Executive Summary
Etihad Airways is a national airline company in the United Arab Emirates that was established by a royal decree as the national carrier of UAE and first started commercial operations in 2003. Etihad Airways is considered one of the most rapidly growing airlines around the world, with a fleet of 57 aircraft operating about 1000 flights a week to 66 destinations in 44 countries from its hub in Abu Dhabi (Etihad Airways 2015).
The company has an effective business excellence model, as evident in its efficiency in services that have guaranteed continuous growth in terms of market, profits, and physical expansion. Despite this robust growth, the airline is currently facing the challenge of inefficiency in different business management parameters such as cost management, controllability, dependability, and sustainability since the company operates in a dynamic and risky industry.
There is a constant need to ensure these variables are proactively managed to guarantee long-term business growth and profitability. Despite the fact that the company has been effective in managing different aspects of running the business, the level of investment in the latest technology has been wanted in the company. There is a need for the company to invest in software tools such as data mining, data warehousing, and text mining to improve on its current business intelligence strategies.
Current Challenges Facing Etihad Airways
Although early investment in IT has given Etihad Airways a competitive advantage in terms of better performance delivery, the company has been struggling with the need to create superior products and real time customer relationship management. As part of the business intelligence at Etihad Airways, there is a need for strategic investment in research and development of the latest technology in the ‘Etihad Airways lab’ to improve the performance of the company.
For instance, the current data warehousing solution at the company should be reorganized to make it easy to increase the current market share since the real-time analysis will enable Etihad Airways to micromanage the profiles of customers. The company should also invest heavily in analytical and smart technology to create an efficient global brand. As a result, the company will be able to double its sales, thus, improving Etihad Airways’ financial position. The mix of basic, applied, and business intelligence research will be appropriate in the creation of the integrated and efficient Etihad Airways product and business management system (Han & Kamber 2012).
The use of the Crystal Report System, which is a data warehousing strategy, can allow Etihad Airways to gain a business edge over its peers through solving its existing system problems by driving a faster-informed decision-making process. It is also an affordable and intuitive solution that the company can use to leverage reports, dashboards, presentations, and Google analytics to gain a competitive advantage (Alkhuraijia et al., 2014). The system may be used by the management at Etihad Airways in requirement analysis, design, implementation, verification, maintenance, and testing of different levels of technology implementation projects (Han & Kamber 2012).
Use of Frameworks, Models, and Methods of General Business Intelligence
In the case of Etihad Airways, knowledge management decision support systems (KMDSS) and data warehousing are likely to merge, and the focus should incorporate better ways to allow organizational members to interact with available information, wherever and whenever it is available. There is a need for Etihad Airways to focus on how data storage will integrate to facilitate remote interactions between group members in real-time.
Han and Kamber (2012) noted that the emergence of text mining has improved business intelligence in organizations, which means that text mining has become an indispensable aspect of modern organizations. The proposed tools are data mining, text mining, and data warehousing, as discussed below.
Data mining
Since Etihad Airways is currently facing the challenge of organizing data to define the market performance insights, especially in foreign operations, the company should introduce a data mining tool such as the Intelligence Miner, which is vented by the IBM Company. The dynamic aspects of data mining with the support of the Intelligent Miner offered by IBM might be instrumental in revealing powerful insight into the performance and efficiency of the company through different success indicators (Reinschmidt et al. 1999). For instance, the “descriptive and predictive modeling provide insights that drive better decision making” (Alkhuraijia et al. 2014, p. 293).
This means that the Etihad Airways will be in a position to streamline the data mining process to address the challenge of developing models quickly, understanding key relationships, and finding the patterns that matter most” (Boughzala, Vreede, & Limayem 2012, p. 723) when supported by the IBM Intelligent Miner. This translates into the company’s efficiency since growth in decision-making complexity and information accessibility will result in the need to align data systems, which are logically based with technologies that support the decision-making process (Alkhuraijia et al. 2014).
Data warehousing
Integrating data warehousing with data storage is an indication of organizational leaders’ intention to focus on customer satisfaction. Currently, Etihad Airways is experiencing challenges with establishing a database machine that can offer insights into the company’s performance. Therefore, the company can use the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, which is a product by a globally renowned software vendor called Oracle, to fuel “extreme performance and high availability for data warehousing and reporting systems. Built with scale-out hardware and software that can load data into RAM, PCI-based flash, or disk, Oracle delivers the most efficient and industrial-strength offering for instant insights” (Oracle 2016, par. 3).
This will enable the company to not only deploy a data warehouse but also maintain the warehouse in an efficient manner. As a result of the automation with the support of the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, the company will be in a position to implement automation, speed, and agility as part and parcel of the data warehousing strategy as part of the services offered by Oracle (Boughzala, Vreede, & Limayem 2012).
This customer-based perception of organizational decision-making closely relates to the application of social networks and the way in which they influence individual decisions (Escrig-Tena et al., 2011). It is necessary for Etihad Airways to provide consumers with a mobile shopping experience to enable them to perform reviews of substitute airline products. Data warehousing will always be a major area of efficiency since Etihad Airways operates in a dynamic and competitive environment (Reinschmidt et al. 1999). This will increase the optimal operation of storage systems and the collaboration of the latter with other systems at Etihad Airways.
Text mining
The application of social media for text mining is another potential trend that Etihad Airways can take advantage of to improve on its current customer relationship management policy with the support of the SAS Enterprise Miner, which can provide predictive intelligence on real-time responses by customers. Currently, Etihad Airways is not capable of accurately tracking the emerging trends and market insights that might be instrumental in managing the cost of doing business.
