BizBahrain May-June 2017

Interview | Dr. Jassim Haji
business functions and building
scalable backend solutions through the
innovation of the internal resources
and expertise, which has proven to
reduce costs substantially.
Can you tell us about how airlines are
enabling SaaS concept over Hybrid
cloud and how it works?
The nature of aviation industry
companies and specially airlines
requires geographical availability for
their applications where you can see
many airlines are delivering these
solutions through their Hybrid cloud
to provision services in an equivalent
manner to Software as a Service
(SaaS). which enables them to extend
seamlessly to reach all airports and
offices distributed in all the countries,
enabling users and passengers to
perform their tasks through unified
services, eliminating duplicable
work previously required in different
systems. In the King of Bahrain, Gulf
Air was the first airline in the region
to unify different disparate systems
in one cohesive service through the
Hybrid cloud.
This pioneering concept enables
airlines with the internal development
and implementation of several critical
and complex projects, such as the
digitalization of different services
provided to the passengers in every
step of their journey along with
backend functions performed by airline
staff either in their headquarters or
outstations. The end-to-end solution is
delivered via the Hybrid Cloud to host
and deliver unified services, such as
the Loyalty Programme, and Big Data
to analyze and understand customers’
perception, and Business Intelligence
(BI) to optimize and automate the
decision making process.
Tell us how this digitization initiative
empowers stakeholders in any airline
organization?
The implementation of mobility by
this digitization initiative empowers
employees and passengers alike
with self-service features that can
be performed on smart devices and
tablets. Pilots were provided electronic
flight bags on tablets to replace the
heavy manual papers, cabin crew were
provided with tablets to conduct preflight
and post-flight reports and to
provide unique personalized services
to the passengers, and different
ground staff like check-in agents and
technical agents. Moreover, tablets can
be provided to aid them in performing
their duties on the go and in the field
without the need for papers, physical
forms or to use heavy manuals.
How can an enterprise’s Security
Framework be secured?
Information Security, unfortunately,
is usually taken for granted. However,
when any compromises or breaches
happen, they can break a company
and cause indefinite losses. Hence, the
primary goal of having an Enterprise
Security Framework is to secure the
corporate users, communication,
transactions, and also the compliance
requirements without compromising
on application functionality and user
experience. Another goal is to protect
the brand by monitoring the social
media.
The business impact and security
needed measures and controls should
regularly be presented to a specialized
information security committee
formed in the organization to highlight
the requirements of the project and
risk involved. Another committee can
be formed to focus on the technical
and architectural aspects of projects
and solutions to identify and present a
solution for meeting the requirements.
Such solutions ensure to bring
efficiency and effectiveness and will
make the available services more
secure, scalable and resilient.
Generally, an enterprise can
implement ISO 27001 (Information
Security Management) security
framework to safeguard business
Information, identify and manage
Information security risks and threats.
Please explain the potential benefits of
implementing Internet of Things (IoT)
in the aviation field.
The aviation industry is wide,
very complicated, and still depends
on legacy setups despite the new
technological trends being adopted.
However, IoT has the potential to
revolutionize the operations of
aircrafts and passengers’ journey,
touching directly on airports and
airlines. IoT has empowered the
use of cutting-edge technologies
like augmented reality, drones and
wearable devices.
High-level examples of the use
of augmented reality are guiding
passengers from the self-service
check-in kiosk to customs to the
boarding gate, and all the required
intermediary steps. Smart airports
will be able to offer personalized offers
to passengers in the Duty Free shops
and passengers can find their seats
on the aircrafts or empty overhead
storage areas by means of wearing
smart glasses. Operating an aircraft
is also empowered by IoT, augmented
windshields on aircrafts can guide
pilots to the assigned taxiways, or
showing the weather ahead even if the
visibility is very poor. Crew can benefit
tremendously of IoT with the use of
augment lenses, they can use facial
recognition of passengers to provide
personalized service, identify potential
problem-causing or unruly passengers
based on behavioral analytics,
determine overhead storage occupancy
with a glance or which seats are not
upright or seatbelts are not worn, and
provide assistance when performing
medical care in case of emergencies.
Further, augmented reality aids
are used in performing aircraft
maintenance through the visualization
of aircraft equipment and parts, using
drones to deliver spare parts from
remote stores to engineers and scan
aircraft structural integrity, and using
smart trolleys on aircrafts that monitor
food temperature and keeps track of
the items and their quantities. Airports
can enhance the passenger experience
with smart baggage setup to identify
and track the location of each baggage
and prevent any mishandled baggage,
and using beacons to provide geo
location services depending on the
exact location of the passenger.
What are some of the challenges that
may be faced in implementing IoT?
in the aviation industry, Huge
investment is required to implement
the infrastructure that can handle
such new technology, revamping
14 May-June 2017