IBM has announced a five year agreement with Finland’s largest airline, Finnair, which will channel both IBM Cloud as well as Watson services that will provide certain services such as mobile on flight services to its users. This agreement will also change Finnair’s technology infrastructure into a contemporary hybrid cloud platform. Financial aspects of the agreement were not disclosed. Under terms of this agreement, IBM will serve as Finnair’s IT service integrator by providing support that can enable multiple technology vendors serving the airline in order to operate in a more consistent manner. IBM will oversee vendor performance, drive service-quality improvements and promote airline industry best practices.
Kari Saarikoski, CIO at Finnair, has said in a statement, “”For a network airline, operational excellence is a key success factor, and efficient IT services are a key enabler in this. IBM understands us, and has the airline industry expertise to help us achieve our goals. This services agreement and powerful new cloud infrastructure are at the heart of our plans to improve our operational efficiency and provide the foundation for new digital services to deliver a better experience to our customers.”
In order to grow in a sophisticated and efficient manner, Finnair has turned to the cloud to both reduce IT complexity and gain more flexibility to support dynamic business changes. The company also aims to lower its costs by consolidating applications. IBM will establish the Finnair Cloud Platform to provide a foundation for the growth that the airline aspires to achieve. Digitalization is the core of Finnair’s growth strategy.
The Finnair Cloud Platform aims to integrate both a multitude of operational and commercial services in a hybrid cloud environment in order to support Finnair’s business aspirations. In addition, Finnair will also have access to the capabilities to improve employee productivity by enabling agents to quickly find responses to customer needs and intelligent, online self-help tools for employees to locate information.
Tuomo Haukkovaara, managing executive of IBM Finland, has said in a statement, “This partnership represents a significant opportunity for Finnair to restructure its IT capabilities and reduce the complexities associated with operating a large airline. IBM Cloud serves as the foundation for compelling new services for customers and will help Finnair accelerate revenue growth while lowering IT costs.”
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