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DISRUPTING THE AVIATION INDUSTRY: INSIDE AVIANCA’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Avianca enhances its importance atop of an elite of Latin American airlines by engaging into a complete digital transformation centered on the user’s experience
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nly one other airline has operated for longer than Avianca, Colombia’s flagship and Latin America’s second largest airline operation, currently a year away from its centennial. Its 172 aircrafts fill a 6,000 flights-a-week schedule, covering 106 destinations located in 26 countries between the Americas and Europe. It takes more than history to accomplish and sustain this level of operation. Relying on a prepared, skilled staff in every task to complete successful commercial flights and related services (cargo and other shipments, delivery for select online purchases, among others) is a very important part of the equation. But a few years ago, Avianca deemed necessary to undergo a transformation process enabling the airline to increase its talented staff’s productivity and, most importantly, to enrich and optimise their travellers’ user experience. The set goal was to become a digital business able to manage aircrafts. Changes were to take place from top to bottom, as the first step toward
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Hernán Rincón CEO
achieving this goal was hiring Hernán Rincón as the company’s CEO in mid2016, after his successful tenure as CEO for Microsoft Latin America. “Hernán came in to discover legacy systems that couldn’t be possibly considered ‘avant-garde’ either within the company or our business sector. We were far behind. Our best solution was to begin a catch up process and, simultaneously, boost every operational and managerial procedure,” explains Santiago
Aldana Sanín, Senior VP, CDO and CTO at Avianca Holdings. Santiago Aldana Sanín graduated in Industrial Engineering from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia); he then earned a Master’s in Economy from the University of Illinois (USA), and an MBA from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA). Transformation has become a constant throughout Aldana’s career, either working for companies such as Telefónica and Citibank,
or as a digital services supplier on companies created on his own. Restructuring and two-gear digital transformation Once Avianca’s transformation journey began by changing its top executive, the next step involved redefining command structures, which may have not been rigid, but nevertheless resulted in slower processes. This meant cutting in half the 24 VP positions and the eight hierarchy levels
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below the company’s CEO, which has resulted in empowerment of decisionmakers and a clear, horizontal vision of the company’s structure. Afterwards, steps to be taken into updating the airline’s procedures and those that would become standards for regular operation were defined and segmented, creating new structures, new processes and taking advantage of strategic partnerships and the benefits these provided, opting primarily for digital processes that positioned travellers at the centre, as well as those able to increase productivity of the human team. “The digital transformation subject is not relevant for being digital, but rather for the transformation it brings. The digital aspect is the most efficient way in our times. We see ourselves as a digital company transforming our clients’ experience. We cannot do this just by ourselves; we go hand in hand with our strategic partners, optimising our whole environment and deploying solutions able to improve user’s experience,” Aldana adds.
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Santiago Aldana Sanín Senior VP, CDO and CTO at Avianca Holdings
Traveler-centered company To focus efforts into improving the traveler’s experience, a new cutting-edge CRM is being deployed with Microsoft’s help, integrating big data, analytics and predictive modelling, evolving into a consistent, fast, flexible and more customised user experience. These traits are also the focus of the company’s new approach toward digital and web marketing, achieved through its partnership with Accenture and Adobe, crucial in creating a
“2018 IS FOCUSED ON OUR USERS AND INTO OUR DIGITAL CHANNELS’ EVOLUTION AS THE PLATFORM FOR A NEW, CONSISTENT, FAST AND CUSTOMISED EXPERIENCE” – Santiago Aldana Sanín, Senior VP, CDO and CTO at Avianca Holdings
fully-responsive website, able to offer the same agility with any device. All these recent developments consider that traveller’s experience may differ between age groups. Millennial travellers, for example, are aided by Carla, the company’s chatbot -created along with Accenture - ready to help with inquiries on Facebook Messenger. Besides these e-commerce structures, design thinking resources are already understanding and
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comparing results, learning which interfaces are best in allowing travellers to engage with what the airline has to offer. Award-winning app Avianca’s mobile app - also developed in partnership with Accenture - was launched in August 2017. This app simplifies regular procedures such as reservations, browsing flight options, ticket purchasing, checking in, among others. Between its release and December 2017, the app was
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updated three times. Undoubtedly the app’s most outstanding feat was earning the ‘Best Mobile Application’ award last November during the Digital Smarties ceremony, in recognition to the best in global marketing. The accolade is a worthy recognition for Avianca’s journey into digital transformation. The company’s purpose is to keep adding functionality to the app increasing the frequency of each new update. “By no means can we consider this a finished product, the app will keep
Avianca | A321 Neo
evolving by adding new functions. Upcoming updates will be a result of our users’ requests,” the CTO explains. Doors wide open to improvement As Aldana notes, Avianca’s perception of any user’s total experience goes well beyond routine procedures such as planning a trip, reservations, ticket purchasing and check-in. It also relates to other subjects within the travel and leisure industry: hotel links and reviews, car rental
companies, restaurants and other activities that are part of a trip. “This will be accomplished through our API, in which our allies, users and the entire environment we’re part of will be able to contribute in improving our clients’ experience, since they are the ones telling us what to improve,” Aldana says. Increased productivity and operations New, faster, easier ways to engage with travellers is not the only area in
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which Avianca has already improved. Employee productivity is also a focus. Avianca’s aircraft fleet is moving with the speed today’s world requires, the ships’ engines are powered by GE Aviation, another partnership that has proven to be crucial. Microsoft also provides outstanding tools which have proven its worth in facing eventualities and developing continuity for business plans, rising to the occasion during the difficult times of Colombia’s pilot strike in September 2017. Other resources such as Office 365 have also been a key factor in increasing the company’s productivity. Besides the user-related efforts and looking inwards, the goal of Avianca’s transformation is also empowering more than 22,000 employees into becoming change agents, being able to improve every single process they perform with the support, know-how and resources Avianca and the company’s strategic partners put in their hands. “2018 is focused on our users and into our digital channels’ evolution as the platform for a new, consistent, fast and customised experience,” Aldana concludes.
“BY NO MEANS CAN WE CONSIDER THIS A FINISHED PRODUCT, THE APP WILL KEEP EVOLVING BY ADDING NEW FUNCTIONS. UPCOMING UPDATES WILL BE A RESULT OF OUR USERS’ REQUESTS” – Santiago Aldana Sanín, Senior VP, CDO and CTO at Avianca Holdings
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CENTRO ADMINISTRATIVO AVIANCA Av CII 26 # 59 - 15 (Av. El Dorado) Bogotรก, D.C.Colombia Tel. +57 (1) 587-7700 www.avianca.com