Afrigather In an age the place buyer expertise could make or break a enterprise, Cathay Pacific is embracing cloud transformation to boost service supply and revolutionize operations from the within out. It isn’t simply expertise corporations which can be dealing with strain to ship higher customer support, do extra with knowledge, and enhance agility. An virtually 80-year-old airline, Cathay Pacific launched into its digital transformation journey in 2014, spurred by a essential IT disruption that grew to become the catalyst for revamping their expertise.
By embracing the cloud, the airline has not solely streamlined operations but additionally paved the best way for revolutionary options like DevSecOps and AI integration. This shift has enabled Cathay to ship quicker, extra dependable companies to each passengers and workers, whereas sustaining a strong safety framework in an more and more digital world.
In response to Rajeev Nair, basic supervisor of IT infrastructure and safety at Cathay Pacific, changing into a digital-first airline was met with early resistance from each enterprise and technical groups. The early phases required loads of heavy lifting as they shifted legacy apps first from their server room to a devoted knowledge heart after which to the cloud. From there started the method of modernization that Cathay Pacific, now in its remaining phases of this transformation, continues to wonderful tune.
The cloud migration additionally helped Cathay align with their ESG targets. “Two years in the past, in the event you requested me what IT may do for sustainability, we’d’ve been clueless,” says Nair. Nevertheless, via cloud-first methods and inexperienced IT practices, the airline has made notable strides in decreasing its carbon footprint. At the moment, the enterprise is within the strategy of shifting to a smaller knowledge heart, decreasing bodily infrastructure and its carbon emissions considerably by 2025.
The broader advantages of this cloud transformation for Cathay Pacific transcend sustainability. Agility, time-to-market, and operational effectivity have improved drastically. “In the event you ask most of the enterprises, they’d in all probability say that shifting to the cloud is all about cost-saving,” says Nair. “However for me, these are secondary facets and the bottom line is about methods to allow the enterprise to be extra agile and nimble in order that the enterprise functionality might be delivered a lot quicker by IT and the expertise crew.”
By 2025, Cathay Pacific goals to have 100% of their enterprise purposes working on the cloud, considerably enhancing their agility, customer support, and value effectivity, says Nair.
As Cathay Pacific continues its digital evolution, Nair stays centered on future-proofing the airline via rising applied sciences. Trying forward, he’s significantly excited concerning the potential of AI, generative AI, and digital actuality to additional improve each buyer expertise and inner operations. From extra immersive VR-based coaching for cabin crew to enabling passengers to preview in-flight merchandise earlier than boarding, these improvements are set to redefine how the airline engages with its clients and workers.
“We’ve got been exploring that for fairly a while, however we consider that it’ll proceed to be a mainstream expertise that may change the best way we serve the shopper,” says Nair.
This episode of Enterprise Lab is produced in affiliation with Infosys Cobalt.
Full Transcript
Megan Tatum: From MIT Expertise Overview, I am Megan Tatum, and that is Enterprise Lab, the present that helps enterprise leaders make sense of recent applied sciences popping out of the lab and into {the marketplace}.
Our subject right now is cloud transformation to satisfy enterprise targets and buyer wants. It isn’t simply tech corporations which have to remain one step forward. Airways too are underneath strain to ship higher customer support, do extra with knowledge, and enhance agility.
Two phrases for you: going additional.
My visitor is Rajeev Nair, who’s the overall supervisor of IT infrastructure and safety at Cathay Pacific. This podcast is produced in affiliation with Infosys Cobalt. Welcome, Rajeev.
Rajeev Nair: Thanks. Thanks, Megan. Thanks for having me.
Megan: Thanks ever a lot for becoming a member of us. Now to get some context for our dialog right now, may you first describe how Cathay Pacific’s digital transformation journey started, and clarify, I assume, what stage of this transformation this virtually 80-year-old airline is at the moment in, too?
