Skip to content
Insights

Customer-centricity and finance’s role in reaching the third horizon

Taking the stage at IATA’s World Financial Symposium (WFS) in Doha, Philip Fernandes, Accelya’s SVP of Product Strategy (Settle Group), explained that the ambition of the third horizon is to allow airlines to move into an era of high-performance retailing. To do that, Philip proposed that finance teams put the customer at the center of their operations. If you couldn’t attend the event and want to learn more, don’t worry. We have summarized Philip’s position below. Read on to discover more and watch a video recording of his panel session at the event called “How to make it work? The providers’ point of view”.

 

“We must go from being process-driven to being continuously customer-centric. You start putting your passengers in the center and see what benefits them, how you can make their life easy,” said Philip.  

Achieving this goal requires a different view of system architecture. Instead of looking at offer, order, payment, fulfillment, and settlement  as separate steps, they should be regarded as one big integrated work capable of supporting new and dynamic products. 

“It’s about tying up all of these together, working together to get one big collaborative end-to-end process, so that what was the intention in the front-end, is being delivered at the back-end.”

End-to-end retailing enables airlines to make the most of real-time data. The key to unlocking real-time reporting lies in improving data acquisition from the front end. The capabilities required for processing are already in place and access to real-time data is no longer a limitation.   

“If front-end systems can provide the data that is required, it is easy to do the entire real-time processing and posting to ERP… It’s about being able to take control of your revenues and liability in real-time.”

With an Order Management System capable of bringing together accurate data into downstream systems, airlines can benefit from faster settlement, improved cash flow processes, and potentially new opportunities such as inter-modal and third-party services.

 

Accelya’s experience of operating such systems in live environments has been encouraging. According to Philip, the new standards necessary to implement simplified unified systems, work.

Philip left delegates with a strong message about the potential for the future of order accounting.

“In short, it is not just revenue accounting getting evolved to order accounting. It is the entire ecosystem that is changing. And as part of the ecosystem, we need to think about how the world will look without tickets, without EMDs, and even without PNRs. A lot of things are built around PNRs (not only in full-service airlines but even in the LCCs) but you need to think of a world outside of all of these things.”  

To hear more from Philip Fernandes and watch the whole panel, click  on the video below:

 


Thank you for your interest in Air Transformation Lab. This chapter on high-performance retailing includes podcasts, thought-leadership blogs, and customer testimonials that will inspire your journey ahead.

Latest insights

Other Air Transformation Lab content

Blogs

Technological changes typically bring opportunities for airlines. Maximizing those opportunities requires that every team that will be impacted by the change is involved from the start.

Bringing the finance team out from “behind the scenes” in the planning and integration phase could be the key to unlocking the high-performance retailing potential of ONE Order, writes Muffi Lokhandwala, Business Development for Financial Solutions at Accelya.

READ

Videos

At the World Financial Symposium in Doha in September, Accelya got together with airline finance leaders under one roof – after more than two years! We caught up with them to understand their perspectives on the role of finance in retailing transformation.

Watch the videos where our ‘giants’ of finance give their take on their role in ensuring the success of retailing transformation in their airlines.

READ

Videos

At the recent World Financial Symposium in Doha, airline leaders discussed the opportunities for accounting in a world of offers and orders. Qantas’ Head of Revenue Accounting, Konda Reddy, and Accelya’s Philip Fernandes took the stage to set the scene for their industry colleagues. If you’re in airline finance and couldn’t attend the session, we have rounded up the key takeaways in this Air Transformation Lab article.

READ

Blogs

Accounting plays a key role in delivering airlines to the future world of offers and orders. But how can an airline’s finance team reconcile new ways with back-end operations – while doing business-as-usual?

In this Air Transformation Lab article, Muffi Lokhandwala explores the role of order accounting in the journey to high-performance retailing.

READ
subscribe