Airports group centralises IT
Databases combined at Manchester to reduce the amount of admin
Manchester Airports Group, which operates four of the country’s regional airports, has launched a two-year programme to centralise its IT infrastructure.
The project will see the organisation combine separate databases used at Nottingham East Midlands, Humberside and Bournemouth airports into a single system at Manchester.
Martin Smith, head of group information systems at Manchester Airports, says a centralised system will enable the organisation to get more from its IT investment, as well as improve services across the group.
‘In the next two years, we will take the airport operations databases at all four airports and combine them into a single database to give us a sophisticated infrastructure serving all airports and capturing data on every flight in detail,’ said Smith.
‘The database is the heart of our processes, managing everything from gate allocation to flight information, and we anticipate a single system driving all four airports.
‘We want to operate a single system from Manchester Airport to our smaller airports which will then benefit from the infrastructure of a larger airport. To accommodate this, we have installed a robust network and are progressively centralising our applications,’ he said.
The group has already centralised check-in desk systems, email and internet applications and its Oracle ebusiness suite, including financial and procurement systems. Its self-service kiosks also run on centralised systems from Manchester.
Smith says centralisation will reduce the amount of administration at all four airports and improve efficiency. ‘The system will give us a high-level view of data collected from our airport databases and financial systems that will allow us to improve our intelligence,’ he said.
Mark Raskino, vice president and research Fellow at analyst Gartner, says a shared services approach to IT infrastructure offers strategic benefits as well as cost and efficiency gains.
‘Many companies are trying to control IT operating costs and a centralised system will allow the airport to free up spend for innovation,’ he said. ‘It generates efficiency savings and cost savings through shared buying of capital equipment.’
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