Real-time Business Intelligence: Best Practices at Continental Airlines1
Written by Hugh J. Watson (University of Georgia), Barbara H. Wixom (University of Virginia),
Jeffrey A. Hoffer (University of Dayton), Ron Anderson-Lehman (Continental Airlines), and
Anne Marie Reynolds(Continental Airlines)
Data management for decision support has moved through three generations, with the latest being real-time data warehousing. This latest generation is significant because of its potential for affecting tactical decision making and business processes. Continental Airlines is a leader in real-time business intelligence and much can be learned from how they have implemented it.
The movement to real-time is the latest development in business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing. Real-time data warehousing provides the data that is required to implement realtime BI. By moving to real-time, firms can use BI to affect current decision making and business processes. This capability is especially important for customer-facing applications, such as those found in call centers and check-in processes, and helps firms become more customer-centric.
Terms such as the “real-time enterprise” and the “zero latency organization” are often used to describe firms that use real-time BI.
The purpose of real-time BI is to increase revenues and decrease costs. Companies that successfully implement real-time BI can dramatically improve their profitability. For example,
Continental Airlines, which is discussed later, has taken a $30M investment in hardware, software, and personnel to generate over $500M in revenue enhancements and cost savings, resulting in a ROI of over 1,000 percent.
To be successful with real-time BI, organizations must overcome both organizational and technical challenges. On the organizational side, there must be executive sponsorship and support, initial