Smartwings is the largest Czech airline and one of the fastest growing airlines in Central Europe. It belongs to the Smartwings Group. The Smartwings Group consists of eight companies. Passenger transport represents the largest business portfolio of Smartwings Group which is perfomed by two business brands Smartwings and Czech Airlines.
Czech Airlines has been on the market since 1923 and is one of the five oldest airlines in the world. It is one of the founding members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and since 2001 it has also been a member of the SkyTeam global alliance of airlines.
After the airline split from Český aeroholding, a new IT infrastructure was created with an MS Azure cloud solution. The team sought a modern tool for management of IT services, which would go elegantly with the new environment. ALVAO was a natural choice.
After the separation Czech airlines from its parent company, Český aeroholding, it was necessary to build the airline’s information technology from scratch. The IT management had an uneasy decision to make: Should we build a new hardware infrastructure for substantial amounts? Do we have enough time for preparation and deployment? Do we know what scope of resources the company will need in the future? All of these questions led to a decision to build a new infrastructure in a flexible cloud environment.
“We are an airline, we do not want to resolve hardware issues,” explains Juraj Liška, ICT Director. “The use of cloud technology gives us greater flexibility, helps us save costs and facilitates connection of our workplaces worldwide,” he adds. A clear winner emerged from research of available solutions – Microsoft Azure – which best supports the needs with the broad software base from the airline.
Together with the new cloud infrastructure, it was of course necessary to set up processes for management of IT services, administration of requirements and resolution of incidents.
In terms of technology, logistics and personnel issues, the aviation industry represents a true challenge. The IT team in Czech Airlines ensures the operation of complex technological infrastructure, which supports all areas of operation. IT department resolves issues related to crucial technology and technical ensuring, along with cooperation with partners and support for end users located at various workplaces worldwide. This includes approximately 300 employees in back office and 600 flight crew members. So that such a demanding environment can be supported, it needs flexible and a fully-fledged tool for process control.
“The basic criterion for us was simplicity. The simplicity of deployment and use. We quickly put ALVAO into operation. Everything went smoothly, thanks to how easily the system integrates into Exchange and Active Directory. For users, the tool is intuitive, so time is not lost with reading the manual. At the same time, we can use more complex functions based on our needs. We do not want to bend our processes based on the tool. We will create an optimal process and the tool can adapt to the process. In it, ALVAO is absolutely satisfactory,” says Juraj Liška.
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