Developing, migrating and customizing S7 Airlines’ Internet portal with a new CMS system

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CLIENT

Cities - the airline's route network

Million person - annual passenger traffic

S7 Airlines (a Siberian brand) boasts Russia’s largest network of domestic air routes, built on three major air transport hubs in Moscow (Domodedovo), Novosibirsk (Tolmachevo) and Irkutsk. S7 Airlines operates regular flights to CIS countries, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. Since 2005, Sibir has operated flights under the S7 Airlines brand.

CHALLENGE

S7 Airlines’ internet portal, designed to provide customers with access to information about flights, hotel reservations and ticket purchasing, had been developed and put into operation some time ago. It now needed to be improved, with the introduction of more advanced services and capabilities. With the new portal, the company sought the ability to extend functionality quickly, by adding new services and reaching travellers more effectively, with tailored offers that could subsequently significantly increase the level of customer sales.

The old portal was developed by an IT company based on many additional parameters prescribed specifically for this system. This meant that using another company to refine the portal’s content management system (CMS) could prove costly and unprofitable. S7 decided on an initial transition to another CMS, with improvements to the portal made afterwards.

Translation of old system to new CMS.

Customization and extension of Internet portal functionality.

Growing sales.

SOLUTION

Before starting the migration of the old solution to a new CMS, the company was required to assess S7’s existing range of content management systems, and choose the one that was most suitable for the functionality of their website. Reksoft was chosen to analyse the various CMS and successfully delivered a comprehensive evaluation of the content management systems, providing extensive information about the pros and cons of different systems.

Following S7’s criteria, a system based on Java technologies was selected. The systems research carried out by Reksoft was the key factor in S7 choosing the company as a partner to develop a new portal and migrate the design and functionality of the old solution to the new CMS.

The first phase of the project was to migrate the logic and functionality of the old site to the new CMS. The Reksoft development team integrated the interfaces of different services, including booking, check-in, flight schedules and air fares. This provides end users with convenient and quick access to the information they requested.

Besides the content management module, the system had to be integrated with third-party services that allow you to purchase tickets, and provide access to other free and paid services.

Moreover, the site was to provide a variety of scenarios and levels of access for different categories of users, both internal and external.

Assessment of content management systems to choose most suitable.

Migration of logic and functionality from old system, integration with third-party modules.

Development of scalable system.

RESULTS

Reksoft successfully completed the first stage of the project and developed a new company portal on the new CMS, and migrated all the necessary functionality to the new customer portal.

During the process, the client stipulated additional requirements. Reksoft responded with significant customization of the original system and the introduction of new, state-of-the-art functionality.

As required, the customer portal allows end users to book and pay for flights, check flight schedules and rent cars at their destination. Responding to customer needs in a flexible means and developing more convenient services for end users significantly boosted S7 Airlines’ sales.

The positive results obtained during the first phase of the project allowed Reksoft to start to implement the second part – the improvement of the portal – immediately. The team developed a marketing mechanism that could analyze the actions of users on the portal client and provide them with relevant information based on their online behaviour.

Development begun on marketing mechanism for Internet portal.

Tool developed for flexible response to customer needs.

Successful completion of first phase of new portal development project.

Project won «Project of the Year» in the category «Best Industry Solution: Transport».

CLIENT’S QUOTE

With the completion of the first stage we got a unified Web-based platform, which allowed us to continue to develop the site and improve information and convenience for our passengers. Following the development, the system can now perform event marketing and dynamic recommendations. That means our customers learn about information and deals that are relevant to them. We are grateful to the Reksoft team for their proactive approach during the project and we look forward to continuing to work together.

Yegor Bayandin

Director of Technology

S7 Airlines

TECHNOLOGY

Java
CMS
JBoss 7
Web service
JQuery

SERVICE

System development
Migration
Customization

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