Digital transformation has fundamentally changed the passenger experience. Today’s modern traveler expects airports to provide new technologies and services that will simplify their journey from start to finish. From mobile check-ins and real-time baggage tracking to pre-booked parking and navigation assistance, airports have already incorporated many innovative technologies into their campus and operations. Yet, airports still have a long way to go to fully transform into the hub of choice.
There are countless opportunities along the way to deliver superior service and gain a competitive advantage. For example, digitally tagged luggage can be tracked from a passenger’s mobile device to prevent baggage claim areas from becoming too overcrowded. Digital signage can also help to inform passengers of flight delays, provide navigation assistance, and display vendor advertisements. Airlines and airports that can properly serve today’s passengers are primed to maximize passenger engagement, create new business opportunities, and increase revenue.
Navigating Through Common Challenges
Satisfying the needs of today’s passenger begins behind the scenes. There is a direct correlation between the airport’s use of infrastructure and customer satisfaction. Inadequate cable and IT infrastructure can create flight delays, longer airline routes, and inefficient schedules that are not only costly to the airport and airlines but are also damaging to the passenger experience. Complete transparency of the airport ICT infrastructure is required to handle the vast amount of transactions using real-time or near real-time data with low to no latency to support the demands placed on it.
Yet, this is easier said than done as airport technologies are often clustered into silos of information (i.e. data center – space, power, cooling; IT – servers, storage, VM, cloud; and networks – transport, IP, VPN, cable & outside plant). To properly manage an increasingly complex hybrid IT environment, keep pace with fast changing customer demands and internal requirements for delivery, airports must eliminate IT silos across the airport organization. Airlines and airports need a robust IT architecture that is extremely flexible, scalable, and able to handle thousands of sophisticated transactions. The best approach for introducing state-of-the-art IT services into the airport infrastructure begins with identifying the right software solution.
Implementing a management solution with a central data repository of all assets and resources, regardless of which data silo they belong to or whether they are physical, logical or virtual, will enable airport IT and network operations managers to better document, plan, and manage the airport’s critical ICT infrastructure. Such unified resource management is required to ensure that high-quality, uninterrupted services are delivered consistently. It will also enable cable management and IT automation, which is necessary to provide a seamless travel experience. A unified management solution will also enable operational management and capacity planning for new services to work alongside each other across all domains.
Benefits of Unified Resource Management
Unified resource management provides complete visibility into all network assets and enables control of everything from cabling and trays to documentation and issue resolution. To provision services quickly, network managers must have complete insight into the entire IT infrastructure from assets, to configuration items, to licenses, contracts, and documentation. By implementing the right software solution, every interaction between networks, servers, workstations, and software management, from both a technological and business viewpoint, can be optimized. As a better organized service portfolio equals better IT service organization, modeling and provisioning service portfolios is also bound to improve the efficiency of IT activities. Providing the foundation for defining, managing, and monitoring business services and airport assets over their entire service lifecycle will allow network managers to match service management perspectives with IT infrastructure views.
Additionally, a unified resource management solution can reduce IT costs and improve the quality of IT services through integrated license management and IT automation support. The ideal solution will provide airport businesses with full control over data center operations including space, power, and cooling. With the ability to assess and monitor the data center in real-time, network managers can anticipate changing service needs, daily processes can be standardized, and unplanned downtimes will be reduced. Total transparency into data cables and communication services is also business critical. To manage them effectively, a unified resource management solution can provide graphical documentation of nodes, trays, sections, and individual fiber-optic assignments in conjunction with service layers. This enables network managers to document, plan, and manage the entire cable and network infrastructure in an end-to-end view both in planning and actual modes.
Overall, the ability to adapt to customers’ changing demands will determine success of an airport in the digital age. Today, passengers expect technology to give them more control over their travel experience from the moment they purchase tickets to the time they leave the airport. A unified resource management solution is vital to provide the digital services and automation that is demanded by passengers and to deliver the level of IT services needed to support airport operations in today’s dynamic environment. With a clear overview of valuable IT infrastructure and cable network assets, airport IT and network operations managers will be able to meet customer demands, conquer industry challenges, reduce operational costs, and create a positive travel experience for passengers before they even step foot inside the airport.
Steve MacDiarmid, General Manager of FNT Software’s office in Parsippany, NJ, is responsible for operations in North America. FNT Software is a leading provider of integrated software solutions for IT management, data center infrastructure management and telecommunication infrastructure management worldwide. FNT Software has more than 500 customers in various sectors including 8 of the 10 largest airports in Germany.
