Business Value Case Study - Posted 12/14/2006
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Melbourne Airport Finds Clear Skies with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
With more people travelling by air than ever before, airports need to ensure they operate more efficiently. Reviewing its own business practices, Melbourne Airport identified a number of processes that were being stymied by inefficient workflow and a reliance on archaic technologies. Reporting systems were still based around pen-and-paper surveys that were irregular and difficult to organize. In addition, executive meetings were grinding some workflow to a halt. Working with Microsoft partner Unique World, Melbourne Airport trialled a solution based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 that addressed all areas of concern. Independent analyst BearingPoint measured the results and found the solution could improve decision making, streamline workflows, enhance collaboration and compliance and save time and money.
Situation
While the promise of the ‘paperless office’ has not materialized as quickly as we might have hoped, the average work environment has experienced vast improvement in workflow and efficiency thanks to information technology. Although it is a major hub for freight and passengers entering and leaving Australia, Melbourne Airport adhered to a number of older business processes that severely inhibited workflow, efficiency and, to a lesser degree, security. “We found ourselves with a few systems that were heavily paper-based,” says Peter Loosley, IT Services Manager for Melbourne Airport. “The risk of human error and the additional time spent on manual processing that was inherently inefficient were things we needed to address.” The airport identified three key processes that needed urgent attention.
Building Approvals
Building approvals cover all construction and maintenance work carried out within airport grounds. Currently, building activity consent requests are filled out on hard copy request forms and handed to the Building Approvals Officer who begins the approvals process. This process involves a series of face-to-face and Executive Board meetings involving up to 35 people. Documentation is difficult to trace and, if questions arise that require additional meetings, the whole process may take months for a simple approval. “We must follow the building approvals process for any work done around the airport grounds, whether it’s as simple as painting whites line on the road for a taxi rank or as complex as extending a runway,” says Loosley. “The Building Approvals Officer is solely responsible for the requests filing system, which puts extra risk into what is already a manual and long-winded bureaucratic process.”
Retail Audit
Melbourne Airport is home to more than 150 businesses, employing roughly 11,000 people. These outlets operate under strict guidelines and Melbourne Airport employs auditors regularly to assess their compliance. The current system involves an auditor walking around all the retail businesses every six months, checking through around 100 audit criteria across 10 categories. Auditing checklists are paper-based forms and the auditor must create tasks manually for follow up. “Auditors would bring back reports to the main office where they would enter the data off the clipboard into a variety of reports, spreadsheets and Microsoft Office Access databases,” says Loosley. “These systems did not integrate, so we never had a holistic view of compliance issues in the retail outlets.” As a result, compliance breaches often went unchecked until the next audit cycle.
Operations Process
The operations process captures any incidents at the airport, such as unattended baggage, for follow up and general monitoring. However, this process used a variety of disparate systems to log incidents. This meant airport management often could not see immediately the connections between related events, and small issues seemed larger than they were by generating many records across the different systems. “All in all, we had too many processes across too many systems,” says Loosley. “Something had to change.”
Solution
For some time, Melbourne Airport had been talking to Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Unique World, about the possible use of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2003. “I attended Microsoft Tech.Ed 2006 in Boston and saw the presentation on Office SharePoint Server 2007,” says Loosley. “The changes Microsoft had made were very impressive. When I got back, I spoke to Unique World about Office SharePoint Server 2007.” Unique World gave Melbourne Airport the chance to participate in the rapid adoption program of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, an offer the airport quickly accepted. “We saw the rapid adoption program as a great way to show Melbourne Airport the benefits it could see from a wide deployment of Office SharePoint Server 2007,” says Eddie Geller, Chief Executive Officer of Unique World. Working with the airport, Unique World developed a pilot project that would, with three scenarios, deal with the key concerns Melbourne Airport had highlighted. The initial scenario dealt with the building approvals process. The solution devised by Unique World used Office SharePoint Server 2007 to allow building activity requests to be submitted online using a standard electronic form. Using Microsoft Windows® Workflow Foundation (WWF), data is then routed automatically to managers involved in the approvals process. Rather than needing to arrange meetings, they can comment or request further information online. Office SharePoint Server 2007 also tracks the request, so key personnel can see how far each application has progressed in the approvals process and what actions are pending. The second scenario dealt with the retail audit process. Unique World used Office SharePoint Server 2007 to create an electronic survey that ran on mobile devices. Auditors can now submit reports over the wireless network. The system then automatically generates emails that are sent to the correct personnel and automatically flagged for follow up. The third scenario of the pilot streamlined the airport’s incident management process. This stage is still being tested. However, the similarity of the incident management and retail audit processes give Melbourne Airport confidence in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 solution.
