ASSINGNMENT

ON

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

(CASE STUDY)

Submitted To

Mr. YOGANDHAR

Submitted By

SHISHIR

(PGDM-2011-13)

ROLL NO- 46

CASE STUDY: Jet Blue Hits Turbulence(Pg-74)

 

Qus 1: What types of information systems and business functions are described in this case ?

Ans:  The information systems and business functions described in this case are- 

A. Transactio n Processing Systems (TPS) : The TPS system is responsible for tracking ticket reservations and transactions

B. Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM) : The CRM systems provide customers the ability to communicate with JetBlue and acquire up dated flight information such as cancellations and delays.

C. Ex ecutive Support systems (ESS): The ESS system provides senior management a way to address strategic issues and planning based on results provided by the systems.

Qus 2: What is JetBlue’s business model? How do its information systems support this business model ?

Ans: Jet Blue’s business model was based on providing luxury and excellent customer service at the lowest price in comparison to other airlines. Jet blue was able to provide this luxurious flying experience by investing and using information systems.

These systems automated the process of ticket sales, and baggage handling they were also used to manage planes crews and scheduling.

Information systems are operate the business in easy way and given to new ideas. Information system s is very important in business because they are feed the entry related product like price, weight and others information.

Qus 3: What was the problem experienced by JetBlue in this case? What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for the problem?

Ans:   A fierce ice storm hit New York City and caused an enormous crisis for JetBlue.

The first problem was management; they were more interested in making a profit than in ensuring they had systems that could handle an increased amount of transactions if needed. They spent 1.5 percent of revenue on information technology while their competitors were spent 5 percent. Senior management assumed they had learned to work lean and smart based on the success they were having. In an effort to maintain their reputation Jet Blue avoided cancellation of flights while there competitors began to cancel. Weather conditions and delays caused customers to flood JetBlue’s reservation systems and the systems were unable to handle the onslaught. Systems tasks that included rebooking, baggage handling, and the location of crew members became unavailable. In addition, JetBlue did not have systems in place to keep track of off-duty flight crews and lost baggage.

Another problem was that Jet Blue did not have enough qualified personnel to staff its phone lines they had reservation agents that worked from home and linked to a reservation system through the internet, this resulted in customers not having the ability to determine the status of their flights due to phones lines being jammed and lack of response from the reservation systems.

Qus 4: Based on what you learned in this chapter, what kinds of systems and business functions were involved in JetBlue’s problem?

Ans: One of the major failures was the TPS system which was responsible for tracking ticket reservations and transactions. Because of TPS failure, Jet Blue had problems rescheduling and rebooking passengers.

The next big problem was its breakdown in the CRM systems, Jet Blue did not have enough qualified personnel to staff its phones, which resulted in customers not being able to communicate to determine the status of their flights in addition their website could not handle the spike of so many visitors trying to acquire information and stopped responding.

The ESS was involved due to the involvement of strategic planning throughout the process, senior management did not plan accordingly in response to the company’s

rapid growth. The Human resources processes also failed by not responding to the need of additional personnel to keep up with the company’s rapid growth.

Qus 5: Evaluate JetBlue’s response to the crisis? What solutions did the airline come up with? How were the solutions implemented? Do you think that JetBlue found the correct solutions and implemented them correctly? What other solutions can you think of that JetBlue hasn’t tried ?

Ans: Through the whole process, JetBlue’s CEO David G. Neeleman apologized and took responsibility for the crisis. JetBlue responded to this experience by deploying new software that sends recorded messages to pilots and flight attendants inquiring about their availability.

They also promised to train 100 employees from their corporate office to serve as backups and upgrade their website and reservation systems. One important customer relations strategy that they put in place was a customer bill of rights to enforce standards for customer treatment and airline behavior.

The solutions implemented were correct but JetBlue needs to stay maintain them current to stay competitive with other airlines and to avoid a similar crisis in the future. To avoid similar possible scenarios, JetBlue needs to consider training the staff in quick reactionary methods that will simulate similar situations and also test its system more frequently.

Qus 6: How well is JetBlue prepared for the future? Are the problems described in the case likely to be repeated? Which of JetBlue’s business processes are most vulnerable to breakdowns? How much will a customer bill of rights help?

Ans: For the most part it seems that JetBlue learned a valuable lesson from this wake up call. According to Liz Roche as cited by Laudon and Laudon (2010) “JetBlue demonstrated that it’s an adolescent in the airline industry and that it has a lot of learning and growing up to do”.

The problems described in this case study may happen again if JetBlue does not stay up with current technology or maintains an adequate personnel staff. According to PRNewswire (2011) “JetBlue has successfully transitioned to a new reservations system and an upgrade to a new loyalty program, and both projects were expertly executed by our IT team with minimal impact to our daily operations and maximum potential for future growth”.

 The customer bill of rights implemented will help JetBlue monitor its services and make them aware of problems that their systems may not be able to identify.