A Tale of Two IS Projects. JetBlue and WestJet Essay

A Tale of Two IS Projects. JetBlue and WestJet - Essay Example Importance of Reservation System in WestJet and JetBlue For airline companies like JetBlue or WestJet, the importance of the reservation system is like a heart to organizations’ operations giving stimulus to each of the organization sections. An airline company which is settled on a larger scale reservation system is directly necessary to the business operation of that company (Laudon, 2013, pp. 556-557). Ability to book flights or dealing customers with time effectiveness comes directly from an effective reservation system and for that reason organizations like JetBlue and WestJet emphasize on keeping their reservation systems upgraded. Similarly, fares or inventory record management, data processing and management and information management is all what is conducted through an active reservation system (Laudon, 2013). For that reason, JetBlue and WestJet both organizations try to induce their systems with a proactive and comprehensive approach. If the systems are not proactive, there are more chances that a lot of informational op erations get weakened affecting the overall business of the company. This clears out the significance of a reservation system in a transnational airline organization (Laudon, 2013). Key Risk Factors on Upgrading Reservation Systems (JetBlue vs. WestJet) For a firm like WestJet which captures forty percent of the Canadian market share by taking 300 to 400 flights each single day, it is a complete challenge to upgrade its reservation system which requires significant amendments in the operational setup (Oz, 2009). The challenge is same for JetBlue which is a budget airline and have to deal with a large number of customers each day. From the business point of view, the challenge is of losing sales number, revenues and position in the stock market. Because upgrading requires a temporary shutdown, it intakes the risk of losing brand value or position (Laudon, 2013). From customers’ point of view, if amendments are not good enough like they cannot meet the customers’ choice and view, they result in a significant setback to firm’s business. Definitely, when customers are not satisfied it impacts the overall status of the company and also the prospect which comes through customers’ approval. These were particular risk factors which both WestJet and JetBlue involved at their upgrades. The factors required wise planning and the input of leadership to get controlled and managed. They required effective administrative planning to result in favor of firms’ operations (Oz, 2009). Implementation of the New Reservation System There were distinctive problems which both organizations (JetBlue and WestJet) faced at the time of their reservation system upgrade. They faced problems at the managerial level, planning problems and operational problems at the time of change (Wit & Meyer, 2010, p. 439). The initial challenge was to transform the smaller reservation setup to a larger IS system- a system which has more vibrant processing and can easily deal with greater volume of customers. This required the expansion of the primary database, the expansion of the inventory, and the expansion of the processing units in order to become a uniform information system. However, the situation on upgrade was mo re enduring for WestJet than JetBlue. According to Robert Palmer (a