Innovation

Striking the sweet spot between revenues and costs is a balancing act that keeps many business leaders up at night. With ever-increasing competition, sweating out the margins is "the" business mantra, particularly in times of slower growth. So how can cloud-native technology help increase revenues, lower costs, and improve business agility? And why should business leaders care about technology design – isn´t that why IT departments exist? The decision-making process when selecting new technology often starts with people cross-referencing capabilities with set business objectives. What doe...

Airline contact centers are in a pinch. Despite the growth of messaging platforms, chatbots, and dedicated portals, email traffic continues to grow. About 306 billion emails were exchanged every day in 2020, and the volume is expected to climb 4% annually over the next four years. Experienced agents are already struggling to respond to today´s email volumes in a timely manner. And for every email that gets responded, the chain only grows with follow-up queries, pushing agents into a vicious circle. Eventually, fulfilling service level agreements is at risk, while customer satisfaction plummets...

As airlines continue to adapt to cope with rapidly changing market conditions and business needs spurred by the pandemic, the need to accelerate digital transformation is clear. While the cloud is a key component of any technology program, a comprehensive strategy is pivotal to building a resilient and future-proof digital foundation. Yet, many airlines still struggle with their cloud journeys and are not maximizing full value extraction. The processing power and cost advantages of shifting from a physical server landscape to a cloud-based architecture are clear. But to fully leverage the clou...

Digital payments are a critical component of the online booking experience. As we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and expect travel to pick up again, airlines need much more than innovative payment instruments to enhance that experience. The key to improving check-out conversion is the seamless transition from global to local payment methods, and vice versa, depending on consumer preferences. An airline's geographically diverse customer base requires integrating a range of international payment options, including digital wallets, loyalty points redemption, and regional payment instruments. ...

While the airline industry was the first to introduce advanced revenue management techniques to the world, including the dynamic pricing concept, other industries are leading in this area. Part of the reason for this, in addition to others we will look at, is the sheer complexity of the airline industry. Even as airlines use advanced pricing techniques based on real-time demand and more granular segmentation, dynamic pricing is still being refined with advances in continuous pricing that offer more flexible price points. But the real game-changer for revenue growth is when you look beyond dyna...