The deployment of 10,000+ endpoints took this airline's uptime to an all-time high.
CUSTOMER SINCE: 2013
DESCRIPTION: Leading Global Airline
INITIAL INQUIRY: Equipment Upgrade
SERVICES:
PRODUCTS:
THE PROBLEM
Each year, a leading, global airline accommodates nearly 200 million travelers. Providing safe, high-quality travel to that many people takes a workforce dedicated to service, the desire to continuously improve and innovate and a technology partner to properly equip the organization with the right solutions.
For years, the airline worked directly with OEMs to manage the fleet of technology supporting its “below-wing” (back-of-house/maintenance) operations. However, as the years went by, the airline grew increasingly unhappy with the service, especially regarding long delays within its break-fix program.
THE SOLUTION
In 2013, the airline reached out to TRG with two intentions. First, finding a reliable partner to upgrade the legacy devices used below-wing and second, breathing new life into aspects of their break-fix program, including spares pool management and obsolete hardware support. For units that were out-of-warranty or covered under our in-warranty repair authorizations, we performed the repair ourselves. If the item was in-warranty or we were not authorized, we managed the logistics to and from the OEM. We also provided spares pool management – maintaining and managing a pool of ready-to-ship devices from our state-of-the-art facilities.
TRG supported a successful global deployment of new devices, and as a part of the repair program overhaul, implemented our online asset management portal, ServiceHub. The airline was most impressed by the visibility of information and analytics, which had not been available from their previous provider.
Eventually, this led to the creation of a customized version of ServiceHub specific to the airline, which provided the same access and visibility of information related to equipment provided by other vendors. This meant the airline could manage not only the devices deployed by us, but also other manufacturers and service providers. This was an extensive undertaking — requiring more than a full year to develop and launch — as the airline had nearly 100,000 IT assets from more than 100 different manufacturers that were brought into the platform.
Today, the airline has full control of their custom ServiceHub implementation, managing IT assets across the world anytime, anywhere from a single pane of glass. The portal even contains a routing matrix for the airline to request repairs to broken or malfunctioning devices from any service provider — our platform opens the repair, and devices that TRG manages are shipped to our service centers, and devices managed by other service providers are sent to the appropriate destination. Anyone with portal access can track the ticket at any time.
That project served as a launching point for several more initiatives between the airline and TRG, the next being related to the devices used in baggage loading operations. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that every bag loaded onto a plane has a corresponding passenger. The airline maintains more than 8,000 handhelds for baggage handling and loading across its North American facilities, and the entire fleet needed to be updated. We took this on by deploying new handheld mobile computers and their corresponding servers, as well as configuring a new release of the associated applications. Even more challenging, these activities were completed across three divisions of the company simultaneously.
Building on our history of success, it has been a natural progression for the airline to entrust us with additional projects, including the repair of RFID readers and equipment used in cargo, baggage loading and de-icing.
Most recently, the airline engaged us to complete the deployment of an asset management solution for its six North American hubs. This project involved iPads issued to pilots while traveling. The airline lacked a tracking system for these devices, occasionally leading to lost equipment, as well as pilots with multiple devices. We assisted the airline with the procurement and deployment of secure locker systems that provide a check-in/check-out functionality managed through the pilot’s employee badges.
THE RESULT
Over the course of our relationship with the airline, we’ve deployed more than 10,000 new devices across the United States, Mexico, AsiaPac and Europe. In this time, we’ve established ourselves as more than just a vendor - but an extension of the in-house team. We haven’t just tackled problems the airline was aware of, we’ve taken a collaborative, proactive approach to think outside the box and identify services and technologies that could prevent future problems. We support multiple applications and device types above and below wing.
Is your business experiencing similar issues? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.
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About TRG
TRG is a global, privately owned managed services provider that manages the full lifecycle of every enterprise endpoint. Our mission is to lead the future of enterprise technology by driving bold endpoint solutions with a success-or-else approach.