—Bruce D Parker, Chief Information Officer and
Senior VP, United Airlines.

Bruce D Parker wants to use technology to change the way travelers fly with an airline. As Chief Information Officer and Senior VP, United Airlines, Parker is taking the company toward a number of IT innovations. He launched SkyNet, the company’s first intranet, electronically linking United’s 95,000 employees. Parker has also overseen the deployment of technology to better integrate the carriers by setting up Star Alliance, a global team of airlines created to provide customers with the ‘virtual airline’ experience. Recently, United Airlines has announced a joint venture with The Chatterjee Group to set up SkyTech Solutions, a software development center in Calcutta. The center, which is United’s first such setup outside the US, will provide software development support and services to the travel industry. In an interview with Dataquest, Parker spoke about the new venture and how it would take United Airlines toward creating a whole new era in the airline industry. Excerpts:

What was the objective behind setting up this development center in India?
There is an increased need for services to be based on the internet technology as it allows a whole new range of applications to emerge. In this joint venture, we are looking for resources, mainly skilled people, who could allow us to tap new emerging technologies.

About a year ago, United Airlines embarked on a strategy where it was decided to seriously consider India as a potential place to build a development center. We wanted to put together long-term development skills and were not interested in service contracts for short durations. So, we wanted people who could understand technology as well as the airline industry.

Was there any specific reason you entered into a joint venture instead of outsourcing?
We were not really looking for outsourcing because if we wanted only a service contract, we would have never formed a joint venture. Our interest in India is not just to bid projects and have people respond to them. We wanted to have a long-term consistent base that is very good in technology and very much endowed with knowledge of all the business processes in the airline industry. For instance, in E-ticketing you can’t have a contract with anybody who might not even have sufficient knowledge about the ticketing process in the industry. You must build that kind of knowledge among people and keep those people with you for a long period. So, the reason for the joint venture was that we wanted to build a close relationship with employees. We could have done it on our own, but we felt it would be difficult for United Airlines to manage it on its own so we chose to do it with a partner.

Why did you choose TCG as your partner? Could you explain its role in this association?
Actually, we went through a series of companies, but we liked TCG for a couple of reasons. One was their ability to build such a venture as they already have a tie-up with Computer Associates. Both United Airlines and TCG found each other suitable and our relationship began with a mutual desire for such a venture. They also wanted to do something besides just contracts and services. And as we gained some experience of working with them, we liked them a lot. They proved quite effective and we felt that they would be able to manage such a setup successfully. Moreover, they are well respected in India in other areas as well.

Initially, they will do the financial management, training and project development for new techniques. We have already started work at TCG’s facility in Calcutta and we have utilized 50 of their people in development. Those people will now be transferred into the new joint venture company. TCG’s facility in Calcutta will be the incubator for our joint venture and then it will grow.

...And what attracted you toward India?
India has some very good technology schools and universities where people are trained on technologies that are most commonly used. There are two main aspects: these people are hardworking, focused and culturally work well in teams. And in situations where there are large geographic distances among people, this is a fundamental requirement to be successful. These were the main characteristics why we selected India.

You have emphasized on ‘technological innovations’ in your present strategy. Could you elaborate on this?
Let me explain this with an example. E-ticketing, for instance, is one of the recent innovative developments that we are talking about. It evolved when we started analyzing how and why we need paper tickets and basically came to a conclusion that we don’t need paper tickets. You can have electronic records to represent the value for payments. We led the industry toward an e-ticketing solution. It was implemented in a series of projects for United Airlines. Then we took the software and sold it to others including our competitors like American Airlines. We anticipate that with SkyTech, we’ll be able to create more such systems that will enable innovative change in the industry.

In what ways do you think this development center will improve your services globally?
A large part of the technology that we use directly touches our customers. For instance, we do a series of applications at the airport that are aimed at individuals as well as businesses. We are looking at systems that will enable our customers to understand our travel services and help them to deal with difficult situations. Many of the software applications that we are developing aim to improve our customer services. Additionally, they will also improve the profitability of the airline through revenue management. Another important area is cost management through inventory reduction. The collaborative type of software that comes with internet technology is being deployed. The knowledge tools, collaborative tools and specialized applications built around these enable the employees to utilize technology in a better way.