Role of IT in British Airways Operations

This assignment analyzes the crucial role of information technology (IT) within British Airways. It delves into how IT systems contribute to efficient management of operational processes, leading to improved productivity and business expansion. The report also examines the implementation of automated systems, communication technologies, data security measures, and software applications utilized by pilots and employees across various departments.

Impact IT on business

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
1. Need of IT in business........................................................................................................3
2. IT is important for survival of business .............................................................................4
3. Requirements to implement IT in business........................................................................5
4. USE of IT in business.........................................................................................................6
5. Advantages of the IT in airline business............................................................................6
6. Risk associated with IT in organisation..............................................................................7
7. Maintaining and monitoring information technology in business......................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The British airline is one of the biggest revenue generating companies in UK. The
organization is engaged in developing different systems to strengthens the IT system in
company. British airline gave Apple I Pad to their employee and pilots to make their work easier
and this helps development of automation in the operations of organisation.
INTRODUCTION
Information technology is use of different systems and software in the organisation to
store relevant data, manage information and transfer of data in the organisation Information
technology is having vast scope and it largely contribute in success of the business. Information
technology stores information and mange all the data of different department in a single database
(Andriole, 2010). This enhances the communication and increases performance of British

Airlines. Airlines are using information technology to bring business at another height. IT brings
innovation, creativity and better performance in the organisation. IT smooth complex operations
of different department and simplifies the role of employee which results in enhanced
efficiency. This assignment studies various roles and scope of information technology in the
British airways.
TASK
1. Need of IT in business
The Information technology can be defined as using different systems like computer and
other electronic devices to store retrieve and transfer data between the devices. This provides
ease to various functions of business (Chavis, Klapper and Love, 2011). The airline industry is
growing at the higher rate. Ton maintain this growth it is necessary to implement updated IT
softwares in their business operations to simplify the complexity of function that are carried out
in organisation. The British airlines implanted IT system in the organisation for engaging the
business in more revenue generating activities. The various needs of IT in British airways are as
follows:
 The system of information technology is required by the British airlines to develop
strategic decision by top management effectively.
 The IT is required to bring creativity and innovation in the operation and function of the
airline (Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek and Drożyner, 2013).
 The company uses different information technology while developing any business plan
or marketing plan. So, IT is required to analyse effectiveness of strategies and business
plan.
 The companies require information technology to connect different department of airlines
to work together in unity.
 The airlines are implementing information technology in their system to develop a
centralised information system in the business. This provides ease to access information
and makes use of it efficiently.


2. IT is important for survival of business
The competition is increasing with a faster rate in the market. To survive in this highly
competitive market the business practices have to be carried out in smarter way and mange the
technology up to date with the needs of the changing market trends. IT is important for survival
of British airlines to bring innovation in the system. The implementation of information
technology helps in maintaining and streamlining various processes carried out by the airlines.
This is important to cut down the cost (Klapper, Lewin and Delgado, 2011). The implementation
of IT in operations is also important in reducing complexity of functions in the organisation to
the large extent. IT have great importance in reducing communication gap and the connecting
different departments which helps in brings integration in work culture of the British airlines.
The implementation of IT helps in generating more revenue. The implementation of the IT
systems in British airways result in generating about 20% more profit i.e. approximately 620
million euros. IT systems are important in gaining competitive advantage and customer loyalty
with implementation new technology in the systems of the organisation. The BA.com websites
of British airways bring higher rate of automation and it has reduced complexity. This helps the
customer in making the search services of the airline according to their own preferences and lead
to development of customer loyalty by providing better quality services to customers.
3. Requirements to implement IT in business
Identification of various requirement of British airways to implement IT software in the
operation of company and available resources at present with the airways is necessary to develop
IT upgraded business in the market. (Plattner, Meinel and Leifer, 2010). Various requirements to
implement IT in British airways are as follows: Planning: Planning is necessary for growth of any business idea or strategy. First identify
needs of IT in the British airways then analysing the cost incurred, and available
resources like, sources of up gradation, efficient human resource etc. Designing: After planning about the IT implementation it is necessary to develop a
blueprint of the plan and strategies to bring accuracy and effectiveness in developing IT
in business organisation. Cost: Analysing the cost incurred in the IT development plan and in its implementation.
Analyse this with the return on investment and finding out efficiency and profitability of
the business plan. (Wiengarten and et.al., 2013).

