ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) TAKES FLIGHT

AT KENYA AIRWAYS

By: Eric Ochumba Irene Mwaura Veronica Mbugu Fahma Shuriye Bernard Koskei

Strategy to follow

• For any company to stay at the top of the league, it is important to see, speculate and act on the current and future trends in the industry.

• For any serious company to excel and survive in a world of cut-throat competition, technology plays a very important role in the growth of great corporates like Kenya Airways.

Idea

Beat International Competition in African Airspace How? • Expansion into other African countries but at

the same time keeping internal operations relatively small.

“ We needed to be much more efficient, reduce costs, and liberate our internal resources to achieve higher levels of business activity” –Kevin Kinyanjui, CIO, Kenya Airways -

Organization of Kenya Airways

• Like any form of business, the internal running of affairs of a company is the backbone of the business.

• Kenya Airways took a very critical look into its internal weaknesses, the disintegrated department systems, and decided to act on them.

Problem Identification

• Kenya Airways recognizes this need and understood that for them to be more effective in their service delivery, they would have to integrate all the systems that were running independently into one effective system.

• There was the appreciation that as much as the departments ran individually, they were very dependent on each other.

• There was need to make the systems flow into each other.

Solution Design Process

Change Management from the Beginning to EndHow?1. Selection of an expert team from each

department2. Team, in turn selected who else would be join

the team• Effecting Change Management: KQ made sure

that staff all areas of were on board with the endeavor

Solution Design Process

1. Selection team listed all the requirements needed to achieve KQ’s goal (500 pages worth)

2. Formal process of searching and soliciting vendor proposals

3. Presentation of the possible systems solutions to the team of representatives of the various departments for a solution that would be favorable to all departments.

4. Thorough Evaluation (with solution taking precedence to time spent)

Oracle’s ERP

• Kenya Airways opted to go with Oracle’s ERP which promised to provide a solution to all their needs.

• Kenya Airways was very impressed with the presentation made by Computer Services who were partnering with Oracle. Their presentation exhibited an excellent sense of relationship management.

Oracle’s ERP Implementation

• Kenya Airways invested heavily on automated computerized system that sought to integrate the various departments.

• Low customization allowed KQ to embrace systems practices embedded in the Oracle ERP

• Adopting new processes suited to the Oracle system as opposed to customizing the system to fit their processes streamlined efficiency.

ERP Implementation Process

In-house DeploymentPrior to Deployment (6 months): • Panel involved in choosing the system

configured underwent training in Oracle ERP system Management and configuration.

• Trained end users and coordinated data migration teams

Implementation Process

In-house DeploymentAfter deployment (6 months): • Panel stayed with the project – identifying possible issues– supporting staff– running workshops, and – coming up with improvements to address those challenges.

• Transition was in phases so that any problems arising may be identified and corrected, before they are carried through to the end.

Benefits

Benefits

• One physical hub for all of KQ as opposed to separate hubs for each department

• Time-savings – Automation of processes makes them faster than manual

• Lowered Operations Costs – savings of over 2 million• Return on Investment – Amount saved by using Oracle’s ERP

overshadows cost of ERP • Improved customer service & Satisfaction – Online bookings

replace lines at airport, saving the customer time and Kenya Airways, man power.

• Supplier loyalty - Faster invoice and payment processing times

Benefits

• Elimination of ethical issues to do with human nature - example automating approval and reporting policies eliminates favoritism or corruption

• Room for growth – with automation of processes, variable costs remain relatively low, allowing for expansion capability.

• Heightened Employee Satisfaction – Having been involved from the very beginning,

employees appreciate their job more.

Proper implementation of a new system

• Proper implementation of a new system is very important.

• That is why it is necessary to do it in phases so that any problems arising may be arrested and corrected before they are carried through to the end.

• We see Oracle successfully implementing the system in phases which has finally led to Kenya Airways becoming fully automated

Kenya Airways Flight Map 2015

Thanks to the gains from Oracle’s ERP,Kenya Airways is Looking to expand its operations inS.E. Asia this year.