INFORM IT System helps Finnair – Swissport business transition
07 December 2012
When Finnair took the decision to concentrate on their core business and sell their Helsinki-based ground handling operation to Swissport, one of the challenges was to separate the operation from Finnair’s catering and customer services departments. The three departments were closely interlinked by one configuration, server and database in the use of INFORM’s GroundStar IT-based resource planning, rostering and deployment. “The key factor for success was that the Swissport IT environment was compliant with the Finnair one and, of course, the GroundStar IT experience that the Swissport team brought in,” said Tero Laitinen, Director of IT at Finnair.
After a six-month period, Swissport and Finnair recently announced the completion of a successful migration. “We believe the experts involved on both sides, the excellent team work and the fact that the project goal was quite clear to everybody involved right from the beginning, were all key factors for success. A critical aspect was that there was no learning phase. After the cut-over everything had to be at least of the same quality and performance,” said Philipp Schlatter, Swissport’s Chief Technology Officer.
Today Swissport Finland includes about 600 employees, 100 electronic workstations and only one IT expert at Helsinki Airport. The heart of the GroundStar system, its data and server centre, is based in Zurich, which provides easy maintenance and support for Swissport. “The results of the migration to Swissport justify our decision to outsource what is not our core business. We now have a powerful partner who is able to maximize the efficiency of the operation and deliver high quality services, including the real-time data that we need for GS HubControl, our turn-around management system,” said Laitinen.
