United Airlines And IBM Create Powerful Customer Relationship Management System

Market Wire, 20050229

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that United Airlines (NYSE: UAL) has chosen IBM technology to deploy a powerful customer relationship management (CRM) system to position the airline to improve its customer service and increase operational efficiencies.

Running IBM's DB2 database software on IBM eServer Cluster 1600 servers, the new system will help United Airlines manage customer and flight information across its entire organization, spanning 27 countries and managing all its flights. The enterprise-wide deployment was implemented with the help of IBM Global Services.

The new CRM system is built as part of an enterprise-wide data warehouse that will eventually manage more than six terabytes of data. Business Intelligence capabilities will be used to identify trends in passenger flight destinations so the airline can more efficiently coordinate and plan flight routes, increase efficiency in managing bookings, and enable one-on-one CRM.

IBM recently completed the first phase of the deployment, integrating customer and operations data representing more than one terabyte of information. This integrated data is then leveraged from the reservation centers and United.com and will be utilized by thousands of United Airlines employees to better manage its customer accounts and improve operations and planning.

For example, employees can search through terabytes of data to view and examine variables such as a customer's most frequently traveled route, or type of travel -- business or pleasure -- to enable more personalized offers and promotions. Prior to this solution, the company was not able to easily combine these massive streams of data, which are housed in disparate systems.

"We saw DB2 database software as the best value, with the best price and performance ratio. We were confident that IBM could deliver a complete, integrated solution that could scale to meet our infrastructure demands," said Eric Dean, CIO for United Airlines. "When we're finished, United Airlines will be well positioned as the carrier to provide more efficient operations and responsive customer policies.

Soaring to New Heights

Future plans to improve customer service will include adding data from call centers, airport ticketing counters and flight kiosks along with other operational and planning centers. The company expects the DB2 data warehouse to exceed six terabytes of information within the next 18 months. By way of comparison, there are eight terabytes of information in the Library of Congress. In 2001, eleven terabytes of e-mail were sent worldwide.

With these enhanced capabilities to better satisfy customers and attract additional business, United Airlines projects full payback from its data warehouse investment in one to two years.

About United Airlines

United Airlines offers nearly 1,700 flights a day on a route network that spans the globe. News releases and other information about United Airlines can be found at the company's Website, www.united.com.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with more than 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM creates, develops and manufactures the industry's most advanced information technologies, including customer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices, and microelectronics. The fastest way to get more information about IBM is through the IBM home page, at www.ibm.com. For more information about IBM's Data Management Solutions, please visit www.software.ibm.com/data. For more information about IBM's offerings for the travel industry, visit www.ibm.com/industries/travel.>-Indicates a trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation