Integration Solution
Air China, with more than ten subsidiaries domestically
and internationally, is China's biggest air carrier and boasts the
country's largest company assets and highest-throughput traffic
volume. At its headquarters in Beijing, thousands of computers run
various planning, finance, cargo transport, passenger transport,
ground service, operating management and aircrew management applications.
Many of these applications were provided by different suppliers,
or were developed internally, and are running on several different
platforms. 
Reduced Complexity
CIOs in large state-owned enterprises are faced with the challenge
of running and managing advanced computer systems. With existing
systems playing an increasingly important role in business operations,
they have become business critical to normal operations.
Owing to rapid developments within the global airline industry,
Air China needed to upgrade and maintain its business applications.
At the same time, the company wanted to move its key operations
to a single platform and a universal and standardized access interface.
The company hoped to reduce the complexity of all IT systems, thus
simplifying upgrades and management. They also wanted to enable
staff to access internal applications via the Internet from any
machine, anytime, through any network connection. In short, web-enabling
legacy applications had become a necessity for Air China.
No Disruption
Clearly, centralization of all applications and data was key to
the success of the project. With many existing applications having
originated from foreign suppliers, rewriting was not an option.
Retraining of staff, productivity and system stability were also
concerns.
Tarantella® Enterprise 3™ software
addressed all these issues at Air China. Not only has it allowed
the company to achieve its primary goal of data consolidation and
centralization, but the Tarantella software has improved network
access, increased productivity due to faster access and created
increased business opportunities.
A Business Landmark
With Tarantella Enterprise 3 software, Air China's IT management
has now centralized application systems such as Receive and Dispatch,
Cargo Transport, Passenger Transport, and Ground Service. This allows
managers to check data in real time at any moment instead of waiting
for reports from different system operators. It also provides different
departments such as marketing, cargo transport, ground service and
operations management with access to their respective business systems
and for the central IT department to manage that access. Thanks
to Tarantella, users at Air China now have instant, remote access
to applications over the web. Other business benefits include consolidated,
and often reduced, licensing costs for remote offices, as well as
significantly reduced client maintenance costs.
Thanks to Tarantella, users at Air China
now have instant, remote access to applications over the web.
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The Challenge
Air China needed to provide its staff with efficient
and secure access to a variety of existing business applications,
without expensive and time- consuming rewrites. The company also
did not want to have to retrain the staff on new interfaces.
The Solution
Consolidation and centralization of all applications
and data and provide standardized, secure access for remote offices.
Air China considers the solution to be a landmark in its business
development.
The Benefits
Operations are consolidated and centralized; staff
can securely access applications and data from remote offices; the
company experiences a very stable environment; lower system maintenance
costs; increased productivity; more efficient business practices.
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