Giving you the strategic edge

As cruise lines begin to resume operations, they must develop new strategies to respond to the changing desires, expectations, and health requirements of travelers while being more responsive to regulatory changes. Future success depends on several market-driving capabilities, all enabled by a centralized digital platform and its tools.

With so many loyalty programs competing to be top of wallet, a strategic approach to creating a valuable currency is critical. Yet, airline loyalty programs don´t just compete against each other in this lucrative space. Often, unrelated credit card schemes offer their users more attractive benefits and have stronger currency value.

In rising to the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the oil and gas industry has responded with extraordinary resilience and responsiveness. With the impact of pandemic forecasted to continue for a more extended period, most upstream energy companies are now in constant pursuit for proven, sustainable, cost optimization strategies and best practices to reduce logistics cost per barrel without adversely affecting the efficiencies in the long run. For most supply chain functions, this calls for responding to the following challenges that need strategies beyond tactical cost reduction measures:

Digitization is the way forward for Airline Operations!

Airline experts hypothesize that technology adoption at airlines will leap forward in the aftermath of COVID-19. Around 70% of attendees from IBS Software’s VOPS’20 - Virtual Operations meetings with airlines across regions agreed that the time is right for large-scale transformations. These digitally-driven transformations will embed themselves into operations and drive long-term sustained efficiency.

Although contact centers are a critical part of airline customer experience, most operate as an extension to the core business today. Typically operated on some combination of rudimentary self-service features and outsourced agent-based call centers to reduce costs, these often lead to a disjointed customer experience for passengers.

In today’s digital world, personalization is omnipresent and customers expect every business to offer truly personalized services. Travel & hospitality businesses are no exception. Being predominantly experience-centric, travel and hospitality products, offer a broad range of personalization possibilities as compared to physical goods offered by the e-commerce world. If implemented accurately, personalization can deliver an excellent experience beyond the customers' expectations, delight them, drive loyalty, and, consequently, revenues, both in improving revenue share per customer and new revenue streams.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, airline loyalty programs have become a survival lifeline for airlines. Airlines can harness the power of loyalty programs to generate non-travel related revenue and retain cash by maintaining meaningful engagement through non-air activities and demonstrating compassion for their customers' circumstances.

The air freight business has always been challenged by the very operating model of the business. A significant share of global air cargo is ferried in the available belly space of passenger aircraft. Large scale commoditization of the offering has led to diminishing yields – even while costs continue to rise. There is a significant opportunity for cargo carriers and GHAs to derive higher returns from their cargo product by focussing on differentiated offerings and an elevated customer service that goes along with it. “Special Cargo” is the smart way to productize the air cargo service such that it is tailored to meet specific needs of specific markets.

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis will resonate for years with varying levels of impact on hospitality brands, depending on several factors—chain scale, location, and demand profiles, to name a few. Despite existing challenges, new opportunities are arising that, with the right technologies, hospitality companies can seize upon and solidify for greater long-term value. Consequently, the hospitality companies that succeed in the near-term will be those that become agile, respond to new consumer behavior, and embrace centralized digital solutions that transform both operations and consumer engagement to those ends.