Continental Airlines Bi

Continental Airlines Takes Off with Real-time Business Intelligence

Ron Anderson-Lehman Chief Information Officer Continental Airlines Houston, Texas Phone: (713) 324-2326 Email: rona-l@coair.com Hugh J. Watson Terry College of Business University of Georgia Athens, Georgia 30602 Phone: (706) 542-3744 Fax: (706) 542-3743 Email: hwatson@uga.edu Barbara H. Wixom McIntire School of Commerce University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia Phone: (434) 924-8981 Fax: (434) 924-7074 Email: bwixom@mindspring.com Jeffrey A. Hoffer School of Business Administration University of Dayton Dayton, Ohio Phone: (937) 229-2268 Fax: (937) 229-1030 Email: hoffer@udayton.edu

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Continental Airlines Takes Off with Real-time Business Intelligence Introduction

Data warehousing and real-time business intelligence (BI) are taking Continental Airlines to new heights. Powered by a real-time 1 or “active” data warehouse, the company has dramatically changed all aspects of its business, resulting in industry- leading customer service and generating considerable financial “lift.” Continental’s president and COO, Larry Kellner, describes the impact of real- time BI in the following way: “Real-time BI is critical to the accomplishment of our business strategy and has created significant business benefits." Some of the ways that Continental is using and benefiting from data warehousing and real- time BI include: • Flight attendants, gate agents, and all “customer-facing” employees know at all times who Continental’s high- value customers are, and they provide outstanding service to these customers, contributing to Continental’s track record of being the most admired US airline for quality and customer service. • The Operations staff at the hubs monitors on-time performance throughout the day and makes operational decisions about catering, personnel, and gate traffic flow, thus solidifying Continental’s ranking as the most on-time airline. • Pricing specialists track in real-time the...