Developed by SAS Institute, which is a global software vendor, the proposed SAS Enterprise Miner will help Etihad Airways to “deploy in real-time or batch environments within SAS to track emerging trends, on the web and directly into relational databases. This saves time and produces more accurate results” (SAS Institute 2016, par. 5). This means that the company will gain from the Teradata mining technology, which helps in solving business problems through “merging highly scalable hardware, and a world-class parallel database” (Han & Kamber 2012, p. 59).
The company might make use of products such as Teradata database, Teradata Platform family, and Teradata consultancy services to improve on the results of text mining analytics. This means that Etihad Airways might make business decisions based on users’ reactions to ideas communicated via social media. By creating posts that attract users’ reactions, the management may decide on the feasibility of employing a particular strategy or releasing a product or service into the market. Leaders of Etihad Airways should begin to understand the significance of social-media-based decision-making systems, which has resulted in the increased integration of social media applications in business decision processes as part of text mining (Dewhurst et al. 2012).
In the customer relationship management department at Etihad Airways, for instance, the company can create models depending on their nature, such as simulation and optimization to ensure that data mining supports the general efficiency matrix in collecting data on compliments and complaints by clients. In its construction, data miming provides and applies limited data as a guide to the systems’ functioning, which means analyzing data (contributions) is easier and is specific to the basic model as compared to a generalization approach (Dewhurst et al., 2012). The result will, therefore, be more accurate and efficient in decision making (Reinschmidt et al. 1999).
Trust is another important aspect of data mining in the area of social-media-based decision-making systems (Han & Kamber 2012). There is a need for Etihad Airways to focus on investigating how trust influences the outcomes of Information Systems in use (Alkhuraijia et al. 2014). Since social media users rarely restrict their information to contacts (Escrig-Tena et al. 2011), there is an urgent need for Etihad Airways to ensure effective social-media-based decision making, to reverse the current trend of disconnection between the customer feedback and service quality (Escrig-Tena et al. 2011).
Justification for Selection of Software Tools
It is also important to consider the significance of the virtual environment when analyzing social media systems and applying different tools to improve business intelligence at Etihad Airways (Han & Kamber 2012). Through the integration of data mining, text mining, and data warehousing, Etihad Airways will be in a position to monitor all its business processes in an efficient and effective manner (Escrig-Tena et al., 2011).
These software tools are gaining popularity, and their incorporation into user systems is increasing (Han & Kamber 2012). The systems provided by these software tools motivate the evolution of conventional business intelligence decision-making procedures (Dewhurst et al., 2012). The improved characteristics of these systems, coupled with constant accessible support, will create considerable technological benefits for the Etihad Airways organizational decisions. For instance, through mobile technology, the management of Etihad Airways will be in a position to easily access live feeds and monitor or enhance collected information, which may be a part of the decision-making process (Han & Kamber 2012).
The efficiency of the proposed applications at Etihad Airways lies in their relevant adjustment to business needs. The computer-supported environment should also conform to the values, mission, and ethical standards of the organization (Escrig-Tena et al., 2011).
Systems thinking are often viewed as opposed to individual decision-making, but this scheme is not consistent with the actual objectives of data warehousing, data mining, and text mining and their contribution to value creation towards sustainable business intelligence (Han & Kamber 2012). Therefore, the introduction of computer-based interactive systems will add greater value to group management at Etihad Airways.
A technology-supported group has more data at its disposal than separate members coordinating with each other. Developing a collective system is possible through the above software tools, which presents a new value for the relationships within the Etihad Airways organization (Escrig-Tena et al., 2011). Group support systems are less likely to fail because all processes and activities take place in coordination, but not at an individual level (Alkhuraijia et al., 2014).
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it is apparent that a range of IT resources creates a competitive advantage and, therefore, provides value to business activities. Combining various techniques and resources within Etihad Airways will be beneficial for enhancing the value and mission of the organization. Pertinent interaction between organizational routines and software use will also ensure the success of the technology-enhanced support that will address the business intelligence challenges facing the Etihad Airways Company.
Reference List
Alkhuraijia, A, Liua, S, Oderantia, F, Annansingha, F & Pana, J 2014, “Knowledge network modeling to support decision-making for strategic intervention in IT project-oriented change management,” Journal of Decision Systems, vol. 23, no. 11, pp. 285-302.
Boughzala, I, Vreede, G & Limayem, M 2012, “Team collaboration in virtual worlds: Introduction to the special issue,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems, vol. 13, no. 10, pp. 714-734.
Dewhurst, M, Harris, J, Heywood, S & Aquila, K 2012, “The global company’s challenge,” McKinsey Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 76-80.
Escrig-Tena, A, Bou-Llusar, C, Beltran, M & Roca-Puig, V 2011, “Modeling the implications of quality management elements on strategic flexibility,” Advances in Decision Sciences, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-27.
Etihad Airways 2015, About us. Web.
Han, J & Kamber, M 2012, Data mining: Concepts and techniques, Elsevier, Burlington.
Oracle 2016, Extreme speed for instant insights. Web.
Reinschmidt, J, Gottschalk, H, Kim, H & Zwietering, D 1999, Intelligent miner for data: Enhance your business intelligence. Web.
SAS Institute 2016, SAS Enterprise Miner. Web.
