we know
they know
SpiceJet improves transparency and control
with IBM Airline Office and SAP ERP
Overview
 The Challenge
With a range of separate systems
for accounting, purchasing,
inventory management and airline-
specific processes, low-cost airline
SpiceJet was having difficulty
analyzing financial data fast enough
to make timely business decisions.
 The Solution
Working with IBM Global Business
Services, the company deployed
SAP ERP 6.0 for financial
accounting, controlling and
materials management, using the
IBM Airline Office template to
deliver a smooth and rapid
implementation within just 12
weeks. The solution runs on highly
reliable IBM System x hardware
with high-performance quad-core
Intel Xeon processors, and utilizes a
SAN based on IBM System Storage
DS4700 technology.
 The Benefits
Integration enables the monthly
financial close to be completed
within seven days – a 72 percent
improvement. Better financial
transparency and analytics enable
improved cost control and planning
– helping the business run more
efficiently. Future integration with
airline systems will continue to
reduce manual work and improve
data quality.
 Key Solution Components
Industry: Aerospace and Defense
®
Applications: IBM Airline Office,
®
SAP ERP 6.0, SAP ERP Human
Capital Management
Hardware: IBM System x 3650 and®
3550 servers with Intel ®
Xeon®
E5345 processors, IBM System
Storage® DS4700
®
Software: IBM Tivoli Storage
Manager
Services: IBM Global Business
Services
SpiceJet is one of India’s most
dynamic low-cost airlines, with 19
aircraft flying to 18 destinations across
the country. With its headquarters in
Gurgaon, the company employs 2,500
people, and focuses on delivering the
best possible value for business and
private travel.
SpiceJet is proud of its investment in
cutting-edge technology – from its
fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft down
to its operational IT systems. The
company manages its airline-specific
business processes using Star
Navigation, Russell Adams, Tech Log
and Navitaire systems, and can offer
passengers e-booking and e-ticketing
facilities.
“Technology provides a way for us to
improve our business processes and
offer better service at a lower cost to
our customers,” says Nandan Mimani,
Head of Finance at SpiceJet. “We
decided to update our back-end
management information systems to
align with the rest of our modern
infrastructure, and increase integration
to improve financial transparency.”
“With four cores in each An opportunity for integration
The company’s existing back-end
processor, and two
systems included a number of
processors in each separate applications for financial
machine, the Intel Xeon management, procurement and
architecture delivers the inventory control. The lack of
performance our integration between these systems
created a large quantity of manual
business users require to
workload for reconciliations: staff in the
get the most from the finance department spent too much
SAP applications.” time capturing information and too little
analyzing it.
Nandan Mimani
Head of Finance, SpiceJet
“There were other issues too,” adds
Nandan Mimani. “The user interface of
the old systems was complex and
inflexible. As a result, for example, it
was difficult to generate reports in
different formats for internal and
external audiences. When we wanted
to change or customize something, we
almost invariably had to ask our
existing software provider for help,
which took time and was expensive.”
SpiceJet began looking for a modern,
centralized ERP solution that would
improve transparency and business
agility while reducing manual
workload. The company evaluated
various options, including solutions
from vendors such as Oracle, before
deciding on a solution from IBM
called Airline Office, which is based
on the SAP ERP application.
IBM Airline Office
“It was very important for us to find a
solution that was able to cope with the
unique challenges of the air transport
industry,” comments Nandan Mimani.
“We wanted to find a partner that had
successfully implemented ERP for
other airlines, so that we could profit
from current best practices and
ensure a smooth, fast implementation.
IBM’s Airline Office template for SAP
ERP offered exactly what we were
looking for.”
IBM Global Business Services
worked closely with business and IT
teams from SpiceJet to map out the
requirements for the new solution and
create a blueprint for the project that
would accelerate deployment and
minimize risk. The decision was taken
to implement the solution in two
phases: first, to install the SAP
applications for financial accounting,
controlling, materials management
and human resources, and second to
integrate the solution with the existing
airline-specific systems such as
Russell Adams.
Building a reliable infrastructure
To complete the first phase, IBM
Global Business Services used the
Airline Office template to install and
customize the SAP ERP 6.0
application, running in a Microsoft
Windows environment on the IBM
System x platform.
