Case american airlines and the sabre system

ITS 510 Information Management Case Study: American Airlines and the SABRE System

Introduction
This case looks at the implementation of all the six waves of innovation
Wave 1 – Reducing costs
Wave 2 – Leveraging investments
Wave 3 – Enhancing products and services
Wave 4 – Enhancing executive decision making
Wave 5 – Reaching the consumer
Wave 6 – Leveraging partnerships through supply chain management or other forms of collaboration

Introduction (continued)
AA and IBM jointly announced their plans to develop Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment (SABRE)
The concept led to the 1 st real-time business application
It allowed to replace the hand-written system of the 1950s with the Web-based inter-airline reservation system in the 2000s

Waves 1 and 2
1960 in Briarcliff Manor, NY
Built to
reduce the costs of making airline seat reservations
leverage the reservation making assets of the airline
System saved 30% on its investments

Wave 3
1976
System expanded to be used by travel agents
Means of reservations through online terminals
Offering enhanced by adding functions of importance to travel agents (e.g. finding low fares)
EasySabre® was introduced in 1985 to allow customers to tap into the reservation systems

Wave 4
1985
Reservation service expanded to include hotels and rental cars
Transform from airline company to travel company
In 1988, the company offered services for yield management and crew scheduling and a host of decision support tools

Wave 5
American introduced its frequent flyer program, AAdvantage
Program allied with credit card and long-distance telephone companies
Wave 5 connections broadened via the Web
Customers can plan trips, get real-time flight information, etc.
Formed a joint venture with ABACUS to target the Asian market

Wave 6
American works with Citibank allowing credit card users and frequent travelers various offers (e.g. earning miles)
American’s site offered NetSAAver service to send email stating empty seats to customers signing up
Hence there are less empty seats
In addition, Sabre Holdings made multiple collaborations with others, e.g. acquiring major portions of shares of Travelocity.com and ShowTickets.com

Conclusion
This case shows that as the benefit of IT increases, the executive management’s guidance also increases

Case american airlines and the sabre system

by Marshal Richard

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Case american airlines and the sabre system Presentation Transcript