With one of the youngest and best-maintained fleets in the world, Jet Airways is India’s most preferred airline, operating more than 380 flights daily to 43 destinations within the country. It also operates flights to the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Belgium, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Jet Airways plans to further extend its international operations in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia in the coming years with the introduction of wide-body aircraft into its fleet.

The Challenge: Seamless Application Delivery and Timely Access

The pressures of operating in a highly competitive domestic aviation industry coupled with the expansion of international aviation services meant that Jet Airways had to be up-to-speed in implementing the right technology infrastructure. Prior to 2004, organizational databases and business applications were restricted to domestic users and run in a thick-client environment. Technical persons had to go to individual locations, including international sites, to install applications and to troubleshoot problems and issues that arose at frequent intervals. Critically, there were delays in accessing applications, which hampered decision-making processes and many other aspects of business operations.

Furthermore, in a 24-hour operational environment and with prevalent bandwidth constraints in a few cities in India, the IT system was becoming quite cumbersome. Troubleshooting problems at different locations was time-consuming and expensive due to the deployment of many IT resources.

Meanwhile, as part of an overall business consolidation exercise, Jet Airways decided to deploy an ERP solution comprising SAP R/3 4.7 and Business Warehouse (BW 3.5) in 2005.

As Suresh Nadar, manager – IT for Jet Airways, explained, “With our fast-paced business growth and the scale of expanding operations, an enterprise integration strategy became paramount. Concurrently, given the business-critical nature of our sector, seamless application delivery, timely access and hassle-free support were also essential. Quicker sharing of data was looked upon as a very important issue. Top management felt that with the impending ERP implementation, the system and the attendant core business applications had to be made available across the organizational network much more quickly and securely. The aim was to invest in a solution that would centrally deliver applications, provide on-demand access and tackle troubleshooting from a centralized location and with fewer resources.”

Implementing Citrix Presentation Server for Centralized Application Management

Jet Airways partnered with Mumbai-based Ontrack Solutions, a Silver Citrix® Solution Advisor, to implement the latest version of Citrix Presentation Server™ software with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 running on three two-CPU Intel servers. Currently, about 300 concurrent users across all domestic and international locations access BW applications, a revenue management system, a cargo booking system and the entire suite of SAP R/3 modules.

Further, Jet Airways is getting ready to deliver another critical airline operational application called Load Manager with Citrix Presentation Server. Load Manager is a standard application used to generate the load sheet, which helps the pilot ensure timely take-off of the flight.

The sales and marketing team uses the BW system as needed. Data entry operators at different locations frequently use the revenue management system. Middle- and even lower-management staff regularly access finance and budget applications. All users connect using the Web Interface functionality of Presentation Server.

According to Nadar, the critical and major revenue-generating cargo booking system, Cargo Spot, which is running on Citrix Presentation Server, is now delivered to offices across India and in the seven international countries where Jet Airways operates. Internet connectivity is through a mixture of leased lines, ISDN lines and normal dial-up connectivity — depending on individual locations and the best service provided by a particular Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Accurate and Timely Delivery of Core Applications

In a time-sensitive business environment where availability of key information is vital, fast delivery of core business applications to all locations is essential. Instant application access by all the core users is the biggest benefit in the centralized Citrix environment.

Nadar added, “In the airline industry, availability of accurate, critical information holds the key to seamless operations on all fronts and, consequently, smooth and timely operation of flights. Presentation Server with its inherent centralization capabilities facilitates application delivery and information availability in a timely manner. Importantly, instant access to business-critical applications helps our management to take faster decisions on critical business aspects of running the airline. Data sharing is happening quickly and as required, and service levels have definitely gone up. We are able to configure, manage and deliver applications from a centralized location. By simply providing relevant authenticated user IDs, users are able to access applications as and when required. It’s like a unified control system that accelerates delivery of key ERP and other business applications instantaneously and securely over the network. So whether it is the cargo booking system application, flight scheduling details, crew rosters or ERP modules, most business-critical applications are now easily and quickly accessible thanks to the Citrix solution.”

Citrix Enables Operational Efficiencies

Delivery of the Load Manager application using Citrix Presentation Server will enable quick availability of reports from the system. This will help ensure timely departure of flights. This is vitally important, as any delay in reports would lead to a flight delay and affect operational efficiencies and passenger satisfaction.

Centralized Administration Streamlines IT Resources

In the airline’s previous, thick-client environment, deployment of manpower resources for troubleshooting at different locations was time-consuming and added substantially to costs. With the centralized application management capability from Citrix, IT resources have now been streamlined greatly and troubleshooting is a breeze for the Jet Airways IT team. On quite a few occasions, Nadar’s IT team sitting in the Mumbai office has used the shadowing capability of Presentation Server to remotely troubleshoot issues in various locations.

Concurred Nadar, “While cost savings are difficult to quantify, the business savings resulting from less time taken for application upgrades, better centralized administration and remote troubleshooting of issues have been tremendous. Thanks to Citrix Presentation Server, I don’t have to deploy physical resources at 43 cities in India as well as international locations, and don’t need to fly IT people to international locations to install applications, as was being done earlier. Less manpower needed to manage the IT infrastructure has definitely resulted in cost savings over a period of time. Additionally, cost savings have resulted from not having to invest in high-end PCs.”

Future Plans

With Jet Airways’ ambitious scale of operations and expected future business growth, application availability across still more locations will hold the key to greater business consolidation and sustained leadership. Plans are on the anvil to increase the number of concurrent users of Citrix Presentation Server to 500 within the current fiscal year. Nadar is confident that his IT department will be able to address all future needs of the business and that relevant Citrix technologies are integral to those plans.

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