EDS Helps Airline's Web Site Fly High

When Mexicana Airlines wanted to beef up its Web site with personalized customer service, it turned to its outsourced IT provider, EDS.

Plano, Texas-based EDS, using technology from Versata and Vignette, helped Mexicana roll out an enhanced customer-focused Web site. The site debuted earlier this month.

Mexicana Airlines, which serves the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central and South America, launched its presence on the Web in 1995 with a site that provided basic information about the company, Valle says. In 1997, it expanded the site to handle some passenger transactions.

The new site is the first part of a new e-business initiative at Mexicana, which plans to expand the role e-commerce plays at the airline, Valle says.

With its next-generation Web site, Mexicana provides customers with the ability to create individual travel itineraries based on preferences, book reservations immediately or store and retrieve them later, track frequent flyer miles and receive customized special offers and promotions, airline executives say. The site is bilingual, operating in both Spanish and English, they add.

By capturing customer information and providing a Web site experience tailored to customers' individual preferences, the airline aims to make it easier for passengers the next time they decide to fly Mexicana, Valle says.

Mexicana Airlines' Antonio Valle say the Web site is the first part of a new initiative to expand the role of e-commerce at the airline.

The Logic Server manages the business rules used in the site, such as how many seats a customer can reserve, and integrates those rules with Mexicana's back-end operations.

EDS used Austin, Texas-based Vignette's Content Management Server for personalization features to manage front-end content.

There were some integration issues, given the complexity of the project, Guerrero says. The Versata and Vignette technologies had to be integrated with the existing reservation system, which required the automation of many back-end processes.

Over the next six months, Mexicana plans to add more features to the site, including hotel and car reservations and restaurant recommendations, Valle says.

Valle expects the airline to see a return on its investment in the new site within eight months.

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