Case Study

Quality is what the customer values and pays for (Alam, Sayed. 2004). Most modern day airlines understand the significance of being competitive by satisfying customer expectations through one way or the other – either by lowering prices, extending discounts, through promotions or branding exercise. But what is of critical concern is that sustained competitive advantage can only be achieved through an integrated systems approach and a commitment to quality that becomes mission critical (Mukhabir, Ayed. 2009). SAP & Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the combination not of applications and softwares but of this approach – changed philosophy, attitudes, leadership and beliefs that quality is of paramount implication and has to transcend from product, service, processes and the entire value chain.

This report covers the implementation benefits of SAP ERP in the airlines sector. Various airlines have been studied that have successfully implemented the SAP ERP strategy and benefited from the same; not only their success stories, but background and present problems were assessed to drive a true learning of the contextual understanding and analyze the rationale behind their decision. Though some of the process elements and the action plan are specific to the airlines being discussed and studied in the form of caselets, however there is learning about the ground work and the totality approach being inculcated that other airlines thinking to implement SAP ERP can benefit from. There is also a primary research that has been conducted to facilitate a better understanding of the reality with some of the struggling airlines that would benefit from SAP ERP adoption. Recommendations section elaborates on a phased adoption strategy, and taking into consideration various external and internal factors that could astronomically impact the success of these systems.