Bangkok Airways: Driving Digital Transformation with SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management

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1 Picture Credit Bangkok Airways Public Co. Ltd. Bangkok. Used with permission. Bangkok Airways: Driving Digital Transformation with SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management As one of Asia s leading airlines, Bangkok Airways Public Co. Ltd. prides itself on the smooth service it offers. To help ensure it delights passengers every time, the airline implemented the SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management (SAP Extended ECM) application by OpenText. As a result, the company has significantly improved efficiency and enhanced services.

2 Company Bangkok Airways Public Co. Ltd. Headquarters Bangkok Industry Travel and transportation Products and Services Luxury air transportation services Employees 2,600 Revenue B 24.9 billion (US$708 million)(2015) Web Site BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION Objectives Unify the IT architecture on a single, standardized platform Provide improved visibility of information within business processes Optimize and automate labor-intensive, time-consuming, paper-based workflows Established a unified data infrastructure using SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA Integrated enterprise content with transaction data from SAP source systems using the SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management (SAP Extended ECM) application by OpenText Benefits Improve business insights through better access to information at every step of the workflow Streamline processes thanks to simplified, automated, and betterintegrated workflows Enhance the customer experience by providing more efficient service Read more Simplified IT infrastructure Improved Process efficiency Increased Customer satisfaction Bangkok Airways views SAP as a very important strategic partner. SAP provides us with all the IT platforms that we need to operate the airline and keep us flying. Dr. Pratit Santiprabhob, IT Advisor, Bangkok Airways Public Co. Ltd. 2 / 6

3 Pioneering an elite travel experience With three privately owned airports, 34 aircraft, and 2,600 employees, Bangkok Airways flies more than 27 major routes, both domestically in Thailand and internationally. Established in 1968, the airline occupies a boutique niche in the market and aims to provide a luxury traveling experience. Passengers enjoy exclusive, personalized services as well as elite lounges, unique airports, and new airplanes. To ensure it can offer the highest standards of service, Bangkok Airways continually seeks innovative ways to run its operations more efficiently. However, the airline realized that a reliance on manual processes, fragmented applications, and disparate silos of information presented an obstacle to the smooth running of its business. Our legacy IT infrastructure made it impossible to fully integrate systems and applications, and difficult to use data for strategic decision-making purposes, says Dr. Pratit Santiprabhob, IT advisor at Bangkok Airways. We wanted to implement a new IT infrastructure that would enable us to improve efficiency and enhance our customer service. The airline embarked on a sweeping initiative to update its legacy information systems, applications, and business processes. Key objectives were to eliminate manual processing by digitizing business processes, and to link passenger data with content such as invoices and travel documentation. We knew it was time for a new IT strategy and infrastructure to keep us competitive in this digital age. Dr. Pratit Santiprabhob, IT Advisor, Bangkok Airways Public Co. Ltd. 3 / 6

4 Supporting tight integration for smooth end-to-end processes Bangkok Airways first implemented a new simplified data infrastructure using SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA. This brought all the company s data together on a single, unified platform, supported by the robust processing power of in-memory computing. Even though the version of SAP Business Suite that is powered by the SAP HANA platform had only just been announced and was not yet available, we realized that we could either buy the future or buy the past, says Santiprabhob. So, we decided to buy the future. The team s next step was to find an enterprise content management (ECM) solution that would integrate with the new platform. It chose the SAP Extended ECM application by OpenText because of the way in which the solution connects documents to transaction data in SAP source systems. The SAP solutions offer natural and tight integration, so we can easily work with the content from the SAP user interface during transaction processing, says Santiprabhob. SAP Extended ECM links passenger data in SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA with content such as quotations, invoices, and travel documentation. In addition, it supports a new mobile app for Bangkok Airways ground crew. This provides easy access to information and enables staff to fill out reports and forms digitally, replacing tasks that were previously completed manually. Activities that used to rely on paper-based forms, such as processing customer refunds, can now be completed faster and with significantly less inconvenience to our customers. Dr. Pratit Santiprabhob, IT Advisor, Bangkok Airways Public Co. Ltd. 4 / 6

5 Boosting efficiency and service quality With its new solutions in place, Bangkok Airways is reaping the benefits of a simpler, streamlined IT landscape. Before we implemented SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, we had a very fragmented IT infrastructure, says Santiprabhob. Now we have one central database and a single source of truth for ERP applications. The exceptional processing power of SAP HANA has also resulted in time savings for the company. Before we deployed SAP HANA, route profitability analysis used to take days, says Santiprabhob. Now we can generate a report in just a few hours. The SAP solutions have also enabled the airline to commence a digital transformation in its approach to ECM. SAP Extended ECM allows Bangkok Airways to tie in documents related to its financial procureto-pay operations, as well as other customer activities, to its customer data. This results in improved efficiency, better content integrity, and an enhanced customer experience. With SAP Extended ECM integrated with SAP Business Suite, we have much better control of our transactional documents, says Santiprabhob. They re linked together, and we can easily go back and forth between the transaction and supporting documents. This helps our customer service staff to work more efficiently and provide better service to our passengers. Faster Profitability analysis (hours rather than days) 5 / 6

6 Bangkok Airways Opening the door to a digital transformation Supported by SAP software, Bangkok Airways continues to work toward its goal of being the leading airline in Asia. The unified data infrastructure and super-fast processing power of SAP HANA are supporting process integration across the enterprise, helping to eliminate manual processes and streamlining operations. Studio SAP (16/09) New projects within ECM include optimizing the contract management process. The airline is also looking forward to utilizing its SAP applications and infrastructure to enable some exciting developments in business process management. These include the development of contract management and analytics applications. Santiprabhob looks forward to continued success with proven technologies and support from SAP: With SAP, Bangkok Airways has a very good foundation to go digital in the future. 6 / 6 Picture Credit Bangkok Airways Public Co. Ltd. Bangkok. Used with permission.

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