Rajeev: Positive, positively Megan. So for Cathay, we began this transformation journey in all probability a decade again, method again in 2014. It began with dealing with some main service disruption inside Cathay IT the place it had an enormous influence on the enterprise operation. That prompted us to set off and provoke this transformation journey. So the very first thing is we began taking a look at a lot of our legacy purposes. Again in these days we nonetheless had mainframe techniques that supplied so a lot of our essential companies. We began taking a look at migrating these legacy apps first, shifting them outdoors of that legacy software program and shifting them into a correct knowledge heart. Again in these days, our knowledge heart was once our company headquarters. We did not have a devoted knowledge heart and it was once in a server room. So these had been the preliminary phases of our transformation journey, only a fundamental constructing block. So we began shifting into a correct knowledge heart in order that resilience and availability might be improved.
And as a second section, we began trying on the cloud. These days, cloud was nearly to kick off on this a part of the world. We began taking a look at migrating to the cloud and it has been an enormous problem or resistance even from the enterprise in addition to from the expertise crew. As soon as we began shifting, shifting apps to the cloud, we had a number of transformation packages to do this modernization actions. As soon as that’s finished, then the third section of the journey is extra about your community. As soon as your purposes are moved to the cloud, your community design must be fully modified. Then we began taking a look at how we may modernize our community as a result of Cathay operates in about 180 areas the world over. So our community could be very essential for us. We began taking a look at redesigning our community.
After which, it involves your safety facets. Issues shifting to the cloud, your community design is getting modified, your cybersecurity wants heavy lifting to accommodate the trendy world. We began specializing in cybersecurity initiatives the place our safety posture has been improved lots over the previous couple of years. And with these fundamental constructing blocks finished on the {hardware} and on the expertise aspect, then comes your IT operations. As a result of one is your {hardware} and software program piece, however how do you maintain your processes to make sure that it could actually help these altering expertise landscapes? We began investing lots across the IT operations aspect, however issues like ITIL processes have been revisited. We began adopting most of the DevOps and the DevSecOps practices. So loads of emphasis round processes and practices to assist the crew transfer ahead, proper?
And people operations initiatives are in section. As we stand right now, we’re on the remaining stage of our cloud journey the place we’re taking a look at how we are able to optimize it higher. So we shifted issues to the cloud and that has been a heavy lifting that has been finished within the early phases. Now we’re focusing round how we are able to rewrite or refactor your software in order that it could actually higher liberate your cloud applied sciences the place we may optimize the efficiency, thereby optimizing your utilization and the cloud assets whereby you possibly can save on the price in addition to on the sustainability facet. That’s the place we stand. By 2025, we’re taking a look at shifting 100% of our enterprise purposes to the cloud and in addition decreasing our bodily footprint in our knowledge facilities as effectively.
Megan: Implausible. And also you talked about sustainability there. I’m wondering how does the concentrate on environmental, social, and governance targets or ESG tie into your wider expertise technique?
Rajeev: Positive. And to be very sincere, Megan, in the event you requested me this query two years again, we’d’ve been clueless on what IT may do from a sustainability facet. However over the past two years, there was loads of focus round ESG parts throughout the expertise area the place now we have finished loads of initiatives since final 12 months to enhance and be environment friendly on the sustainability entrance. So a few key areas that now we have finished. One is unquestionably the cloud-first technique the place adopting the cloud-first coverage reduces your carbon footprint and it additionally helps us in migrating away from our knowledge heart. In order we converse, we’re doing a significant challenge to additional scale back our knowledge heart measurement by relocating to a a lot smaller knowledge heart, which will likely be accomplished by the top of subsequent 12 months. That can positively assist us to cut back our footprint.
The second is round adopting the assorted inexperienced IT practices, issues like power environment friendly gadgets, be it your PCs or the laptop computer or virtualizations, and e-based administration insurance policies and administration facets. A number of the issues are very fundamental and elementary in nature. Stuff like we moved away from a twin monitor to a single monitor whereby we may scale back your power consumption by half, or altering a few of your software program insurance policies like display timeouts and placing a monitor in standby. These sorts of staple items actually helped us to optimize and handle. And the final one is round FinOps. So FinOps is a course of within the apply that’s being closely adopted within the cloud group, however it’s simply not about optimizing your course as a result of by adopting the FinOps practices and tying in with the GreenOps processes, we’re in a position to focus lots round decreasing our CO2 footprint and optimizing sustainability. These are among the practices that now we have been doing with Cathay.
Megan: Yeah. incredible advantages from comparatively small modifications there. Apart from ESG, what are the opposite advantages for an enterprise like Cathay Pacific when it comes to shifting from these legacy techniques to the cloud that you just discovered?
Rajeev: For me, the bottom line is about agility and time-to-market functionality. In the event you ask most of the enterprises, they’d in all probability say that shifting to the cloud is all about cost-saving. However for me, these are secondary facets. The hot button is about methods to allow the enterprise to be extra agile and nimble in order that the enterprise functionality could be delivered a lot quicker by IT and the expertise crew. So for instance, gone are the times after we take about a couple of months earlier than we provision {hardware} and have the platform and the purposes prepared. Now the platforms are being delivered to the builders inside an hour’s time in order that the builders can shortly construct their growth setting and be prepared for growth and testing actions. Proper? So agility is a key and the primary issue.
The second is by shifting to the cloud, you are additionally liberating most of the newest applied sciences that the cloud comes up with and the supplier has to supply. Issues like capability and the power to scale up and down your assets and companies in line with your small business wants and fluctuations are an enormous assist from a expertise facet. That method you’ll be able to ship customer-centered options quicker and extra effectively than a lot of our airline clients and opponents.
And the final one is, in fact, your price saving facet and the operational effectivity. By shifting away from the legacy techniques, we are able to scale back loads of capex [capital expenditure]. Like, say for instance, I needn’t spend cash on investing in {hardware} and spend assets to handle these {hardware} and knowledge heart operations, particularly in Hong Kong the place human assets are fairly costly and scarce to seek out. It is rather vital that I depend on these kinds of applied sciences to handle these optimally. These are among the key facets that we see from a cloud adoption perspective.
Megan: Implausible. And it sounds prefer it’s been a a number of 12 months course of to this point. So after what feels like fairly heavy funding in the case of shifting legacy {hardware} on-prem techniques to the cloud. What’s your strategy now to adapting your IT operations off the again of that?
Rajeev: Precisely. That’s, type of, simply based mostly early in my transformation journey, however yeah, completely. By shifting to the cloud, it’s simply not concerning the {hardware}, however it’s additionally about how your operations and your processes align with this altering expertise and new capabilities. And, for instance, by adopting extra agile and scalable strategy to managing IT infrastructures and purposes as effectively. Additionally leveraging the information and insights that the cloud allows. To attain this, the basic facet of that is how one can revisit and wonderful tune your IT service administration processes, and that’s the place your core of IT operations have been constructed prior to now. And to handle that correctly we just lately, I feel, over the past three years we had been taking a look at implementing a brand new IT service administration answer, which is constructed on a product known as ServiceNow. So they’re constructed on the core ITIL processes framework to assist us handle the service administration, the operations administration, and asset administration.
These are among the capabilities which we rolled out with the assistance of our companions like Infosys in order that it may present a framework to wonderful tune and optimize IT processes. And we additionally adopted issues like DevOps and DevSecOps as a result of what now we have additionally observed is the processes like ITIL, which was very heavy over the previous couple of years round help actions can be shifting. So we wished to undertake a few of these growth practices into the help and operations features to be extra agile by shifting left a few of these capabilities. And on this journey, Infosys has been our key companion, not solely on the cloud transformation aspect, but additionally on implementation of ServiceNow, which is our key service administration software the place they supplied us end-to-end help ranging from the planning section or the preliminary conceptual section and in addition into the design and growth and in addition to the deployment and upkeep. We have not accomplished this journey and it is nonetheless a challenge that’s at the moment ongoing, and by 2025 we must always be capable of full this efficiently throughout the enterprise.
Megan: Fascinating. It is an terrible lot of change occurring. I imply, there have to be an inner shift, subsequently, that comes with cloud transformation too, I think about. I’m wondering, what’s your strategy been to up skilling your crew to assist it excel on this new method of working?
Rajeev: Yeah, completely. And that’s all the time the toughest half. You’ll be able to change your expertise and processes is however altering your folks, that is all the time hardest and the toughest bit. And primarily that is all about change administration, and that has been considered one of our struggles in our early a part of the cloud transformation journey. What we did is we invested lots when it comes to uplifting our conventional infrastructure crew. All the standard expertise groups must undergo that studying curve in adopting cloud expertise early in our challenge. And we additionally supplied loads of coaching packages, together with a few of our cloud companions had been in a position to up talent and practice these assets.
However the important thing variations that we’re seeing is even after offering all these coaching and upskilling packages, we may see that there was loads of resistance and loads of doubts in folks’s thoughts about how cloud goes to assist the group. And the most effective half is what we did is we included these crew members into our challenge in order that they get the hands-on expertise. And as soon as they begin seeing the advantages round these applied sciences, there was no trying again. And the crew was in a position to fully embrace the cloud applied sciences to the purpose that we nonetheless have a standard expertise crew who’s supporting the remaining {hardware} and the servers of the world, however they’re additionally very eager to shift throughout the road and undertake and embrace the cloud expertise. However it’s been fairly a journey for us.
Megan: That is nice to listen to that you have managed to deliver them together with you. And I suppose it would be remiss of me if we’re speaking about embracing new applied sciences to not discuss AI, though nonetheless in its early phases in most industries. I’m wondering how is Cathay Pacific approaching AI adoption as effectively?
Rajeev: Positive. I feel nowadays none of those conversations could be full with out speaking about AI and gen AI. We began this early exploratory section early into the sport, particularly on this a part of the world. However for us, the bottom line is approaching this based mostly on the shopper’s ache factors and enterprise wants after which we work backward to determine what sort of AI is greatest appropriate or related to us. In Cathay, at the moment, we concentrate on three essential forms of AI. One is in fact conversational AI. Basically, it’s a type of an inner and exterior chatbot. Our chatbot, we name it Vera, serves clients straight and may deal with about 50% of the inquiries efficiently. And nearly two weeks again, we upgraded the LLM with a brand new mannequin, the chatbot with a brand new mannequin, which is ready to be extra environment friendly and far more responsive when it comes to the human work. In order that’s one a part of the AI that we closely invested on.
Second is RPA, or robotic course of automation, particularly what you are seeing is throughout the pandemic and post-Covid period, there may be restricted assets obtainable, particularly in Hong Kong and throughout our provide chain. So RPA or the robotic processes helps to automate mundane repetitive duties, which does not solely fill the useful resource hole, however it additionally straight enhances the worker expertise. And to this point in Cathay, now we have a few hundred bots in manufacturing serving varied enterprise models, serving roughly 30,000 hours yearly of human exercise. So that is the second half.
The third one is round ML and it is the gen AI. So like our digital crew or the information science crew has developed about 70-plus ML fashions in Cathay that turned the group knowledge into insights or actionable gadgets. These fashions assist us to make a greater resolution. For instance, what meals to be loaded into the plane and particular routes, when it comes to what amount and what sort of product affords we promote to clients, and together with the fare loading and the pricing of our passenger in addition to a cargo bay area. There’s loads of exploration that’s being finished on this area as effectively. And a few examples I may relate is in the event you ever occur to come back to Hong Kong, subsequent time on the airport, you possibly can hear the general public announcement system and that’s additionally AI-powered just lately. Previously, our workers used to manually make these bulletins and now it has been moved away and has been moved into AI-powered voice expertise in order that we might be constant in our announcement.
