Lack of Modern Business Process Automation Caused a Southwest Déjà Vu Nosedive
No, it’s not déjà vu. Southwest Airlines is in the news again for major flight cancellations. You may recall the infamous 2016 Southwest Summer Screwup or the nearly 2,000 flights that were cancelled in 2021.
Well…Southwest is in the news yet again. This time, for approximately 2,500 flights cancelled over the holidays and customers left stranded.
The cause? Lack of modernization.
Southwest once revolutionized the airline industry – offering an affordable and fun experience for domestic passengers and rewriting what it meant to be a flight attendant. However, as time as gone on, not much has changed with Southwest and it seems to be catching up with them now.
This is echoed by Captain Casey Murray, the president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.
“We’ve seen these sorts of meltdowns occur on a much more regular basis and it really just has to do with outdated processes and outdated IT.”
He went on to explain that Southwest’s operations haven’t really changed much since the 1990s.
“It’s phones, it’s computers, it’s processing power, it’s the programs used to connect us to airplanes – that’s where the problem lies, and it’s systemic throughout the whole airline,” he elaborated.
When this system failed, Southwest was left attempting to schedule planes and crew manually, but with crews left stranded in various areas and regulations limiting crew members’ ability to fly, the whole process was quite messy and tedious. In short, it really was not a good “plan B.”
It’s time to get ahead of it.
Southwest’s CEO Bob Jordan, himself, even revealed, “Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools. We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that.”
This is a prime example of what happens when an organization does not modernize. Modernizing today means automation and processes and procedures we can rely on. As often as Southwest has had problems with cancelled flights, securing a more reliable backup plan is clearly also important.
We can count on things going wrong at times, but if we don’t develop acceptable plans, those hiccups can become much larger issues as we have seen here…time and time again.
While Southwest has had these issues very publicly, they are not alone in experiencing these issues and letting modernization slip. How about your company? Are you using outdated systems? Is your company keeping IT infrastructure updated? Is the company buying the right software to help manage and maintain its critical IT components and assets?
That last part is where Crow Canyon comes into the picture. We are passionate about automation and modernization. This is why. It matters. It isn’t just a “nice thing to do when you get around to it.” Modernization can have a major impact on customers, company image, earnings, and more.
Don’t become the next Southwest. If you find that your organization could use updating, we are here to help you get ahead of it. Talk to one of our modernization experts here.
Interested in learning how automation may be able to help your organization?
NITRO Studio leverages Office 365, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint to provide a custom no-code automation solution. Harness the power of NITRO Studio to build custom forms and workflows for just about anything.