 Equipment: Identification of the various equipment’s like database, software’s, hardware
required to implement IT successfully in business organisation. The British airways
develops various systems of IT in the organisation structure like customer oriented
program, SOA, Computerised reservation system etc. Installation: this includes testing the design and installing new generated software in the
organisation to practice the effectiveness of the IT system implementation in
organisation. EX. The marketing department of British airways are using computerised
reservation system in order to collect data of customer behaviour, purchasing behaviour
and their preferences and other data.
 Training: After installation, the employee of organisation should be provided with the
training programme to introduce the workforce with new technology up gradation in the
company’s system and use of this IT system. This training programme will results in
enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of the workforce of organisation.
4. USE of IT in business
The IT is utilised to build connectivity with internal system of the company as well as
external environment of the organisation. The technology is used internally by employee and top
management of British airways. While the IT is utilised in various ways by the customers and
suppliers of the British airways (Wild, Wild and Han, 2014). The various uses of IT in the
different environment of British airways are as follows: Internal environment: The internal environment constitute employee of different
department and the top level management. The employee make use of IT in order to
communicate internally and externally with the other people who is connected to the
system of the organisation. The customer care department of company communicate with
helps of the internet network to resolve the problem of client. The employee of British
airlines make use of upgraded software’s like SAP, SOA to manage operations, customer
relations, budget of the company effectively in an efficient manner (Concepts of
Information Security. 2017).
 External environment: The customer and suppliers make use of extranet network in order
to communicate with British airways peoples. The customer makes use of internet to
communicate with employees of the company. While the suppliers connect with the
organisation through extranet to manage various orders, inventory, payments etc. the

employee make use of British airlines websites, mobile apps to check different flight
timing destination, prices, facilities etc.
5. Advantages of the IT in airline business
The company is getting benefit from IT industry and it is generating more revenue for the
firm. The implementation of IT in organisation is having following benefits and advantages:
Speed and time: The IT enhances speed of operations to the large extent and helps in
time management and optimum utilisation of time. The British airlines have developed various
systems to manage e task and other engineering policies effectively which saves time and
increases speed of functions carried out during boarding.
Revenue: The introduction to new technology in organisation system helps in generating
more revenue for British airlines. With the help of mobile apps, company websites companies
are making profit for the organisation.
Cost reduction: The IT helps in reducing various cost incurred in different operations of
the companies (Top 9 Benefits of Business Networking, 2017). IT helps in developing more
efficiency and effective system in the organisation which reduces the cost incurred in various
operation of airways companies, HR department, cost incurred in other procedures like sending
information manually etc.
Easier Storage: The IT provides huge place for storing information in in database of the
company. With help of the IT airline companies can store huge no. data and information.
Flexibility: The IT system brings flexibility and adaptability to any change in
environment and technology. (Yayla and Hu, 2012.).
Automation: The IT system brings automation in system which helps in reducing cost,
workload of employee and increases effectiveness of the organisation.
6. Risk associated with IT in organisation
Every system has risk associated with them. Implementation of technology in the
organisation has also risk associated with them. The different risk incurred in the implementation
of IT is the security, privacy,
Confidentiality- The security of the data and information of the company should be secured so
that other person cannot make wrong use of this data (Williams and Williams, 2010). The
airways companies like British airways develop highly secure communication network while
sending information with the help of SSL firewalls etc. The privacy of data restricts accessibility

