Rafiki Airways

Online Booking and Check-in system

Company overview

Budget airline Operates out of Africa, Asia and Australia 72% bookings via phone, 28% via travel

agency ‘No frills’ service

Problem/Opportunity

No online functionality Restricts convenience service availability:

Online bookings Online check-in

78% of customers fly with no check-in baggage

Current COBOL system doesn’t allow for online functionality

Booking processCurrent environment

Customer

Rafiki Sales Staff/Travel

agency

Decides travel location and date and contacts Rafiki

Searches system for available flights and seats

Books seat, processes payment, issues ticket

Seats available

Yes

No Receives ticket

Future environment

Customer

Decides travel location and date and logs

onto website

Searches for available flights

and seats

Books seat, processes payment

Seats available

Yes

No Prints ticket

Check-in processCurrent environment

Customer

Rafiki Sales Staff/Travel

agency

Requests to check-in for flight

Confirms booking for flight

Allocates seat, prints boarding

pass

Booking found

Yes

No

Receives boarding pass

Luggage?Yes Checks

luggage

Makes booking

No

Future environment

Customer

Rafiki check-instaff

Accesses check-in page

Enters search criteria

Selects seat, prints boarding

pass

Booking found

Yes

No

Luggage?

Yes

Checks luggage

Makes booking

NoEnd

Options

1. Option 1 - Do nothing

2. Option 2 - Upgrade a portion of the system to Object Oriented system

3. Option 3 - Full upgrade systems to Object Oriented system

Option 1 – Do nothing

Reduction in available resources to maintain and enhance system

Unable to offer revenue generating, cost reducing functionality

Decline on ROI of enhancements over time due to high development and maintenance cost

Option 2 – Implement Java GUI Online booking interface for customers Online check-in interface with customers Existing COBOL system will be integrated with the

new front using a message queue approach Implementation of a CASE environment to assist

with the Java development Change from classical Waterfall life cycle model to

the Spiral model to gain greater control and visibility over risks.

Option 3 – Redevelop Entire System The initial development costs to upgrade all

processes would be too great Initial Development Costs: $ 40 Million

The return on investment would be unfeasible Return of Investment: 6 years

Too greater risk in investing all resources into updating new system completely

Feasibility Analysis

Criteria Weighting (%) Option 1 Option 2 Option 3

Operational 25 0.75 0.25 0.5

Technical 20 0.6 0.4 0.2

Economic 25 0.5 0.25 0.75

Legal/Contractual 10 0.3 0.1 0.2

Political 5 0.15 0.05 0.1

Schedule 15 0.15 0.3 0.45

Total 2.45 1.35 2.2

Proposed solution

Considered OO COBOL, Java, VB.Net Java was chosen as its

Good for web based Scalable Speed advantages for software run off a server

Proposed Solution

Java based object oriented GUI providing Rafiki a web presence whilst maintaining the COBOL batch processing back end

Provide greater flexibility and ease for customers using Rafiki Airways.

Increase customer base and increase revenue whilst reducing operational costs

Modelling Tools

Spiral lifecycle model Evaluate the first prototype in terms of its

strengths, weaknesses, and risks Define the requirements of the second

prototype Plan and design the second prototype Construct and test

Project risks

The solution does not meet the clients needs Inadequate funding to complete project Security Privacy Incorrect application of design tools and UML

standards

Implementation Approach Phased implementation

Start date 1st June 2009 End date 21st July 2010

Project costs and benefits

Benefits (1 years) Costs (1 years)

Salary savings $ 500,000 Maintenance $ 800,000

Internal cost savings (real estate for sales staff, paper, postage of tickets etc)

$ 500,000 Implementation (only first year)

$ 15,000,000

Cash flow improvement

$ 9,000,000 Hardware and software costs $ 200,000

Marketing $ 1,500,000

Total Benefits $ 10,000,000 Total Costs $ 17,500,000

The table below outlines the total benefits and costs anticipated with the implementation

Benefits Realisation Plan templateBenefits Realisation Plan

Project Objective Project Outcome Benefit to be achieved

Benefit Class Estimated Benefits ($)

Target Date Stakeholder(s) responsible

Status

GUI design example

Booking option

Online check-in option

GUI design example continued

GUI design example seat selector

Thank You From SAS