Megan: Oh, incredible. I will must hear for it subsequent time I am at Hong Kong airport. And you’ve got talked about this subject a few occasions within the dialog. Look, after we’re speaking about cloud modernization, cybersecurity is usually a roadblock to agility, I assume, if it is not managed successfully. So may you additionally inform us in slightly extra element how Cathay Pacific has built-in safety into its digital transformation journey, significantly with the adoption of growth safety operations practices that you have talked about?
Rajeev: Yeah, that is an fascinating one. I take care of cybersecurity in addition to the infrastructure companies. With each of those essential features round my hand, I have to be conscious of each facets, proper? Sure, it is an fascinating one and it has modified over the time period, and I totally perceive why cybersecurity practices must be inflexible as a result of there may be loads of compliance and it’s a extremely regulated perform, but when one thing goes unsuitable, as a CISO we’re held accountable for these faults. I can perceive why the crew is so inflexible of their practices. And I additionally perceive from a enterprise perspective it might be perceived as a highway blocker to agility.
One of many key facets that now we have finished in Cathay is now we have been following DevOps for fairly quite a few years, and just lately, I feel within the final two years, we began implementing DevSecOps into our STLC [software testing life cycle]. And what it primarily means is slightly than the core cybersecurity crew being liable for most of the safety testing and people kinds of facets, we wish to shift left a few of these capabilities into the builders in order that the individuals who develop the code now are held accountable for the testing and the standard of the output. And so they’re additionally enabled when it comes to the cybersecurity course of. Proper?
After all, after we began off this journey, there was an enormous resistance on the safety crew itself as a result of they do not actually belief the builders making an attempt to do the testing or the testing outputs. However over a time period with the introduction of assorted instruments and automation that’s put in place, that is now getting right into a matured stage whereby it’s now enabling the upfront groups to handle all of the facets of safety, like menace modeling, code scanning, and the vulnerability testing. However on the finish, the safety groups could be nonetheless validating and act as a type of a gatekeeper, however in a really mild and inbuilt processes. And this fashion we are able to make sure that our cloud purposes are safe by design and by default they will ship them quicker and extra reliably to our clients. And on this whole course of, proper?
Previously, safety has been all the time perceived as an accountability of the cybersecurity crew. And by enabling the builders of the safety facets, now you might have a greater possession within the group in the case of cybersecurity and it’s constructing a greater cybersecurity tradition throughout the group. And that, to me, is a key as a result of from a safety facet, we all the time say that individuals are your first line of protection and sometimes they’re additionally the final line of protection. I am glad that by these processes we’re in a position to enhance that maturity within the group.
Megan: Completely. And also you talked about that clearly cybersecurity is one thing that is actually vital to loads of clients these days as effectively. I puzzled in the event you may provide another examples too of how your digital transformation has improved that buyer expertise in different methods?
Rajeev: Yeah, positively. Perhaps I can quote a couple of examples, Megan. One is round our pilots. You’d’ve seen once you journey via the airport or within the plane that pilots normally carry a briefcase after they load the flight, and you might be usually in all probability questioning what precisely they carry. Principally, that comprises a bunch of papers. It comprises your climate charts, your navigation routes, and the flight plans, the crew particulars. It is a complete stack of paper that they’ve to hold on every flight. And in Cathay, by digitization, now we have automated that of their processes, the place now they carry an iPad as an alternative of a bunch of papers or briefing pack. In order that iPad consists of all these softwares that’s required for the captain to function the flight in a legally and a secure method.
