Information and Communication Technologies in Virgin Atlantic Essay

Information and Communication Technologies in Virgin Atlantic - Essay Example With emphasis on the airline industry, the emergence of internet and the subsequent development of extranets and intranets forced airlines to rethink their strategies on technological innovation and enhance their competitiveness in their market niche. The internet has proved a source of opportunity to tackle distribution costs and reengineer the structure of the airline industry (Alamdari and Mason, 2006:123). These technological innovations seek to monitor a wide range of business processes in the airlines, as well as identifying ways of improving these processes. This report examines the implementation of the online ticket booking by Virgin Atlantic Airways to achieve cost reduction and competitive advantage objectives. The report works on the assumption that the previous booking systems had flaws in efficiency and effectiveness, thus the company sort to redesign the booking process to attain some competitive edge against its competitors and increase its effectiveness and efficienc y in general (Olugbenga, 2006). Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited, famously as simply Virgin Atlantic, is a British airline headquartered in West Sussex, England. The airline, founded in 1984, has become the second largest carrier in Britain serving the major cities in the world. Currently based in Manchester airport, Heathrow airports, and Gatwick in London, the airline operates long-haul services to more than thirty destinations worldwide, as far apart as Shanghai and Las Vegas. Virgin Atlantic enjoys huge popularity, receiving top business, trade, and consumer awards worldwide. The airline has credit for pioneering a range of innovations and setting new service standards, with its competitors seeking to follow the same... This essay stresses that for Virgin Atlantic to achieve competitive advantage in the airline industry, it needs to develop and implement innovative strategies to improve the sale of ticket, as this forms the primary source of income. The company may integrate ICT tools to achieve this, including developing an efficient booking system incorporated into the official website of the company. This paper makes a conclusion that ICT may support all business functions, thus integral in the efficient operation of the entire travel industry. ICT provides tools for searching for profitable and meaningful niche market segments and identify value added components for the services and products, as well as differentiate these services and products through special media to market segments. Flexibility and cost effectiveness are among the products of ICT in this process, as they are integral in cost efficiency maximization and cost reduction. The impact of ICT on the airlines industry is persuasive, as information forms the core foundation of the daily operations and the strategic management of organizations. This is evident from the implementation of Virgin Atlantic online ticket booking. The online service has significantly improved the services of the company in all levels of management. Subsequently, there has improvement in tickets sales, with increased efficiency and effectiven ess. At the strategic level, airlines must continuously assess all the external elements of the environment, as well as customers’ needs and competitors, and subsequently adapt to them to enhance their competitiveness