Air India modernises its Enterprise Resource Planning system

New Delhi: Air India on Monday said that it has completed modernisation of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system which will bring improvements in various functions. According to a statement, the airline has completed its ERP modernisation programme ahead of schedule by migrating from an on-premise legacy mainframe system to SAP Cloud, laying a strong foundation for its digital transformation journey.

The migration is expected to bring significant improvements in the airline's core enterprise functions such as finance and human resources while fast-tracking its ability to roll out advanced capabilities in its commercial, operations, and engineering areas, it said. It will also pave the way for further modernisation of the ERP system and the combination of other group airlines into one entity.

As part of its digital transformation, the carrier has migrated its core ERP system using RISE With SAP, a tailor-made ERP software. It is bundled with transformation services, business analytics, and partner expertise that helps companies complete their personalised path to the cloud. The airline said that one of the biggest challenges was its outdated ERP system running on a decade-old mainframe and associated software.

"The migration and cutover of such critical systems are normally performed with backup and restore operations on an equivalent system. The unavailability of such a system anywhere in the world was a seemingly insurmountable hurdle," the statement said.

Air India's Chief Digital and Technology Officer Satya Ramaswamy said that for the airline's vision to emerge as the world's most technologically advanced airline, a critical capability is that of having a highly reliable, scalable modern ERP system that will drive significant improvements. Loss-making Air India was taken over by Tata Group in January last year and the airline has embarked on a five-year transformation plan.

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