Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Webcast: In the Google Apps Cloud: How to Achieve Your Business Objectives
Dec 3rd, '09, 1 - 2 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council member Brent Hoag, Director, Global IT, at JohnsonDiversey, as he discusses the adoption of Google Apps which has helped meet four corporate goals; sustainability, simplification, increased employee productivity and global collaboration.
Webcast: Collaboration Initiatives: Benchmarks & Best Practices
Dec 15th, '09, 4 - 5 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council members Ruth Thorpe, VP & CIO at the U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations of Sanofi-Aventis, and Gary Kuyper, CIO at Bethany Christian Services, as they speak about their collaboration initiatives and experiences in how and why they chose the social networking and collaboration tools they are using and their business goals for collaboration, and facing culture change challenges.
Data Overview: Collaboration Initiatives Field Guide: Benchmarks & Best Practices
This appendix to the Council Field Guide provides an analysis which discusses benchmarks for collaboration IT implementation costs, adoption rates and payoffs. The overview identifies top IT and business goals and satisfaction rates for collaboration initiatives as well as best practices and lessons learned for implementing collaboration IT.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »February 15, 2006 — CIO —
Joe Beery compares the job of merging US Airways, a national airline, and America West, a low-cost, predominantly regional carrier, to creating a three-humped camel. Sitting in his ninth floor office in Tempe, overlooking the Arizona desert, the CIO of the new airline that began operating under the US Airway name in September 2005 seems to have found an appropriate metaphor.
It’s apt because 1. there’s no such thing as a three-humped camel and 2. successful mergers in the airline industry are nearly as rare. But if there’s ever going to be one, chances are it will look a lot like the carrier Beery, formerly CIO of America West, and his fellow US Airways executives are trying to build right now: a low-cost, full-service airline—a seeming contradiction in terms.
Beery’s first hump represents the consolidation of the applications currently running the two airlines. The second hump represents moving the entire airline onto a single reservations system. And the third hump represents the complete integration of both airline’s IT systems and the award from the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) of the all-important single operating certificate that will allow the new airline to operate as a single entity. (Until then, it must run separate fleets, flight crews, maintenance and operations control centers—which pretty much defeats the purpose of the merger.)
As the camel is being assembled, executives at the new US Airways are envisioning a traditional carrier with a fully developed national route network and such amenities as first-class seating and a loyalty program that simultaneously supports the lower prices that U.S. consumers have come to demand. In order to get there, says Beery, "we have to figure out how to do things differently. In some cases IT will be a big part of enabling that low-cost model and in some cases IT itself will be a part of the cuts." At the core of this new airline will be simplified business processes supported by the low-cost IT infrastructure of the smaller but more successful of the merged airlines: America West.
"There’s not an airline around today that wouldn’t want to simplify their processes further," says Robert Goodwin, managing vice president of Gartner. With this merger, US Airways is hoping to find synergies between traditional airlines and the newer low-cost carriers in order stay aloft in a viciously competitive market (see "Another Turbulent Year").
"All airlines have been reexamining their IT strategies and expenditures and strategies," says Henry Harteveldt, vice president of travel research for Forrester. "US Airways is certainly going to be watched with great interest."