'Continental Airlines: Flying High with Its Data Warehouse\r'

'The respiratory tract industry is a competitive market in which some flight paths be profitable while differents atomic number 18 non. During the late 1990s, around airline businesss were lucrative beca implement fuel costs were relatively wiped out(p) and travel was at an all time utmost amongst flyers. Recently, the airline industry has taken a repellent hit due to the increased rate of oil, the 9/11 attacks, and anti-traffic control ashes to name a few. However, Continental Airlines remains one of the largest airlines in the joined States holding its rank in fourth bulge out amongst other airline companies.Initially, Continental Airlines was not exceedingly regarded because of its information technology (IT) and organizational culture. Unlike other airline companies, Continental Airlines has taken extreme measures by adopting crude strategies to overhaul its IT department altogether. The information forms Continental had in place was old and outdated because it d id not provide information of its most valuable clients. The consummation Processing Facility (TPF) was the old IBM mainframe system Continental’s IT team had during the late 1990s. The system was not designed for client service.In order for Continental to accomplish its goals, the IT team realized the need to set back its old mainframe. The IT team determined it needed to blend into one system by consolidating the airline’s disparate guest management relationship (CRM) systems. As a result, Continental joined forces with Tera info to build an initiative info warehouse comprised of 25 enterprise systems. The warehouses comprise of â€Å"schedules, reservations, node profiles and demographics, airline maintenance records and schedules, employee and crew payroll, and customer care” (Rainer & Turban, 2008, p.132).Additionally, executives of Continental Airlines were able to organise the Customer Value Metric (CVM), which changes them to determine how a great deal money customers spend with its airlines and the costs of flying the customer as well. The data warehouse is a escritoire of historical data that assist with business operations to include â€Å"data mining, decision support, and querying applications” (Rainer & Turban, 2008, p. 117). umpteen components make up the data warehouse such(prenominal) as business dimensions in which data is nonionized by customers, vendors, product, price level, and region.The data in divers(a) databases are encoded differently and kept historically for galore(postnominal) years. Once data enters the warehouse it is not updated. Databases use online transaction processing (OLTP), in which business proceedings are processed online as they occur. Typically, data warehouses are designed to support decision makers by utilize online analytical processing (OLAP) for the analysis of mass data by end users. Data is stored in a multidimensional structure as well. All data in the dat a warehouse comes from Continental Airlines operable databases which shadow be relational databases as well.These components enable users access to corporate data for analyzing. Special software such as extract, transform, and load (ETL) are utilise to process data to later store in a data warehouse. However, only a sum-up of data is transferred to the warehouse. This data is organized in a form that is easy for end users when accessing. The reason why Continental Airlines remains successful is due to their strategies for improving and enhancing reference customer service with many functions apply by their IT team.Continental Airlines main focus is increasing customer rewards and incentives of frequent flyers that are loyal customers, while gaining new customers that are profitable too. Continental Airlines contributes its success to the quality customer service and customer satisfaction it provides by expanding its routes and serving meals on every flight. Some airline comp anies have gone bankrupt while others plainly choose not to improve their quality of customer service. As a result, customers have become displease due to the lack of reasonable rates, delays, and strict rules of other airline companies.In closing, information technology is essential for airline companies. Some airline companies may choose to arrest with basic airline technology. However, an airline company can enhance its level of customer service and positivity based on the type of changes it needs to make. Executives of an airline company can look to its IT department to strategize shipway to utilize information systems that best fits its goals, business practices, kick statement, customer service, and customer satisfaction.\r\n'