London Heathrow airport has completed the largest transformation in its history. Supported by Capgemini and its Oracle consulting, the organisation has modernised its 20-year-old software infrastructure through the implementation of Oracle software. At the heart of the deployment were four key Oracle solutions:
- Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM)
- The Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC)
- Oracle Billing Revenue Management (BRM)
One of the biggest challenges was completing 80 different integrations, including solutions such as Jira and ServiceNow. To accomplish this, Capgemini used its Agile Innovation Platform (AIP), which helped accelerate the delivery and exploit the benefits of DevOps using Flexagon’s FlexDeploy DevOps platform.
The deployment was executed during the pandemic, bringing additional challenges to the program. The combined team still completed the complex deployment at an impressive pace.
Stephen Williams, Heathrow Transformation Programme Director, commented: “Because of the pandemic, we’ve had to fundamentally rethink how we organise ourselves, make decisions, and keep everyone connected remotely. Our industry has been severely impacted by the pandemic. We’ve had severe disruption, loss of resources, and of course a personal toll on so many colleagues; but through it all we still had a business-critical deadline to meet.
“Everyone from the Board, Executive Team and throughout the organisation rallied behind the programme. Our programme adjustments to the pandemic made our delivery twice as fast and efficient as we were before the pandemic began. Now we’re in a strong position to realise the fantastic capabilities and benefits the new Oracle Cloud platform can provide.”
The solution
Heathrow will leverage the seamless integration between HCM and ERP. Heathrow has around 3,000 direct employees, of whom 2,000 were put on furlough during the pandemic. The combined solution will help manage the entire employee life-cycle. Combined with ERP, which will provide finance, procurement and support for revenue generation activities, the solution will increase efficiency and improve decision making.
Heathrow has improved efficiencies across the organisation. For example, the Oracle BRM solution will help manage the airlines’ high volume of aeronautical billing transactions. Significantly Oracle Integration Cloud will enable many applications within the Heathrow software estate to connect with one another. This will help to eliminated manual duplication and reduce errors
Cormac Watters, Executive Vice President of Applications, Oracle EMEA, commented, “While the last 18 months have been challenging for the entire travel industry, it’s vital that it doesn’t stop innovating.
“Heathrow has a culture of progressiveness and innovation that has made it one of the frontrunners of the industry in Europe and globally, and with Oracle Cloud Applications, it now has an integrated platform, powered by the latest emerging technologies, to support its current and future needs.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
In some ways, the pandemic will have helped Heathrow. It has invested in Oracle Cloud Software, reviewed and updated its business processes during a quieter time. It will prepare it to reclaim the 80 million passengers it last saw in 2019. Beyond that, the solution will now give it the scalability needed if Heathrow 2.0 comes to fruition.
It is also a significant success story for the partnership of Capgemini and Oracle. They have successfully implemented a full suite of Fusion products, including complex integrations.
Steve Baldwin, Account Director at Capgemini, commented, “The transition to the Cloud is a significant undertaking. It is a testament to the strong and collaborative partnership that has been built between Capgemini and Heathrow that we were able to modernise such a complex IT estate so seamlessly during a period of significant change for the aviation industry.
“Since the programme went live, Heathrow has already attained significant benefits through IT optimisations, including being able to deliver an improved user experience for its employees.”
