RISE OF THE CITIZEN DEVELOPER
The airline that lets everyone create
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, businesses had a small window of time to make crucial decisions. For the travel industry, this decision-making process was more difficult than most. With a global shutdown of most services and staff spread out across the world, options felt limited, and time was critical.
Some businesses discovered a silver-lining to the inescapable pressure, and began reacting with the agility and speed usually reserved at start-ups.
Etihad Airways was one of these businesses. By capitalizing on the momentum of an ongoing transformation project with Microsoft Teams, they were able to galvanize their staff and utilize the diverse talent in the business. And with access to powerful developer tools, anyone with an idea was able to make it happen. Etihad Airways embraced the citizen developer and the results were fantastic.
With individuals empowered to innovate, many processes were automated, leading to a productivity increase of 30%.
Giving teams the ability to create bespoke tools through Power Apps enabled employees to streamline and improve their day-to-day working. After all, no one knows the productivity issues around specific tasks better than those who perform them every day. With individuals empowered to innovate, many processes were automated, leading to a productivity increase of 30%.
“Anyone who develops the capability to build Power Apps has the power to create one at Etihad,” says Dev. “Once they’ve got something built, we work with them to realize the functionality that the app requires and support them in securely accessing and utilizing the necessary data systems, as well as publishing it to our environment.”
International unification
Etihad Airways initial goal for digital transformation was to unite their employees by breaking down regional and departmental silos. It was essential that everyone had the same experience and opportunity throughout the business, to ensure ideas had the same chance to take off.;
"The diversity of our workforce delivers a fantastic level of cognitive abilities, in terms of how people think, how they communicate, and what drives them," says Abe Dev, Digital Technology and Innovation Value Stream Lead at the Etihad Aviation Group Airline Operations & Mid-Field Terminal Complex Program. "Etihad prides itself on the innovation and thinking outside of the box that comes from this.";
But with a disparate suite of technology, things had to change before they could benefit from the in-house talent. "We had four separate video conferencing and collaboration tools, as well as a separate customer relationship management tool," recalls Dev. "What we really lacked was standardization."
From airport to living room
"What Microsoft 365 gives us is the opportunity to collaborate between multiple task points. This includes not just cabin crew and people sitting in the operational command center, but people sitting in the lounge or at home," says Dev. "What we've done with Microsoft Teams and Power Apps represents a real shift in how we communicate, how reporting works, and the ways in which employees can build upon the tools they have at their disposal.“
"We're using Teams as a departmental collaboration and productivity hub," adds Venkatakrishnan Balasubramanian, Manager of Learning and Development at Etihad Airways. "Every employee group within the department has their own channel within Teams, and from those channels, our people can access their documents, training materials, and any apps relevant to the group's work."
Power Apps enabled Etihad Airways to create a solution for one department, which then impacted many other business areas. One app became an integral part of facility management, combining housekeeping requirements, office moves, cabin crew accommodation, or maintenance issues. By consolidating requests from all over the business into one place, the facilities department has replaced phone calls and emails for an end-to-end ticketing system.
"Today, Microsoft Teams is the centerpiece of nearly everything we do, eight hours a day,"
Standardizing agility
Unsurprisingly, Etihad was very much an office-based organization, so when COVID-19 hit, they had to react fast or risk losing the traction, their digital transformation had achieved so far.
"This is all new to us," says Dev. "We had no way of collaborating with multiple working groups in real-time. We couldn't work from a unified platform, share our screens, or see changes as they're made in real-time. That real-time collaboration, which everyone at Etihad now has access to—that's what Teams has given us.“
Teams changed from being a collaboration tool to connect people in different offices to this new digital workplace's living hub. Within a matter of days, 70 percent of Etihad's employees – everyone who was able to do so – began working from home full time. "Today, Microsoft Teams is the centerpiece of nearly everything we do, eight hours a day," says Dev. "I don't think we would have been able to work from home without it, honestly."
Etihad has been able to switch to a remote working model with an impressive seamlessness. But without the engaged and energized talent in the business, the course to success wouldn’t have been as easy to achieve. The pandemic might have escalated change, but its cultural shift within the business that ensures it’s here to stay.
