SAP HANA and Industry Solutions

Sometime in the Near Future

Airline Route Profitability Enabled by SAP HANA

On the Flight Deck of World Airways Flight 69

Pilot to Co-Pilot: Fuel Check Good?
Co-Pilot to Pilot: Fuel Check Good Sir.
Pilot to Profitability Officer: Huh?

For those of you who do not know, airplanes do not have an onboard
profitability officer nor any type of instrument that says anything at all about the finances of a particular flight

With SAP HANA, that just might be about to change!

But first, a bit of background on SAP BW Business Content and SAP Industry Solutions.

Although SAP BW Business Content is extensive, and has been a key selling point since at least 1999, when I first learned SAP BW Release 1.2, some industries have much more Business Content than others.

SAP Has an Industry Specific Software Solution Model

This is key point, as SAP has an Industry Centric Software Solution model, and in many cases, the product has  potential that still has not been anywhere fully realized to the benefit of all potential clients. This is a major market opportunity for SAP.  More importantly, it means that often, the depth of coverage provided by SAP BW Business Content can be somewhat shallow.  When you get to very specific industry functionality, for instance, Airline Route Profitability, although easily provided by SAP BW, has no existing, publicly available Airline Route Profitability Business Content. It does, however, exist and has been deployed and is being deployed as this is being written.

Airlines Use Multiple Industry Solutions

Large airlines often use some or all of the process capabilities available in other SAP Industry Specific Solutions.  For instance, at least one airline uses the SAP RE-FX (SAP Flexible Real Estate) to help them manage all of the real estate properties they own and or manage, which are often the size of small cities.

Airlines are Heavy Users of the SAP MRO Solutions

Airlines operate very complex pieces of equipment, which require expensive, on-going maintenance.  They therefore, also need a Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) solution.  This is delivered today via SAP standard MRO modules plus the iMRO solution.

SAP Airline Customer Base

SAP's Airline Customer base is large, >100, and growing, yet far more airlines exist than SAP has as customers-yet.

My prediction: With SAP HANA, a technology now being deployed by SAP, the approach to airline route profitability management is about to be turned on its head. In-Memory analytics means it may well be possible, sooner than anyone expected, to know before the wheels are in the wheel wells, whether a particular flight is going to make a profit.

Know Your Route Profitability Before You Fly

This compares dramatically with today's situation where an airline may not know for weeks or months whether a flight made money.

For airline operators, this means they will be able to fine-tune ticket pricing to ensure they make a profit far more than is possible today. If I were one of the Global Delivery Systems providers, like SITA, I would be talking to SAP right now to see how to make it happen.  Interested in SAP HANA's solution?  We can help.  

We Provide SAP HANA Airline Route Profitability Solutions

Are you using HANA yet?  Let me know your thoughts on this scenario-blog.

People who read this also read: 

Learn What SAP Supported Procurement Needs Airlines Have

How to Unlock the ROI of Your Marketing Analytics

10 xCelsius 2008 Dashboard Best Practices