Benefits
“I think the greatest benefit for Melbourne Airport is that Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be used across the entire business rather than just for document management or departmental collaboration,” says Geller. “The solutions we’re developing look at forms, workflows, document management, intranet and mobility – it can be a whole integrated solution.” Microsoft engaged independent business analyst BearingPoint to measure the impact of the Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 solution. BearingPoint reported that the pilot project demonstrated a number of financial and strategic benefits.
Improved Business Processes Save Time and Money
BearingPoint analyzed the initial stages of the pilot project and identified some solid operational benefits. Using a standardized form for building approvals has reduced the time taken to complete a request from four hours to five minutes, saving more than three hours a week. In addition, the eight hours taken to organize and hold executive meetings for approvals has been completely eliminated. “In the first tests we did with the new building approvals system, we went from a one-week turnaround to just four hours,” says Loosley. For the retail audit process, BearingPoint found that 80 minutes of data entry from the paper-based survey forms has dropped to five minutes. The process of filling out the form has been simplified and the use of automated workflows has reduced the time taken to complete manual processes from 175 minutes to 29 minutes. The time taken to notify management of compliance breaches and to arrange follow ups has dropped from eight hours to two.
Better Asset Leverage Increases Productivity
Beyond the direct financial savings, BearingPoint identified a wide range of strategic benefits the Office SharePoint Server 2007 solution could bring to Melbourne Airport. The improvements to the building approvals process will help ensure the airport maximizes the return from its recent A$350 million property development investment, which will in turn significantly enhance its capacity for growth. Increased retail compliance will make for a safer work environment and a safer airport all round, reducing the chance of costly litigation and the associated bad publicity. Finally, centralized data and documentation will allow management staff to make more informed decisions. It also increases job satisfaction and productivity for staff. This advantage is increased by the integration of Office SharePoint Server 2007 with other office products. “Our team is very comfortable with the Microsoft Office system and we wanted something they didn’t need to learn from scratch,” says Loosley. “We’ve had an amazingly positive response from the pilot project.”
Compliance Greatly Enhanced
Melbourne Airport must adhere to a number of corporate and government compliance requirements. These include occupational health and safety regulations for airport staff and retail outlets; food safety, building and construction guidelines and procedures; and aviation industry safety standards, to name just a few. “Not only has the process saved days of work, but compliance breaches are no longer likely to fall through the cracks,” says Loosley. “The retail audit process is similar to many checks we perform, so we should be able to leverage the solution across the whole airport.” Improved workflows, standardized processes, better record keeping and a tracking system for following up breaches will greatly increase Melbourne Airport’s capacity for meeting its responsibilities thanks to Office SharePoint Server 2007. “Unique World has created a solution that was perfectly suited to our requirements,” says Loosley. “We’re extremely keen to roll out this solution across the whole business as early as possible in 2007.”
Microsoft Office System
The Microsoft Office System is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact. For more information about the Microsoft Office System, go to: www.microsoft.com/office
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com For more information about Unique World products and services, call (613) 8807 3000 or visit the Web site at: www.uniqueworld.net For more information about Melbourne Airport products and services, call (613) 9297 1600 or visit the Web site at: www.melbourne-airport.com.au
