Case study

Cathay Pacific

Agreeing a systems strategy creates bargaining power

Cathay Pacific Airways is an international airline based in Hong Kong offering scheduled passenger and cargo services to 49 destinations around the world. It felt that its 20-year-old systems were becoming a constraint to business growth. In order to keep up with the market and address competitive pressures, the company decided that change was required and asked PA Consulting Group to help formulate a systems strategy.

With PA’s support Cathay Pacific was able to come to an early agreement of the systems strategy, which allowed management to make better-informed business decisions. This had implications not just for the IT department but also in all areas of the business; Cathay could plan ahead knowing what the strategy was regarding their legacy systems. Cathay Pacific was able to manage its other supply contracts accordingly and plan for the resource requirements necessary for the successful implementation of the new replacement system.

Cathay Pacific was then in a position where it was able to exert influence on the supplier market and community. The whole project team and Cathay Pacific management understood and knew what they have to do to get the most out of the vendors. PA’s role in providing a clear route-map for engaging with vendors early has given Cathay Pacific the opportunity to strike a better contract price. Finally, by engaging with the system vendors early, Cathay Pacific was able to influence the vendors to build in, as standard, the functionality that they required.