British Airport Authority - Essay Example

British Airport ity (BAA) Case Study of Institute> This paper aims to discuss the inauguration of new T5 terminal of Heathrow Airport. The Heathrow Airport was a mega project completed in 6 years and comprised of all modern facilities promising more ease to fliers than before. However, the T5 terminal failed miserably on its very first day. This paper discusses the reasons for its failure and how better information systems could have saved the disaster from happening. Keywords: Heathrow, BAA, Terminal 5, Information Systems, Decision Making, Strategic, Operational, Tactical 1) Salient facts about BAA and Terminal 5: Heathrow Terminal 5 is the newest of all Heathrow terminals. Terminal 5 was British Airport authority (BAA)’s biggest and most ambitious project. Few widely known facts about the terminal 5 are: Its construction took 6 years in all, Its total cost was estimated to £4.3 billion. Total planning and construction took 19 years. The Resource Management system (RMS) employed in terminal 5 was of the latest modern technology and was to be used with the help of hand held devices which would help assign duties to staff members. Some salient facts about BAA (British Airport Authority): British Airport Authority (BAA) is owned by the Spanish group Ferrovial. Ferrovial had bought BAA in 2006 at an almost 30 per cent premium to its regulatory asset base. Information Systems employed by BAA seems to have incorporated great ideas but they forgot to actually implement the ideas. They had ample car parks and had segregated car parking spaces for public and staff but people and staff could not find the car parks and spent lot of time trying to look for parking spaces. The problem being, the details of parking spaces (no. of slots, in use, empty etc.) were not updated in the information system database and were not displayed at appropriate places for people to see. One of the biggest faults in their system was that the staff at baggage handling and sorting section were not able to log on to their computers. This affected both incoming and outgoing baggage. The security checkpoints were not updated to the staff. There were no maps or location guidelines. Search facility was not ready for both staff and passengers. 2) Did BAA have an information system in place and was it effective? As far as the methodical preparations for terminal 5 are concerned, BA Authority did have some Information Systems in place. However, the Information System was highly ineffective. The reasons for it being ineffective may be incompetent people in the IT management team, lack of exposure of IT engineers with regard to such a large scale implementation as was terminal 5 of Heathrow airport or any other. The ineffectiveness of the Information Systems can be realized due to the following problems that occurred in terminal 5 on the very first day of its opening. Car Parks and parking spaces were not well managed. No software was employed to keep track of full and available parking spaces. Designated car parks for staff were not available and there were no sign board or any other means to locate the car parks due to which public and the staff spent lot of time looking for parking spaces. There was no signage at any place in the terminal. The terminal should have been equipped with monitors displaying the map of the terminal with guidelines to reach important places like security checkpoints. The RMS (Resource Management System) was not working properly which could have otherwise enabled staff members to get the required information from control rooms. Due to hand help devices not working, tasks could not be allocated to workers and the staff remained unaware of their duties towards loading or unloading of specific flights. There was problem with the operating system of jetties which were supposed to transfer passengers on and off the plane. Baggage control system failed completely as the staff were unable to log in to their systems. This is a direct hit on information system as logging in is a very basic requirement for any system to work. There was shortage of baggage handling staff. With the use of information systems, proper allocation of staff could have been done in every department. Automated temperature controls failed. This is also a problem with the information system as temperature controls as usually controlled by information system functionality being centrally monitored by a main computer. Stand guidance systems were incorrectly calibrated and thus required attendance by signaling marshals. Staff accommodation areas and staff access routes were not fully completed or fitted out. Failure of staff facilities ensured staff were not fully equipped to handle and help passengers. Search facilities for staff and passengers (including transfer search) were not ready. 3) How might the effective use of an Information System have helped BAA to avoid the terminal 5 disaster? Effective use of Information Systems would have prevented the terminal 5 disaster as the following situations could have been kept under control with proper information systems in place. Correct software to monitor and manage parking space with instructions about separate staff and public parking would have saved chaos and there would have been no crowd at security checkpoints because of security check staff reaching the checkpoints late and thus making passengers wait for long hours for check in. Hand held devices running the RMS should have been working in order to facilitate staff to gather information and provide help to passengers. With RMS in place, the task allocation to the staff could have been done and they would know which department they are responsible for. Display monitors with map of the terminal should have been employed and working to enable travelers to reach their desired locations on time. Operating system in jetties should have been working in order to carry people on and off the plane without any hassles. Baggage control system should have been working so that staff members could log in to their systems and manage incoming and outgoing baggage with ease. Proper information system should have been employed to allocate staff members in all departments. Then there would not have been shortage of baggage handling staff to handle the conveyors. With the baggage system in place, the flights would have taken off on time saving so many flights from being cancelled and preventing public outcry which worsens the situation. 