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To run an award-winning airline, making it look easy is all in the details. It begins by hiring some of the best staff in the industry. And when you hire the best, you want them to have everything they need to do their jobs right
But the story really begins a little more than two years ago, when Air Transat decided to improve information governance and replace slow, labour-intensive paper-based document distribution across airports.
The result? In 2014, Air Transat migrated crew information to SharePoint Online.
“SharePoint Online enabled headquarters to centralize, structure and classify large volumes of documents for crew, including relevant operational instructions, aircraft manuals, memos, HR documents and training videos,” explained Martin Lachance, Director, IT Solutions, at Air Transat.
“Since flight directors are always on the go, we purchased over 300 tablets,” Mr. Lachance added, “but we needed a way to distribute the right content to the right tablets for offline access. During flights, for instance, crew devices must be switched to ‘airplane’ mode. It was mission-critical to the success of the project to offer flight directors uninterrupted, easy access to information, even when offline.”
Learn about Colligo’s platform
Colligo is a Microsoft partner that extends SharePoint functionality by adding business features that support mobile content management for today’s collaborative enterprise. For Air Transat it means that, with Colligo Engage, every tablet has every document needed on a flight – both online or offline – syncing automatically with the SharePoint repository once the offline tablet goes online again.
The IT Solutions team centrally controls the distribution of electronic documents and forms using the Colligo Console, and reviews activity dashboards to track usage metrics.
The latest data for upcoming flights is updated in SharePoint Online by head office and pushed, along with governance policies, to the appropriate tablets using Colligo Console. Dashboards allow senior IT executives to monitor usage activities by user or group, type of activity (edit, read, share or sync), by device and by time period.
Because flight directors and crew are busy. The very nature of their job means they are usually on the run. From flights, to shuttles, to hotels. They deadhead back home, grab some sleep and do it all again.
They don’t need one more thing to think about.
They simply need to know that the information required to operate a safe flight for passengers will be on their tablet. Wherever and whenever they need it.
They’ve got that with Colligo Engage. While SharePoint itself enables IT to manage mobile devices, apps and security, Colligo Engage goes much further by providing deep levels of functionality, management, auditing and reporting for the content itself.
Colligo Engage is extending the ROI of SharePoint for Air Transat by offering a new high-value use case that is driving digital transformation, optimizing operations and empowering employees.
“Deploying Colligo Engage has enabled Air Transat to more efficiently meet regulatory requirements. To comply, we’re mandated to maintain current manuals aboard each aircraft. Air Transat gained regulatory approval to replace print manuals with electronic versions on tablets with Colligo Engage,” said Brigitte Cloutier, Senior Business Analyst at Air Transat. “Headquarters can now update manuals for all its aircraft in just one location – SharePoint Online – and Colligo Engage updates all tablets. We no longer need to retrieve and update printed copies. Distribution across tablets is instantaneous. It’s also easier to search through electronic manuals – crew no longer need to ‘flip’ to the right pages.”
Learn about other customers we’ve helped
Martin Lachance, Director, IT Solutions, at Air Transat