Originally Posted by
pmaddock
Jimrpa - I'm sorry to say this sort of thing is a common issue among big companies. They keep trying to add new tech window dressing on the front end while the core system rots using tech from the last century. My own company is the same way - they keep rolling out nice GUI but the back end is still an archaic DB2 mess orignially deployed in the 80's. DL appears hooked on this idea - witness the current website. Its all nice and new when you first go to dl.com and then as you go back a layer the old site is there and I think we know what's at the core of the smelly onion.
You are spot-on and I'm in complete agreement with you. That's why all the hoop-la about the iPhone app annoys me so much (and I freely admit to being an Apple fanboy - If I spent any more time basking in Steve's Reality Distortion Field, I'd suffer from radiation burns
). There are a lot of people who seem very pumped by Delta's current IT leadership. I'm trying to show people that the Empror (or is it Empress) has no clothes! They're wandering around giving self-congratulatory speeches and interviews on how wonderful they are, and they're working on what I consider to be "toys" (things that have lots of flash but very little substance), while completely ignoring or refusing to do any of the "heavy lifting" (such as putting together a functional reward search engine, getting rid of the ridiculous requirement for me to enter my own last name when logging in, promptly posting flight credits to SkyMiles accounts and so on).
The sad thing is that their IT leadership is probably going to pass out awards and prizes to the team who came up with the cutsey graphics on the iPhone app and the flashless graphicss on the new Delta homepage, while continuing to avoid giving the poor slobs responsible for the reward engine or any other key functionality, any resources!