28 IT FOCUS
GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2013
Challenges and innovations
An opportunity to take a closer look at some of the latest products and success stories arising from this important industry sector.
e begin our article with a story that involves two ground handlers and an IT specialist.
Taking over a ground handling operation should, in theory, be a straightforward process in this day and age but problems can arise within the realm of information technology. Needless to say, it helps enormously if the two handlers in question are running the same or similar software and systems.
When Swissport assumed the duties of Finnair’s handling arm, a close co- operation was the order of the day - and the fact that Swissport and Finnair were experts in and long-term users of INFORM’s GroundStar IT suite made things easier. GroundStar is the software that optimises airport and ground handling processes.
When Finnair took the decision to concentrate on its core business, and thus sell its Helsinki ground handling operation to Swissport, the challenge was to separate the ground handling operation from Finnair’s catering and customer services departments. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the three departments were closely interlinked by one configuration, server and database through the use of their GroundStar IT- based resource planning, rostering and deployment elements.
“The key factor for success was that the Swissport IT environment was compliant with the Finnair one and, of course, the GroundStar IT experience that the Swissport team brought in,” commented Tero Laitinen, Director IT at Finnair.
After a six month period, Swissport and Finnair were able to announce the completion of a successful migration. Both companies emphasised the exemplary process and its satisfying results. “We believe the experts involved on both sides, the excellent teamwork and the fact that the project goal was quite clear to everybody involved, right from the beginning, were all key factors for success. A critical aspect was that there was no learning phase: after the cut-over everything had to be at least of the same quality and performance,”
declares Philipp Schlatter, CTO Chief Technology Officer, Swissport. As a consequence of the restructuring undertaken by Swissport, the former Finnair staff had to adapt to new processes, set-ups, ways of working and business rules. Different interfaces, such as for the payroll system, had to be established. The whole transition was carried out with close co-operation between both companies, along with some help from application and interface experts such as Axedo, INFORM and other partner companies. “It was important to have a local expert, as well as data flow, interface and application specialists in order to make this a successful migration project. The Finnair and Swissport application specialists worked closely together to ensure a smooth transfer of knowledge,” continues Philipp Schlatter. In the end, Swissport’s knowledge was combined with Finnair’s experience to produce a highly competitive ground handling operation. Today, Swissport Finland comprises about 600 employees, 100 electronic workstations and just one IT expert, who is based at Helsinki airport. The heart
of the GroundStar system, its data and server centre, are all based in Zurich, which guarantees cost effectiveness, as well as easy maintenance and support for the Swissport operation. “The results of the migration to Swissport justify our decision to outsource what is not our core business. We now have a powerful partner who is able to maximise the efficiency of the operation and deliver high quality services, including the real-time data that we need for GS HubControl, our turnaround management system,” affirms Tero Laitinen.
This latter was an important goal of the migration phase. Finnair uses the GS HubControl system to monitor its hub or turnaround operation and to identify factors that may negatively affect a seamless turnaround. All the related processes and events are controlled in a cohesive manner, which requires real-time information from the ground handling parties involved. As Tero Laitinen sums up: “GS RealTime was maintained to the same quality and today, GS HubControl receives the same quality of data as before, which proves the success of the project to us.”
Who’s on board?
New products within the IT aviation marketplace are always of interest and Damarel’s EMBARKmobile looks set to become something of a trailblazer in the context of mobile check-in procedures. As part of the company’s continuing drive to help its customers and improve the systems behind air travel, Damarel has just announced the launch of
Portable solution for automated passenger boarding from Damarel
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