Alaska Airlines passengers get flight information

SEATTLE -- As airlines scrambled to resume flying after the September 11 terrorist attacks, thousands of passengers searched for information, unsure whether their flights would operate, or if they would proceed with their current travel plans. Behind the scenes, Alaska Airlines and Par3 Communications worked around the clock to implement an automated flight confirmation and notification system -- two months ahead of schedule, the two companies are reporting.

Within days of the tragedy and only hours after deciding to automate the customer contact process, Alaska began using Par3's Intelligent Response Platform to notify passengers of flight schedule changes and to confirm existing reservations. And the alerts successfully reached 92% of the customers to whom they were sent.

"With tens of thousands of customers experiencing schedule changes, there was no way that we could personally call each passenger," said Karen Wells-Fletcher, Alaska's manager of network operations. "Par3's technology has already helped us notify more than 100,000 customers about schedule changes. It permitted our agents to use their time to help passengers resolve specific schedule conflicts."

Customized message

Par3's platform sends a customized message to notify Alaska customers of schedule changes. Passengers can accept the new schedule or contact Alaska to speak directly with an agent to make other arrangements. Passengers may also forward the message with comments to others affected by the change in travel plans, such as family, friends and co-workers.

"Alaska Airlines' ability to send automatic, personalized alerts to passengers enables it to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty while simultaneously reducing unnecessary inbound calls to the reservations center," said Nicholas Tiliacos, Par3 president and CEO. "Our technology is helping Alaska Airlines communicate with customers more efficiently and effectively, and we are pleased with the positive results and feedback."

Although the system was not scheduled to be operational until November, Alaska and Par3 were able to implement the schedule change notification function in time to meet many of the needs stemming from the September crisis. In the future, the system also will notify customers of flight cancellations and delays via e-mail and pager, as well as by phone, the companies said.

Valuable customer service

"Being able to reach out to passengers with time-sensitive detailed information regarding their itinerary is critical in delivering truly valuable customer service," Wells-Fletcher said. "Par3's technology fits perfectly into Alaska's commitment to care for our passengers by offering quick and accurate information."

Wells-Fletcher said that Alaska Airlines, along with its sister airline Horizon Air, chose Par3 because of its ability to integrate tightly with the carriers' data and contact center systems to deliver real-time, multi-channel notifications. Alaska Airlines became the first North American carrier to sell tickets online in 1995, and in 1999 was the first carrier in the world to allow customers to check in for flights on the Internet. Alaska and its sister carrier, Horizon Air, together serve 75 cities in the Lower 48, Alaska, Canada and Mexico.

Seattle-based Par3 Communications, Inc., backed by venture capital firms Nokia Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Timberline Venture Partners, is working on the next generation of CRM with its alert and response platform that enables businesses and their customers to actively participate in their relationship through two-way communications. Businesses use Par3 solutions to leverage their rich enterprise-level customer data and exchange highly tailored alerts with their customers via telephone, e-mail, pager, fax or wireless device.

Strategic information

Par3 was cited in a report published one month ago by Davidson Consulting, that forecast strategic information delivery (SID), will grow from a $50 million market today to $1.7 billion by 2006. The report, "Strategic Information Delivery 2001-2006: Intelligent, Automated, Unified Communications for Notifications and e-Document Delivery," outlines the forces driving growth, the defining factors differentiating SID from general unified communications systems, and the vendors and markets poised to leverage SID's capabilities.

"SID has incredible utility for a wide range of vertical and intra-company applications and purposes," said the report's author, Pete Davidson. "It provides simple automation of critical business applications while solving very specific problems, and typically provides hard payback within a year or less -- sometimes within weeks -- underscoring its enormous potential for growth."

According to the study, SID systems are gaining in value as a strategic tool in the enterprise because of their ability to accelerate decision making, enhance customer and e-business operations, and help businesses migrate customers and suppliers to direct, proactive e-business transactions.

Convert to XML

SID systems take data from hosts or servers, typically convert it to a common XML format, and then automatically funnel it through SID conversion engines to format the raw data to fit various destination devices including desktop PCs, cell phones, PDAs and faxes. Unified communications engines then simultaneously deliver the information -- including alerts, notifications, surveys, and e-documents -- in whichever communications mode each individual recipient prefers (voice, e-mail, SMS, fax, SAP, secure e-mail, PDF, HTML, XML, instant messaging or streaming media).

Because SID systems automate information delivery from existing applications, vendors are in a unique position to support a wide range of markets and business needs, including call centers, CRM, ERP, e-business, sales force automation, supply chain management, paging and alerting, e-document delivery, EDI, output management, content and news delivery, and wireless data services, to name a few.

A leading provider of SID systems is Dialogic Communications Corporation (DCC) and its Reciprix subsidiary, in which Microsoft owns a minority stake. Second in systems is Telamon, which was recently acquired by wireless systems integrator, Vytek Wireless. Leading providers of SID services are Centerpost (which has received funding from Motorola), Strategy.com (a subsidiary of Microstrategy) and Appriss, all of which are followed closely by EnvoyWorldwide and Par3 (which has received funding from Nokia). Recent market entrants include Captaris, Esker (Le Nouveau Marche: 3581), EveryPath and MessageMachines. Dozens of additional high-profile vendors are poised to enter the marketplace.