years as a Strategic Partner with IATA in e-Freight. Receiving the award at the event, Murray Kidd, VP and Head of iCargo Sales said "I am delighted and honored to receive this award on behalf of IBS. IATA is leading innovation through effective use of technology as well as in creating a leaner, efficient and electronic marketplace for air cargo. We are happy to be part of this journey with IATA and extend our wholehearted support for these new generation initiatives. Our cargo products are fully aligned towards these best practices and we will be working together with IATA to enable our customers to realize business benefits through the adoption of these practices."

Appointments

Rajiv Shah has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of The IBS Group and takes responsibility for the operation of IBS’ business worldwide. He would work out of India and report to V K Mathews, the Executive Chairman. Rajiv brings to IBS significant managerial bandwidth through his global experience in managing large multi-national businesses and will help achieve IBS’ plans to become the leading supplier of IT solutions and services to the global air transportation industry.

Rajiv has over 25 years of experience with more than 15 years in senior executive roles managing several businesses globally including EDS (USA and India), CoFuture (A Kerry Packer Joint Venture), Wipro Technologies (USA) and Bharti – Teletech (India). Rajiv served EDS for 14 years, first 10 years in the US and latter 4 years as the CEO of EDS India. Rajiv’s last assignment was with Wipro Technologies, one of the largest global IT services, BPO and Product Engineering companies, where he was the Chief Executive of the Securities & Capital Markets’ business and later the Health Care and Services business unit worldwide.

“I am excited about this opportunity. IBS has a unique business model and strategy which focuses on helping its customers achieve their own business goals by first facilitating business innovation and then supporting such innovative business processes by next generation IT systems. As the clients are looking for service providers with transformational experience, IBS’ domain and product focus will act as key differentiators for this growing market” says Rajiv.

“Rajiv’s global experience in managing large multi-national businesses should help IBS’ achieve predictable business performance and sustain profitable growth. IBS has ambitious plans to become the leading supplier of IT solutions and services to the global air transportation industry and we count on Rajiv’s expertise to take IBS to the next level of growth” says V K Mathews, Executive Chairman, The IBS Group.

Sivakumar Swamiappan has been appointed as Global Head of IBS' Software Services Line of Business as well as Head of Sales for IBS' Strategic Services division worldwide, as briefly reported earlier. With over 20 years of experience in software services, Siva will lead these very important areas of business for the Company. Prior to this, Siva was the COO of IBS's Europe Region for nearly three years a period that saw the addition of marquee customers to IBS' customer list as well as a significant growth in business. Siva was head of NIIT's transportation business in the UK prior to joining IBS. Commenting on his new role in the company, Siva says "I would like to make our Software Services Line of Business the leading transformation partner to the Travel & Transportation industry"

Peter Krebs has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Hotel Booking Solutions Incorporated (HBSi), as briefly reported earlier. Based in Atlanta, USA, HBSi is a subsidiary of the IBS Group. Peter has been involved with the travel technology industry for 15 years, starting his career working for Atraxis in Switzerland heading the operations in North America. Peter joined IBS in 2003 and was instrumental in building IBS Americas to its current state. As COO, he played a significant role in taking IBS’s airline reservations system to market as well as adding some of the leading names as customers of IBS. Peter also played an important role in the acquisition of Discovery Travel Systems (TourPartner, ShipPartner and CruisePartner), Visaer(iFlight MRO) and HBSi (Demand Gateway). Says Peter “Having recommended the HBSi acquisition, it is with special interest that I have taken up this new role as its CEO. HBSi is a true SaaS business and delivers great value to its customers. HBSi has a significant market opportunity, and it is our target to take a 10% market share for this business over the coming 5 years”.

Murray Kidd is appointed as the Head of Sales for IBS' Cargo business and will work with IBS region heads and sales teams to support and promote iCargo solution worldwide. Murray was instrumental in the creation of the iCargo Core Group of Influence (CGI) in 2005, the successful initiative of IBS that has since been accepted by the industry as a proven model for building large and complex next generation systems.