4) Why are information systems so essential for running and managing an organizations today? Information system is the back bone of today’s organizations. Every organization faces the challenge of organizing, managing and handling massive and ever increasing volumes of data. Data needs to be organized, stored and processed speedily and effectively in order that the data remains useful for organization’s transactions, processing, general decision making and risk management. An effective information system is required to do the above mentioned tasks. Especially for large-scale industries, businesses are globally distributed and therefore data is globally distributed too. Global data needs more segregation and segmentation in order to be useful for further processing. For this, an organization requires stable and reliable infrastructure and network administration and applications which can handle simultaneous, real-time and fast processing. Information systems also help organizations gain strategic competitive advantage over other organizations. If proper planning and execution is coupled with effective information system, the organization can save huge cost as it helps organizations in timely execution of projects and risk management. 5) List and describe six reasons why information systems are so important for business today using the case study as your chosen example. Information systems are important for businesses today. Keeping in mind the case study of BAA and terminal 5 Heathrow Airport, the following reasons can be understood why information systems are important: Effective information system saves organization cost – in the terminal 5 disaster, had there been information system in place, BAA would not have spent so much on managing, checking, re-installing of baggage control operating systems. Information system helps timely executions of deliverables – in the terminal 5 disaster, had the car parks sorted out and well managed, the security staff would have reached their designated places on time. This would have prevented long queues for security checkpoint which in turn lead to delay in security checks and further delay in baggage handling. Effective information system helps risk management – in the terminal 5 disaster, if information system was in place, people would have been able to know their designated tasks and duties for the day. After the baggage control failed totally and flights were getting cancelled due to luggage not reaching the flights, if few staff members could be informed to reach the baggage control area, a lot could have been done to manage the huge backlog of baggage. This would have cleared up some backlogs and by employing this risk management technique at least flights could take off (even after delays). Information system helps in collection, storage and processing of data – if data about number of staff requiring parking facility was obtained beforehand and analyzed properly, there would not have been a shortage of specially designated car parks. Task 2: Identify an example of each of a strategic, tactical and operational decisions which might be/have been taken by BAA and how did the information system support these decisions. Explain why these decisions are respectively strategic, tactical and operational. Example of strategic decision – The senior management at BAA could have decided to outsource entire information system department to a third party. The information system would support this decision as there would be a third party who are experienced in creating and managing information systems at huge scales like this. Also, the BAA could have concentrated on other airport operations more effectively once they had someone to take care of the information system. This decision is strategic because strategic decisions are long term decisions which impact the business’s long term direction and shape. Strategic decisions involve the future vision of the business. Example of tactical decision – in order to implement the strategic decision, the middle management of BAA should have got in touch with third party vendors offering them to provide a stable, reliable and robust information system for the terminal. They could work towards achieving a contract with the vendor regarding the terms and conditions from both ends. This decision is tactical because tactical decisions help to implement a strategy or a strategic decision by extension. Tactical decision involves the actual steps to implement the strategic decisions already taken. Example of operational decision – after a third party vendor has been roped in to provide information system for the terminal, the junior managers should get involved and work with the vendors. They should together decide on the infrastructure needs of the system and the components of the information systems that would actually be implemented. This decision is operational because operational decisions relate to the day-to-day running of a business or organization. Operational decisions involve the detailed steps that need to be done in order to run the business as per the implementation plan decided as part of tactical decision making process. Task 3: Identify examples of information systems likely to be needed to take each of the decisions identified in task 2. Strategic decision making involves the future vision of the business and tactical decision making involves the actual steps needed to achieve that vision. For example, the strategic decision for a motel might be to target travel agents and develop a business package for them, which includes an e-commerce solution. Tactics are the practical steps needed to implement the strategy. Here examples of tactical decisions might be: Build a list of local travel agents who would be helpful in spreading word about the motel and would help people get easy access to the motel. Prepare a business incentive scheme which keeps the local travel agents happy to do business with the motel as well as keep a decent profit for the motel. Outline how they can use the motel website to make reservations to keep up to date. This would keep the agents happy too as they can publish ads on the website about other local attractions which would help the motel gain more popularity. Personally visit the agents and follow up. No mail or call or any other modern technique can do the wonder which a personal follow up does. By personally meeting the agent, one can understand their problems as well and can get together and work towards a common solution. Monitor the response to determine if the sales target is met. References Anonymous, August 20, 2008, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/61dc67f8-6e91-11dd-a80a-0000779fd18c, Surviving a Break up. Anonymous, August 20, 2008, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/3/61dc67f8-6e91-11dd-a80a-0000779fd18c.html#axzz31BFpC156, BAA Break up. Anonymous, November 03, 2012, http://sopinion8ed.wordpress.com/, Success of organizations. Anonymous, http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/ Levels of Decision Making. Anonymous, www.boundless.com/management/, Levels of Control. Read More