Information systems comair airlines

Information Systems Report

Case Study: Comair Airlines
Question 1: Where did the misalignment between the business strategy and the information system occur?

When analyzing the company’s background, it is quite obvious that something would have to go wrong. The Information System used by the company was too old: it has been implemented fifteen years ago and since then it has never been changed. An airline company has thousands of data in its Information System. After fifteen years, Comair’s information system probably went through overcapacity. This was the main reason why the network system crashed. The misalignment between the business strategy and the information system occurs when the new business managers did not give to information systems its real importance. When Comair was acquired by Delta Airlines, a new set of priorities has been defined. However, the new management crew did not matter about replacing the so old and crashed network system. They did not have in mind how crucial it is to frequently update the information system and to have a good CIO, with leadership skills and capacity to plan and innovate. As so, the new managers focused on “other urgent business matters” and waited until the IT manager react. The problem was that the IT manager was used to the old system (was resisting to changes) and was waiting on the business manager to take the first step. All these lead us to the conclusion that there was lack of communication and coordination between the two departments: business and information departments. This mismatch was evident when the legacy system failed and the company lost a huge amount of money.

Case Study: Comair Airlines

Question 2: What might you have done, as the manager of flight operations, to make sure your system was in proper shape to support your organization? Why do you think it didn't happen in this case?