AC must subscribe to the GM philosophy: build a crappy product and let your customer find the glitches, sad really.

No its the IT nerds who only think bits and bytes and do not understand the business process they are implementing

^ ^ ^ I thought the same thing on the weekend. Very very true.

I could argue and provide some really good examples where it is the business analysts on these projects that can't communicate their needs and lay out all the possible business scenarios so that the IT guys can build all the logic into the application that is needed for all the potential transaction types. On the back-end these same business analysts only test a handful of all possible business scenarios and say the application is ready to go into production and the result is quite similar to what AC.com is experiencing, a lot of frustrated (putting it mildly) users. Lastly, it is these same business folks that control the project purse strings and the first thing they cut is the user acceptance testing (Hey you guys told me the code compiled so what bugs could possibly be in it? )

I'm sure there is plenty of ka-ka being spread around on this latest incarnation of AC.com and the AC IT types, AC business types, software vendors and AC's IT outsourcing vendor all have some soul searching to do on how they can do a better job the next time around. I can't imagine it was an easy project to manage with all 4 of these groups each having their own vested interest in the final product and I'm sure during the design, development and testing their was a lot of mud slinging going on that we'll never know about. I don't think it's fair to single out one group for these problems. They all should share equally in the successes and failures of this release.

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to just bring back PTO?

Of course, aeroplan.ca isn't making me feel much better:

Ooo not fair - that is mean - I MISS PTO!!!!

PB

Do you walk backwards too?

parnel, are you saying that we should be easy on AC just because others have screwed up just as bad or worse?

I don't know about the other messups that you mention, but all I can say is that the "perception" isn't good with the release of the new website, despite what I'm pretty sure are the hard efforts of those who released it. I'm sure they had their reasons for releasing it when they did and perhaps not catching all the bugs, but it sure doesn't make them look good...

I have some experience sitting on steering and oversight committees for IT implementation projects ranging in the millions to tens of millions of $$$, spanning years of work, multiple systems, thousands of users, etc. I empathize with those who have discussed the pitfalls of systems offered by SAP, ORACLE, Peoplesoft, etc. as well as those who have discussed the issue of business processes vs IT implementations, the dangers of consultants etc.

I don't think one can judge what is going on unless one is privy to the implementation strategy, planning, history, and perhaps most important of all, the current internal assessment of the project status. Is there a global vision (with buy-in from the most senior management)? What went into the planning? What are the checks and balances in tems of managing the project? Is the project adequately funded? Are they happy, concerned, or scared s***tless right now? And so on. Personally, I don't care who does the work: even if an outside contractor does the work, the customer has ultimate responsibility to oversee and control the project - nobody else cares enough.

Having said the above, it doesn't look promising IMHO at this point - I'm sure things can turn around - many projects stumble at first - but somebody has to be willing and able to take charge - I think somebody said 200 people are/were working on this project - the bigger an IT project the easier to blow it.

Not at all, just suggesting they be given a little slack;hell I could not book my simple one way flt on AC.com because the site kept freezing up and so I booked it on Destina..no big deal.

The perception will change immediately when the thing starts to function more or less as it should,and it will. The FT crowd is pretty unforgiving but also pretty quick to jump on bandwagons.

AC having just come through a very tough period over the last couple of years is not going to be given a lot of rope by some consumers until they prove themselves to be viable longer term..which is crap as far as I'm concerned because they have a great balance sheet right now,their planes are full, business is growing,and there is even some pent up demand for their services to new destinations.

Maybe they came out of the blocks too quickly on this upgrade but they are anxious to get new products and easy to understand fare structures out there so they secure the business that awaits them.

I'm willing to give them the slack because they have shown as they came out of CCAA that they are putting the customer in focus again after two or so years of having to survive and worry about their own jobs.

Their business model is right for the markets they serve and in just a few short months they have quickly put WS on the defensive domestically,gaining back pax they had lost, which shows the marketing power their brand has.

Still cannot even get into the AC site, second day. And they sent me an email to invite me to check out their new international seat sale fares!

I was on-site.I have been able to do all that I have previously searched and downloaded.

I downloaded one flt this am and another just now......on ac.com....then again I don't have dinosaur technology