Emerging technology is a force in today’s marketplace that can provide significant value to an organization. Delta Airlines is an excellent example of an organization that continues to put innovation and emerging technologies at the forefront of their business strategies. Delta Airlines has been named one of the who’s who of tech disruptors (Modolo, 2019). Of these who’s who disruptors, Delta is the only airline to be included. One of Delta’s most significant adoptions in regards to technology has been its implementation of Biometrics.
2. ❑ Founded March 2, 1925, Macon, GA
❑ Major Airlines of the United States with 9 Hubs
❑ Atlanta’s largest total passengers and the number of departures
❑ Ranking: 2nd world's largest airlines by the number of passengers carried,
revenue passenger, flew, and fleet size
❑ Adopted an aggressive strategy in 1990
❑ Year 2000, Net Income over $1 Billion with $117 million passengers
record
❑ Year 2018, Launched the epic, first-ever facial recognition biometric
terminal - Emerging technology.
3. The Launch of Facial Recognition
Biometric Terminal, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8TXJ1OFQoM&authuser=0
4. Strategic Alignment of Biometrics
❑ Delta’s alignment between their IS strategy and their
business strategy is getting better and better. The facial
recognition is a prime example of how their IS strategy
matched well with the business and organizational
strategies to create a competitive advantage.
❑ In regard to the RBV, Delta did indeed create value by
using IT by implementing this new system to create more
satisfaction and competitive advantages among airliners.
❑ Delta has improved their technological advances
and alignments within their organizations strategy
that has generated more profit for the company.
As time progresses, they are getting more and
more innovative.
5. Business Process & Biometrics
❑ Goal of biometric technology implementation:
❑ streamline customer experience
❑ Business Process Most Impacted:
❑ Customer journey, experience, &
satisfaction
❑ Decrease boarding time
❑ “Curb to Gate” with ease
❑ Fingerprint rather than boarding pass
❑ Decrease # of times show passport
❑ Passenger benefit: 1 less thing
to worry about
❑ Employee benefit: more time for
meaningful interactions with
customers
6. Impact of Biometrics on Customer Journey,
Experience, and Satisfaction
❑ Biometric Touchpoint:
❑ Saves an average of 2 seconds per customer during
boarding
❑ Average of 9 minutes when boarding a wide body
aircraft
❑ Metrics / Customer Feedback
❑ 70% of passengers found curb to gate facial
recognition appealing
❑ 72% of passengers prefer facial recognition to
standard boarding
❑ When given the option to opt out of the biometric
process, less than 2% of passengers do so
7. Detailed overview of Biometrics
❑ Biometric Technology- technologies that utilize biological features to identify an
individual, including:
❑ Fingerprint scanning
❑ Facial recognition
❑ Voice recognition
❑ Less used: retina or palm-vein scanning
❑ Previously utilized in criminal investigations and national security, with growing
use in tech-centered industries like smartphones
❑ Delta Airlines, Inc. is leading the airline industry in utilizing biometrics to
streamline the customer experience, implementing biometric identification
systems to seamlessly move passengers from check-in to boarding
8. Impact of Biometric Implementation
❑ Facial-recognition have 35%
error rates, at the airport
❑ Certain systems perform worse
with black people, and women
❑ The possibility that computer
glitches will crash the systems
9. Faces of Our Future - What we should know
about Facial Recognition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9NeghAhMic&authuser=0
10. Biometric Systems - Pros and Cons
PROS
❏ Increase the reliability and security
for their customers.
❏ Works with physical traits (i.e.,
fingerprints, retina, and others) serve
accurately anywhere, anytime.
❏ Credentials are with you forever
❏ Best ROI because one biometric
device can keep track all employees
in a company
❏ Being your own security credentials
with no complex password is flexible
❏ Saves time and money
CONS
❏ Non-changeable - Problem if hacked
❏ Error Rate - When it accepts
unauthorized person, reject authorized
person, and higher in cold places
❏ High cost compared to traditional system
❏ Causes delay when encounter scanning
difficulties esp. For disabled people
❏ Unhygienic - Using fingerprint scanner
share germs with other passengers
❏ Additional hardware integration - Hard to
manage, costly, inconvenient and
complex
11. Strategy to Architecture to Infrastructure
Strategy
❏ Increased
customer
satisfaction
❏ Increased
security
❏ Higher
profitability
Strategic Goals
❏ Faster: Check-
in < 2 minutes,
Boarding < 6
seconds
❏ Easier
❏ Less error: less
than 2%
❏ Reduced
expenses: 1-2%
lesser
Business
Requirements
❏ Access to
database with
traveler photos
and info
❏ Compare
existing photo
with current
photo
❏ Correlate
traveler's flight
info with photo
Infrastructure
❏ Upgraded
check-in and
boarding
terminals fitted
with camera
❏ Connection to
CBP server
system
❏ CBP system
provides
service for
image
recognition
Architecture
❏ Storing and
retrieval of
traveler data
(photo and
info) from
databases
❏ Mechanism to
recognize a
traveler based
on their photo
12. Architectural Principles
Principle How it Applies to the current architecture
User-friendliness Needs to be user friendly and intuitive to work for all travelers.
Scalability Needs to be scalable to allow for system expansion.
Real-time response Needs to perform the required checks in a matter of a few seconds.
Data security Needs to protect personal information of travelers from unauthorized access.
Data quality Needs correct information and picture of the travelers in order to perform a reliable check.
Data privacy Cannot store photos (both pst and current) of travelers, as required by the law.
Robust and error
resilient
Needs to be able to function as a whole even when certain components are not working.
Buy rather than
build
Due to law prohibiting storage of photos by airlines, needs to purchase a service from CBP which has
access to photos and can perform facial recognition on them.
14. Project Funding and Costing Method
❏ Funding methods used:
❏ Corporate Budgeting for installation
❏ Chargeback Payment for CBP service
❏ Total Cost of Ownership:
❏ Costing method for project
❏ Includes initial capital investment, plus the
following recurring costs.
* Service from CBP
* Tech support
* Maintenance
* Retirement, etc.
15. Conclusion
❑ Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one
of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy
carrier.
❑ Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one
of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy
carrier.
❑ The main goal for the implementation of
biometrics as an innovative solution was to
streamline customer experience.
❑ The main strategies driving the adoption of
biometrics technology by Delta Airlines include
providing increased customer satisfaction,
providing increased security and higher
profitability.