of information to some of the person. Like, the company implement privacy to their internal
information to protect data from other competitor company. Confidentiality refers to hiding
private and secret information from other. This need encryption password and firewalls top
protect information from other external intervention. The risk associated with the confidentiality
of the information is that it can be leakage of the secret data to unauthorised person and he can
misuse the available company information. If the privacy of the data is not defined at the time of
development of the network in the organisation than this can be assessable to public and this can
be misused by other competitors of the company.
7. Maintaining and monitoring information technology in business
The airlines companies like British airlines are continuously engaged in maintaining and
monitoring information technology system of the organisation. The organisation involved in
defining new innovation and requirement to strengthens the information technology. The
performance of network is dependent on speed, reliability and security and affect of external
environment (Yang, Hong and Modi, 2011). The companies are involved in increasing the speed
of network to implement better communication system. The reliability of information technology
should be maintained by the British airlines that the person can make use of the information at
the time of need.
CONCLUSION
From this report it can be concluded that IT implementation in business can be a good
decision to bring innovation and reduce obsolescence in the system. The British airways use IT
to large extent to gain more customer loyalty, manage business structure and competitive
advantage in the market. The information technology is helpful in developing good
communication system and helps in faster accessibility of different services and operations with
more accuracy.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Andriole, S.J., 2010. Business impact of Web 2.0 technologies. Communications of the ACM.
53(12). pp.67-79.
Chavis, L.W., Klapper, L.F. and Love, I., 2011. The impact of the business environment on
young firm financing. The world bank economic review. 25(3). pp.486-507.
Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek, M. and Drożyner, P., 2013. The role of maintenance in reducing the
negative impact of a business on the environment. In Sustainability Appraisal:
Quantitative Methods and Mathematical Techniques for Environmental Performance
Evaluation (pp. 141-166). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Klapper, L., Lewin, A. and Delgado, J.M.Q., 2011. The impact of the business environment on
the business creation process. In Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (pp.
108-123). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Plattner, H., Meinel, C. and Leifer, L. eds., 2010. Design thinking: understand–improve–apply.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Wiengarten, F., and et.al., 2013. Investigating the impact of e-business applications on supply
chain collaboration in the German automotive industry. International Journal of
Operations & Production Management. 33(1). pp.25-48.
Wild, J., Wild, K.L. and Han, J.C., 2014. International business. Pearson Education Limited.
Williams, S. and Williams, N., 2010. The profit impact of business intelligence. Morgan
Kaufmann.
Yang, M.G.M., Hong, P. and Modi, S.B., 2011. Impact of lean manufacturing and environmental
management on business performance: An empirical study of manufacturing firms.
International Journal of Production Economics. 129(2). pp.251-261.
Yayla, A.A. and Hu, Q., 2012. The impact of IT-business strategic alignment on firm
performance in a developing country setting: exploring moderating roles of
environmental uncertainty and strategic orientation. European Journal of Information
Systems. 21(4). pp.373-387.
Online
Top 9 Benefits of Business Networking. 2017. [Online]. Availabel through:
<http://amazingbusiness.com/top-9-benefits-of-business-networking/>. (Accessed on
25th May 2017).
Concepts of Information Security. 2017. [Online]. Availabel through:
<https://www.nap.edu/read/1581/chapter/4>. (Accessed on 25th May 2017).

Appendix
This assignment studies various roles and scope of information technology in the British
airways. The role of IT and contribution in the management of the work effectively in the
workplace of organisation is discussed in this report. IT benefits the British airways to managing
their operations effectively. With the help of implementation of automated system in company
leads to higher growth of business organisation.. The IT helps in transferring data from one place
to another faster than manual transfer of information. IT system of communication helps in
reducing the burden, better managed system in organisation. The companies are involved in
maintaining the information technology in system by developing various system of backup,
restoring, privacy software etc. in the company. Big panda is the software which is developed to
monitor the IT in business and helps in managing the unknown incidents. Antivirus is cloud
based monitoring services which manage and monitor the information technology. The Pilot and
other employee working at the aviation lines make use of various technologies to manage various
functions like aircraft manual, engineering procedure, and material availability and manage
different action task.