Saudi Arabia’s national flag carrier Saudia has selected Accenture as its partner for transforming the guest experience it offers its 30 million passengers per year.
Since its launch in 1945, Saudia has grown into one of the world’s leading carriers for people visiting the Middle East and beyond. The airline’s 140 or so aircraft land in 70+ destinations worldwide, with over 30 million passengers expected to fly with the airline this year.
How Saudia serves its passenger base is continuously being improved, in order to meet changing passenger demands, while bringing them the perks and comfort that comes with the latest emerging technologies.
“At Saudia, we continuously look how to reimagine the way how our guests can choose, buy and enjoy leisure, business, and religious experiences,” said Khaled Alhazmi, Vice President of Operations and IT Support at the flag carrier.
Supporting the next wave of improvements is Accenture, which has been flown in to help Saudia offer a “experience and highly personalised guest experience”, said Alhazmi. “With Accenture’s support, we will create seamless and curated journeys with hyper-relevant experiences across digital and human-driven interactions.”
The agreement will see Accenture design and build more than 260 new digital and electronic services in two years – all geared at upping the guest experience.
Examples of benefits and innovations are abound. A few notable examples include: providing guests more personalised services during the ticket purchase process; a smoother travel experience across the entire travel cycle such as faster check-in at airports or in-flight services; more tailored promotional offers; and relevant post-flight support.
A major part of the digital-driven guest experience enhancements will be centred around self-service features. “Guests will be able to modify flights, purchase transit eVisas, and enjoy new self-service features across all digital channels,” explained Alhazmi.
To realise the ambitions set, Accenture will bring on board strategic, organisational and technology capabilities. The consulting firm will help Saudia design new processes and develop a blueprint for guest experience that matches the company’s highest standards (Saudia is a so-called 5-star airline according to Apex standards).
Accenture’s technologists will supercharge the digital infrastructure, which includes upgrading systems and infrastructure, introducing new ones, building data lakes, adopting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotic process automation, and moving (some) capabilities to the cloud.
“Our primary aim is to enable Saudia to tap into the combined power of digital, cloud, and data, laying a strong foundation for continued innovation,” said Gerardo Canta, senior managing director at Accenture.
The passenger ecosystem
Accenture has a long track record of helping airlines improve their passenger experience. The firm also works in other travel experience domains of aviation passengers – including airports, mobility (for example: car rental), retail (for example: in-airport shopping), and more.
Earlier this year, for instance, Singapore’s Changi Airport tapped Accenture for a traveller experience transformation.
“We are honoured to be working with Saudia to achieve its vision of creating a seamless, exceptional travel experience for its customers,” concluded Canta.
Sourced from Consultancy-me.com