tcook052

ITA Software Inc. has signed a contract with Air Canada to develop a new reservation management system for the airline.

ITA, based in Cambridge, Mass. and founded by computer scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Tuesday that Air Canada's next generation reservation system will be delivered as an application hosted by ITA Software.

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston...1/daily21.html

okazon69

Wow... this is good news. If the new system is even 1/2 as good as the ITA website, then it will be a great improvement. Of course, I doubt very very very much they'd let the general public loose on such a powerful system, so it will have to be dumbed down about 95%.

Stranger

Have they written off the in-house development? Any head rolling (finally)?

(But yes, this is good news. Looks like someone smartened up, surprise, surprise.)

airbus320

Does this deal include revamping the aircanada.ca website?

tcook052

Doesn't seem so as the linked article says:

We are very excited by the opportunity to join with Air Canada in developing a modern airline reservation management system that meets the changing needs of the world's largest airlines," said Jeremy Wertheimer, ITA Software's President and CEO.

Also, a few months back when there was speculation about an ITA/AC deal, Wertheimer said:

They have an internal system that IBM runs.

http://www.itasoftware.com/news/pr/Beat_06272006.php

Both comments suggest it's being developed for internal use only.

airbus320

That is unfortunate

They are missing an opportunity to have a very user friendly website with the all the "bells and whistles": electronic upgrades; using points to upgrade; cashing in MCOs online...and most important of all getting rid of "bugs" that annoy the heck out of us....

tcook052

MONTREAL, QC and CAMBRIDGE, MA, Sept. 13 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada and
ITA Software today announced that they have signed an agreement to develop a
new reservation management system for the airline. Air Canada's new airline
reservation management system is being developed in collaboration with ITA
Software, known for its creative use of modern technology to replace legacy
systems with innovative solutions. Air Canada's next generation reservation
system will include reservations, inventory control and seat availability, and
check-in and airport operations modules.
"Today's announcement is an important step towards providing our
employees with new tools that deliver Air Canada's simplified, value-added
products and services more efficiently for our customers," said Sean Menke,
Air Canada's Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. "The power
of this core management system will be a key instrument in Air Canada's
strategy to maintain market leadership through product and customer service
differentiation. Moreover, it will provide unprecedented flexibility and
significant cost savings."
The ITA Software reservation system will support Air Canada's innovative
products, services and business process simplification, and will provide for
improved customer experience. The complete solution will be deployed beginning
in late 2007 across the entire Air Canada network, including reservation call
centers and airport locations world wide. The reservation system will be
delivered as an application hosted by ITA Software and will simultaneously
support the airline's ongoing participation in the Star Alliance.
"We are very excited by the opportunity to join with Air Canada in
developing a modern airline reservation management system that meets the
changing needs of the world's largest airlines," said Jeremy Wertheimer, ITA
Software's President and CEO. "This next generation reservation system will
mark an end to airlines' reliance on legacy systems and processes and the
merchandising limitations that result from these archaic technologies."

tcook052

Seems the "late 2007" timetable for this sytem now being pushed back into '08, according to this:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2100629,00.asp

Sean Menke, Air Canada's executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said the new system "will be a key instrument in Air Canada's strategy to maintain market leadership through product and customer differentiation. Moreover, it will provide unprecedented flexibility and significant cost savings."

Dan Kelley, director of application integration at ITA, said ITA will deliver the system to Air Canada next year, and it will be deployed across the entire Air Canada network, including reservation call centers and airport locations throughout the world.

wsommerv

This was a fun quote: "That's the scary thing for us. Sometime in the next year Air Canada is going to turn off for a few hours, and then we're going to turn back on [using] the new system. That type of thing has never been done—going from a legacy system to a new system."
(Bolding mine)

Fingers crossed, this looks like major work. But good luck to them, it also sounds like a vast improvement.

tcook052

Any word on the state of this system?

ChrisA330

This was posted somewhere on the forum previously.

http://www.itasoftware.com/pdf/08.05...y%20Update.pdf

zedhead

Polaris update:
Phase 1 – ACpedia to replace CICs. In November of this year, our RES III-based CICs will be replaced by ACpedia, a web-based application where all of Air Canada’s information as well as... This new system will be easy to use.....and will be updated regularly as Polaris is gradually deployed...

zedhead

From what I've seen so far, this is going to be a winner with both customer and employee.
Lots of policy and procedure stuff at employee's finger tips.

flyerinmadrid

there have been rumblings for some time now that AC and ITA are not getting on very well....and now, that AC has changed its mind about Polaris...anyone have any news?

tcook052

Yes, I do. According to an AC employee bulletin "there will continue to be refinements to implementation timelines due to the size of this initiative and lessons learned to date from collaboration between Air Canada, ITA Software (the technology developers of this system) and partners." The update also says during the next few months both sides will continue to work on the technical side of the project, though some staffers who've been working in the business readiness aspect of Polaris project will be sent back to their regular day jobs and only recalled to help with implementation closer to official launch date.

Long story short sounds like it's not going to happen until closer to the end of calendar year.