Says Murray "IT is a wonderful tool for carriers to reduce cost and maximize revenues and it will be my prime focus to demonstrate how next generation solutions like iCargo do this. IBS will continue its customer centric approach as we believe in the simple logic that their success is our success. I look forward to the exciting challenges my new role will bring especially the business opportunities in the European and USA markets".

Sound Bytes

"The product has to live beyond the technology of today"- Sudhir Joshi, IT Services Manager Freight, Qantas Airways Ltd

Qantas Freight had recently migrated its global cargo sales, reservations and capacity management functions to IBS’ iCargo platform, a key milestone in its multi-million dollar Freight Futures business transformation program, aimed at differentiating itself from other cargo carriers. IBS Times talks to Sudhir Joshi, IT Services Manager Freight, Qantas Airways Ltd, the driving force behind the implementation and who was elected Chairman of the iCargo User Group at IBS' Airline Forum at Dubai last Oct.

What were the key parameters on which Qantas decided to change to a new-generation cargo platform?

The key drivers were:

• Business Transformation - Over the years, the business processes and the business information silos have evolved round the legacy core and the surrounding satellite systems. This limits efficiencies and needs the innovative use of emerging technologies. iCargo being an integrated new generation platform will open up limitless possibilities for transformation.
• Technology platform for the future that is flexible, supportable and viable in the medium to long term.
• Cost of ownership of the core system and the overall application landscape around the current Legacy environment. The new generation integrated system will consolidate a large number of bespoke applications around the legacy environment.
• Platform that will allow innovation and advances in new technology to meet business demands, in a responsive manner.
• Platform that will facilitate business change initiatives.

How is Qantas' implementation of the new-gen system progressing? What's next?

So far we have implemented ULD tracking, mail tracking with USPS compliance, advanced capacity load planning, booking and capacity management. =We will rollout the Terminal Warehousing and freight operations functions at Los Angeles in August 2011. All the Australian terminals (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Cairns, and Darwin) will be cutover simultaneously in September 2011.

Over the next 2 years our focus will be on continuous business improvements especially in the areas of revenue management, capacity optimisation, and efficiency improvements in the Freight Terminals.

How is Qantas coping with change in the industry? What role does technology, specifically Information Technology play in this?

Industry initiatives such as CARGO 2000, eFreight and IATA MIP are key for us going forward. The continually changing compliance requirements presented by Customs and border protection agencies worldwide will require significant energy and attention over the coming years. A technology platform that is mainstream, supportable and flexible is critical in fulfilling these requirements effectively.

Give us a glimpse of Qantas Freight of the future. What changes are happening in Qantas to facilitate this?

Qantas and the industry as a whole is working to better integrate air carriers into the supply chain as a whole. The rollout of iCargo is part of what we are calling our Freight Futures business transformation program. Throughout the rollouot of this Program, we are working with our industry partners to adapt our systems and importantly our processes to better service their needs – rather than reactively adapting our legacy systems to keep up with minimum industry requirements. Once complete we will be able to provide customers with greater transparency and improved system integration offering not just a suite of new value-add products but delivering a new benchmark for what is considered ‘normal’ for carriers.

How do you see the engagement and partnership with IBS, going forward?

The role IBS plays as our strategic service provider is going to be key for Qantas Freight. We will depend on IBS to provide us with proactive leadership and work with us on these and other new initiatives. This provides bandwidth to cope with the ever increasing demands and the ability to focus on the business initiatives.

You were elected Chairman of the iCargo User Group at the recently concluded IBS Airline Forum 2010, at Dubai. How do you see the User Group helping in the development of iCargo?

The user group is central to the further evolution of the iCargo product. The product has to live beyond the technology of today and adapt to new technology and business needs in line with market demands. Being able to keep up with the technology driven demands in a timely manner and keeping costs under control will be imperative for businesses to succeed, and will continue to attract new customers to iCargo.