Three separate x3650 servers handle
the SAP production, development
and quality assurance environments,
while a smaller x3550 runs SAP
Solution Manager. The servers are
located in a data center at the
company’s headquarters.
Each of the servers contains two
powerful quad-core Intel Xeon E5345
processors, which deliver excellent
performance due to their 2.33GHz
clock speed and 8MB L2 cache – as
well as high energy efficiency. The
System x machines also leverage
fourth-generation IBM X-Architecture
technologies to provide mainframe-
class reliability and availability.
“The IBM System x platform is highly
reliable and we have experienced
very little downtime since the
environment went live,” comments
Nandan Mimani. “With four cores in
each processor, and two processors
in each machine, the Intel Xeon
architecture delivers the performance
our business users require to get the
most from the SAP applications.”
SpiceJet also implemented a storage
area network based on an IBM
System Storage DS4700 disk system,
which provides a highly scalable
storage architecture, capable of
expanding to meet the growing needs
of the company’s SAP application
environment and other systems.
The company is using IBM Tivoli
Storage Manager for Enterprise
Resource Planning to handle backup
and recovery processes. The
software is specifically optimized for
SAP ERP environments, providing
simple management and reducing
administrative effort.
“Tivoli Storage Manager provides “IBM Global Business
incremental backup technologies, so
Services did an
we only need to back up new or edited
data each day, instead of making a full
excellent job, and the
copy of the whole environment,” rapid implementation is
comments Nandan Mimani. “As a a testament to the best
result, network traffic is substantially practices that IBM has
reduced and backups can be
developed during
conducted much more quickly –
improving overall IT performance and
previous Airline Office
maximising system availability.” implementations.”
Nandan Mimani
Rapid implementation
Head of Finance, SpiceJet
IBM Global Business Services
completed this first phase of the
implementation within just 12 weeks –
two weeks ahead of the planned
14-week deadline.
“IBM Global Business Services did an
excellent job, and the rapid
implementation is a testament to the
best practices that IBM has developed
during previous Airline Office
implementations,” says Nandan
Mimani. “Of course, there were
“Tivoli Storage Manager
naturally a few teething problems as
provides incremental
we got used to the new system, but
IBM and SAP helped us re-engineer backup technologies, so
our business processes to eliminate we only need to back up
backlogs and get everything running new or edited data each
smoothly.”
day, instead of making
a full copy of the whole
Increasing automation and transparency
The new SAP ERP applications have environment. As a
already delivered a number of result, network traffic is
important improvements to SpiceJet’s substantially reduced
core business processes. Day-to-day
and backups can be
accounting processes have been
conducted much more
simplified, and a powerful search
function has been added to help staff quickly – improving
find specific transactions, suppliers overall IT performance
and customers easily. Reporting has and maximising system
also been improved, since the SAP
availability.”
applications are flexible enough to
generate customizable reports without Nandan Mimani
any need for technical intervention. Head of Finance, SpiceJet
“Another very important benefit is the
increased ability to analyze, plan and
forecast,” says Nandan Mimani. “With
a single repository for financial and
inventory data, we can achieve much
greater financial transparency. We can
assess the profitability of individual
routes and we have much greater
control over purchasing – which is
particularly important as oil prices
continue to fluctuate.”
Accelerating financial processes
SpiceJet has seen considerable
improvement in a number of routine
back-office processes, such as the
monthly financial close.
“The monthly close used to be an
almost entirely manual process, so it
took 20 to 25 days to complete,”
comments Nandan Mimani. “With SAP
ERP, we can complete the monthly
financial close within just seven days –
so we get a better understanding of
how the business is doing, and we can
react more quickly to a changing
business environment.”
He concludes: “The combination of
SAP applications with the IBM Airline
Office template, and the experience
and expertise of the IBM Global
Business Services team, has delivered
a solution that meets our immediate
business needs and lays a secure
foundation for future growth. As we
move into phase two of the project and
integrate our airline-specific systems,
we expect to gain ever-increasing
benefits from the solution.”
“With SAP ERP, we
can complete the
monthly financial
close within just seven
days – so we get a
better understanding
of how the business is
doing, and we can
react more quickly to
a changing business
environment.”
Nandan Mimani
Head of Finance, SpiceJet
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