Paperless cockpit operation is nothing new. Many airways have tried to do this, however I ought to say that Cathay has been on the forefront in really establishing a paperless operation, the place most of the different airways have proven nice curiosity in utilizing our software program. That’s one facet from a fly crew perspective. Second, from a buyer perspective, now we have an app known as Buyer 360, which is a very in-house developed mannequin, which has all the shopper direct transactions, surveys, or how they work together on the varied checkpoints with our crew or on the boarding. You may have all this knowledge feed of a specific buyer the place our brokers or the cabin crew can perceive the shopper’s sentiment and their response to service restoration motion.
Say for instance, the shopper calls up a name heart and ask for a refund or miles compensation. Primarily based on the historic utilization, we may prioritize the most effective motion to enhance the shopper satisfaction. We’re linked to all these fashions and allow the frontline groups in order that they will use this after they interact with the shopper. An instance on the airport, our brokers will be capable of see loads of helpful insights concerning the clients past the essential info just like the flight itinerary or the web procuring historical past on the Cathay store, et cetera, in order that they will see the general satisfaction degree and get extra insights on beneficial actions to revive or enhance the shopper satisfaction degree. That is mainly utilized by our frontline brokers on the airport, our cabin crew in addition to all of the airport crew, and the shopper crew in order that they’ve nice consistency within the service it doesn’t matter what touchpoint the shoppers are selecting to contact us.
Megan: Implausible.
Rajeev: So these are a couple of instance trying from a again finish in addition to from a entrance line of the crew perspective.
Megan: Yeah, completely. I am positive there’s a couple of folks listening who had been questioning what pilots carry in that suitcase. So thanks a lot for clearing that up. And eventually, Rajeev, I assume trying forward, what rising applied sciences are you excited to discover additional going ahead to boost digital capabilities and buyer expertise within the years to come back?
Rajeev: Yeah, so we are going to proceed to discover AI and gen AI functionality, which has been the highlight for the final 18 months or so, be it for the passenger and even for the workers internally. We’ll proceed to discover that. However aside from AI, one different facet I consider may go at nice methods across the AR and the VR capabilities, mainly digital actuality. We’ve got been exploring that for fairly a while, however we consider that it’ll proceed to be a mainstream expertise that may change the best way we serve the shopper. Say for instance, in Cathay, we have already got a VR cave for our cabin crew coaching, digital actuality capabilities, and in a couple of months’ time, we are literally launching a studying facility based mostly on VR the place we may be capable of present extra immersive studying expertise for the cabin crew and later for the opposite staff.
Principally, earlier than a cabin crew is ready to function a flight, they undergo a rigorous coaching in Cathay Metropolis in our headquarters, mainly to know methods to serve our passengers, methods to deal with an emergency scenario, these kinds of facets. And in lots of circumstances, we journey the crew from varied outports or varied international locations again into Hong Kong to coach them and equip them for these coaching actions. You’ll be able to think about that prices us some huge cash and energy to deliver all of the folks again to Hong Kong. And by having VR capabilities, we’re ready to do this wherever on this planet with out having that bodily presence. That is one space the place it will go mainstream.
The second is round different enterprise models. Other than the cabin crew, we’re additionally experimenting the VR on the shopper entrance. For instance, we’re in a position to launch a brand new enterprise class seat product we name the Aria Suite by subsequent 12 months. And VR expertise will assist the shoppers to visualise the seat particulars with out them in a position to get on board. So with out them flying, even earlier than that, they’re in a position to expertise a product on the bottom. At our bodily store in Hong Kong, clients can now use a digital actuality expertise to visualise how our designer furnishings and life-style merchandise match within the sitting rooms. The record of VR capabilities goes very lengthy. The record goes on. And that is additionally an amazing and vital approach to interact with our clients particularly.
Megan: Wow. Feels like some thrilling stuff on the best way. Thanks ever a lot, Rajeev, for speaking us via that. That was Rajeev Nair, the overall supervisor of IT infrastructure and safety at Cathay Pacific, who I spoke with from an unexpectedly sunny Brighton, England.
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