British Airways has shelved plans to roll-out a company-wide
ERP system because it doesn't want to spend cash in the face of a
recession.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh told Computer Weekly the time
wasn't right for such a major IT project. The system would have
been one of the biggest ERP-deployments in Europe.
"We have delayed this decision because of the financial
situation we face. We want to conserve cash, as cash is king at the
moment," he said.
BA CIO Paul Coby said a year ago that the airline was planning
the move to help it cope with increasingly tighter margins in the
air industry.
Walsh said BA would consider such a system, along with other big
cash-hungry projects in around two years time, when hopefully the
economic turmoil had died down.
"From 2011 we will consider these types of investment," he told
Computer Weekly at the annual SITA Air Transport IT Summit,
BA was originally planning to choose an ERP provider for the
company-wide project by the end of last year. SAP and Oracle were
said to be in poll position for the project.
BA completed a six-year project to deliver ERP in engineering
and maintenance in 2006. The Engineering Wide System (EWS) is
already the world's biggest aircraft maintenance SAP system.
EWS also controls engineering staffing, spares supply and
airworthiness data. Oracle is used to power the airline's HR
function.
The ERP project isn't the only IT expenditure to be affected by
the recession. Walsh said only new planes in the future would be
fitted with equipment to allow passengers to make voice phone calls
and access data services with their own devices. Existing planes
will not be retrofitted with the equipment.
Walsh said there wasn't much call from passengers at the moment
for voice access. They were more interested in data access, he
said.
The airline's new premium-only service from London City Airport
to New York will offer passengers mobile SMS and BlackBerry
support.
Out of 40,000 BA staff, Walsh said 7,000 had so far volunteered
to save the struggling airline cash by agreeing to work for free
for a month, work part-time, take unpaid holidays or other
cash-saving options.
He wouldn't say how many in the IT department had volunteered.
Out of the 7,000, 800 are working for nothing. Walsh led the way by
volunteering to work unpaid for a month.
He said, "With my pay I know I can easily do it. I didn't expect
everyone to do the same, but I think it's fair to expect all staff
to make some sort of contribution."