TAM signs 10 year IT partnership with Amadeus
TAM, the largest airline in the southern hemisphere, and Amadeus, a leading global IT provider for the travel and tourism industry, announce a 10 year technology partnership, to equip TAM with a new generation passenger service system. Amadeus will replace multiple legacy applications currently used by TAM, with a single integrated platform based on the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution
TAM will transform its operational processes and migrate all its passenger services to Amadeus’ integrated Altéa platform
Madrid, Spain, 25 August 2009: TAM, the largest airline in the southern hemisphere, and Amadeus, a leading global IT provider for the travel and tourism industry, announce a 10 year technology partnership, to equip TAM with a new generation passenger service system. Amadeus will replace multiple legacy applications currently used by TAM, with a single integrated platform based on the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution.
“TAM has grown rapidly in the past few years, especially in our international business, says TAM Vice President Commercial and Planning, Paulo Castello Branco. “We need a technology solution that is flexible and scalable, to support our plans for future expansion.
“Our objective is to consolidate and grow our positions as leaders in the market, improve further the quality of our services to customers, and offer increased interaction and functionality for our sales systems.”
“The Amadeus platform is recommended by the Star Alliance,” TAM Vice President Finance and IT, Líbano Barroso, points out. “This was one of the factors that determined our decision to invest in the Altea solution. It will facilitate our integration in the world’s largest global alliance - planned for the first quarter of 2010.
“Altéa will give us the technological support to continue with our plans for international expansion, modernise our systems and reduce our operational costs,” he says. More than 60% of the member airlines of the Star Alliance already use or have contracted the Amadeus solution.
The new platform will manage all TAM’s reservations, inventory and departure control processes. It will be fully integrated with the existing systems of the company’s two carriers, TAM Linhas Aereas and TAM Airlines. Altéa’s central repository of data will enable TAM agents to access a common and constantly up-to-date client profile, with their flight history and individual preferences. This capacity to recognize their passengers from the point of reservation through to baggage collection will enable the airline’s staff to offer a consistent and responsive service to their customers. TAM will also adopt Amadeus suite of ecommerce services to support its websites and grow online sales.
The airline’s IT Director, Juliana Kfouri, explains further that TAM opted for a modular system as a foundation for future growth, in line with the airline’s new momentum, and need to integrate with more than 20 airlines when it joins the Star Alliance.
“A more simplified and interactive architecture has been designed, this will bring more agility and performance in the airline’s technology and client services”, she says. “The challenge brought by this radical change will enable TAM to undergo a complete transformation in its processes, operations and IT systems.”
Amadeus Vice President Airline IT, Julia Sattel, underlines that: “With the full scope of Altéa, TAM will have a unique capability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage through leaner processes, faster decision-making and a differentiated customer service.
“Building on our extensive migration experience, plus the professionalism of the TAM team, we will migrate the airline’s systems in less than a year, accelerating its integration into the airline alliance of its choice.”
In March, TAM started the training process and change management in all the areas of the company, to prepare for operation on the new platform. The impacted areas include frontline staff at the airports, at reservation, check-in, ticketing through to the corporate travel business, the end customer in TAM’s sales offices and callcenters, TAM’s loyalty program, travel agencies and other commercial partners.
Today, more than 60 airlines have chosen the full Altéa suite, while a total of 135 others use at least one component of the solution. Amadeus Altéa has also been selected by Star Alliance as the Star Common IT Platform (CITP).
