Qantas IT Spin
 

BlackBerry shines as Qantas all-rounder
QANTAS has more than doubled the use of BlackBerry smartphones for cabin staff after a successful six-month trial.


Jamila Gordon says the device has led to productivity gains by relieving crew of time-consuming paperwork Picture: Renee Nowytarger
Crew members on all classes have been testing 400 devices since June as a customer service mechanism to replace paper-based forms.

Qantas decided to purchase 850 units after tests showed the devices could go the distance to include fault reporting.

"It's a complete communications tool and the crew use it for email, SMS and the like," chief information officer Jamila Gordon said.

"We're using it for customer service feedback in all cabin classes and also for fault reporting," Ms Gordon said.

"It's a fantastic tool and the crew don't have to carry two devices any more."

During the trial six customer service forms were electronically available on the BlackBerrys, making data entry much easier.

This led to productivity gains as the crew didn't have to manually transfer the information from the forms to computers back at the office.

In the future, the BlackBerry 8800 smartphones will be loaded with 11 forms, Ms Gordon said.

"These types of technologies play an important role as we try to achieve customer service and operational excellence."

The airline's technology department would continue to innovate where possible despite the economic downturn, she said.

Qantas is pushing to improve its battered image after ending 2008 with myriad negative reports ranging from engineering issues to mid-air emergencies.

The Flying Kangaroo is trying hard to regain ground - last week it unveiled a high-tech $10 million training facility designed to retraining 18,000 employees from all ranks to improve customer service.

Qantas had released a request for proposals for a desktop services partner, Ms Gordon said.

At the moment Telstra provides network, telephony and desktop services to Qantas.

"When you have a seven or 10-year outsourcing contract best practise says you need to market test every three or four years," she said.

You read the spin...now the reality
The Blackberry aka the Prune is a failure
The device is 2g and has insufficient memory to perform its required tasks.
The loaded software doesnt operate effectively due to insufficient memory.
The font size requires binoculars.
It does not work in a 3G environment.
There are log on problems.Trip data can not be retrieved.
The current outage has lasted 10 days and is likely to last another 7.
Essential information(IFSS etc) that was available in the blue Trip Folder has been removed.
Whoever is responsible for this mess is not an IT professional
The IT department of Qantas is full of second and third stringers who cant cut in the real IT world.

Be careful about how you describe colleagues before someone joins in and says something about Cabin Crew being unable to make it in the real world. :{:{:{:}:}:}

This spin could be exactly that or it could be part of the deal to purchase or lease the units.
By promoting how good they for the airline are it's effectively an advertisement for these machines.
The company would also as the story mentions happy to be seen being proactive in it's work.Not to mention environmentally sensitive and reducing paper use.

All in all more spin though.

Off Topic
 

This thread is about the poor IT environment at Qantas.It is not about CC and their nuances.This has been done to death ad nauseam ad infinitum.
Take it somewhere else.
The device is known as Prune:its small black and gives one the ****z

The slogan for QF IT:

QANTAS IT, Yesterdays technology tomorrow........ maybe.

Qantas IT is a shambles. No if's no buts.

The Blackberry's Merits
 

The Blackberry provided by QF to its CSMs is a good piece of equipment with a specific usage profile.
It is somewhat limited regarding what QF IT wants to do with it.
Had QF IT done a little research it would have been realised that a superior 3G version (The Bold) was in the pipeline.
But with Qantas price is always the criteria.As usual they got what they paid for.
ASUS netbooks would have been a much better(and yes)cheaper option.
Small,wireless,bluetooth,userfriendly keyboard ,6.5 hour battery life,an Atom Processor and the 1000h has 60 Gig hardrive and the RAM is upgradable to 2Gig.Phone calls can be made using SKYPE.
It could be loaded with all the forms and all the manuals Qantas required.
It even fits perfectly on a CSM workstation
"Yesterdays technology tomorrow"ROFL..very good

Interesting......

Company I work for currently is using the Blackberry for paperwork on international op's.

We however do not use it as a memory based unit. Its just the portal for web based applications.

As you mentioned...the Bold was what we needed to meet international use needs.

The Prune Launch
 

Attended day one of the launch at Rockpool.Two questions were asked:
1.Is it 3G?
2.Is Skype loaded.?
The person handling the launch responded:What is SKYPE and 3G ?
FatBoy Slim glared at both people asking the questions.

Qantas IT slogan, yesterdays technology tomorrow.....maybe


Ha,ha,ha almost wet myself laughing when I read that. Capt Snafu, absolutely brilliant and sums it up very well.:D

Instead of Skype how about using 2 tin cans and a very, very long piece of string? You could sell it to management as being cost neutral.

Bring back the good old Voyage reports, the office staff need the paperwork to shuffle around to make themselves appear productive.

Blackberry article
 

That story on the QF-CSM's and their blackberrys by the new IT-GGM is the greatest load of pap I have read for a long time.

ASK ANYONE who has a Blackberry ......... they are as good as useless-low memory, constant drop outs, no forms loaded and now -wait for it-they are planning an upgrade !!!!

Upgrade of what-how do you upgrade a horse and cart ?????

On a more happier front-I was happy to learn that the poor old Execs have had their car allowance slashed. :{:{

Oh no-now that have to pay for fuel, FBT and $500 excess on insurance. Its called getting into the REAL WORLD.:ugh:

Hats off to you Mr Joyce. This is the first sign that you are serious with the change process. This will give us $4m per year-now lets fix the IFE and give us Blackberrys that work !!!:ok:

Do you mean one of the QF Blackberrys? If you mean Blackberry in general, I love mine.

... and the number of the exTAA now current SH CSM's who just palm it off to R1 to fix up. The number of times they're said "do you know how to work this thing?"

The Blackberry
 

The Blackberry is an excellent device.Qantas IT have tampered with it and attempted to modify it to perform functions that it was never intended for.
Hence the screw up
Panasonic provided an excellent platform for the A380 IFE system and then Qantas IT started tinkering.From all accounts Panasonic were not happy.
Bit like buying a Mercedes 300 SL and then trying to make it perform the functions of a Fridge

Does it have wireless capability? You can't load skype onto a phone (far as I know) but you can load Fring. I work with a bunch of guys that have them. Some 3G, some not. They're a fantastic tool for communications. Just my 2 cents worth.

D:ok:

My Nokia has Skype on it.

There ya go. Learn something every day.

:}

Skype on A phone
 

Skype has an application called ISkoot which can be loaded on a phone.
The Blackberries QF has are all 2G.Dont work in Japan and because of a maojor outage dont work anywhere at present.

They do make a marvelous paperweight.

Until the Blackbery streams our ICANS to appropriate departments there will be a log jam in the system while a clerk (Mon-Fri 9-5 with breaks for lunch etc) decides where they should go...:ugh:

In its present form it is just a vehicle for managers to check CSM KPI's.

interesting read. my sources though tell me Qantas IT didn't want to use the device as described. The business unit forced it through.